The news that California politicians Lou Correa and Reggie Jones-Sawyer have pulled their intrastate online poker legalisation bills at committee stage (see previous reports) has apparently not discouraged the powerful Pokerstars, Morongo tribal group and LA card rooms alliance, which has issued a statement on the issue underlining a continued commitment to participate in a legalised market in the Golden State.
The statement includes comment from Morongo tribal chairman Robert Martin, who says: “We have been working on this issue for five years now and while we were optimistic that a suitable bill would move forward in 2014, we’re in this for the long haul and we’d rather do it right than have a bad bill.
“Clearly the issues surrounding the latest bills that sought to unconstitutionally limit competition, place prohibitions on race tracks, and rewrite longstanding, successful state policy regarding California’s oversight of gaming proved insurmountable for this session.
“We will continue to work with our partners, legislators, state regulators and other California tribes on developing future iPoker legislation that meets constitutional tests and provides much needed consumer protections to California’s two million online poker players,” Martin asserted.
Keith Sharp, spokesman for the three card rooms in the alliance – Commerce, Hawaiian Gardens and the Bike – emphasised the importance of creating an intrastate market that was as successful and consumer protective as possible, and confirmed that the card rooms remain committed to the project in the current hiatus of activity and into the next legislative session.
Pokerstars-Rational Group director Guy Templer supported the other spokesmen for the alliance, commenting:
“PokerStars has a great history with regulators and governments all over the world, and we look forward to working with lawmakers and regulators in California to help structure a market that provides robust competition and strong regulatory oversight.
“We look forward to bringing our best practices in responsible gaming, online security, e-commerce, protection of players’ funds and game integrity to any new California market.”
There has still been no public reaction to the withdrawal of the Correa and Jones-Sawyer bills from the Pechanga / San Manuel tribal coalitions, which have been persistent in using “bad actor” clauses to exclude Pokerstars from the Californian market, but have so far yet to introduce their proposals to the legislature.