The issue of Tribal Gaming and UIGEA has finally produced a legal decision. An attempt by California Tribal Gaming to offer online poker and bingo games was dealt another blow last week.

The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel has been engaged in a multi-year court battle with the state of California thanks to the tribe’s launch of its the Desert Rose online bingo site in November 2014. In addition to bingo, Santa Ysabel also talked up an online poker launch (the launch never came to pass).

Last week, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a district court’s judgment in favor of the state of California, leaving the small tribe with grand online gambling aspirations with very little runway to work with.

The panel held that Iipay Nation’s operation of Desert Rose Casino violated the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (“UIGEA”). The panel held that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act protected gaming activity conducted on Indian lands, but the patrons’ act of placing a bet or wager on a game of Desert Rose Casino while located in California, violated the UIGEA, and was not protected by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

The panel further held that even if all of the “gaming activity” associated with Desert Rose Casino occurred on Indian lands, the patrons’ act of placing bets or wagers over the internet while located in a jurisdiction where those bets or wagers were illegal made Iipay Nation’s decision to accept financial payments associated with those bets or wagers a violation of the UIGEA.

You can read more about Tribal Gaming and UIGEA when you visit Online Poker Report.