There is a possibility of internet poker to be legalized in the US. And it’s becoming a serious issue to some of the tribal leaders. They doubt that it will have an impact on the revenue from tribal government casinos.
After the Morongo Band of Mission Indians has proposed an intrastate Internet poker site in joint venture with Los Angeles area card clubs, the debate is hovering in the air of California. California tribes create an amount of $7.3 billion casino revenue in a year.
As Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is supporting federal legislation authorizing, controlling and taxing Internet poker; Morongo’s proposal has gained motion. Frank’s bill is one of three legislations in Congress that would authorize online gambling while the other two include the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H.
Robert Smith, the Chairman of the Pala Band of Mission Indians and one of the Directors of the California Tribal Business Alliance, has also supported the fact that online card game betting would take business away from real casinos. To him the Morongo proposal is “a Trojan horse for the wholesale expansion of non-Indian, off-reservation gambling”.
The Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations, comprising 14 most successful gaming tribes of southern California, is against the federal legislation. Tribal Chief Miko Beasley Denson of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and the United South and Eastern Tribes has also requested Congress to revise the issue.
The ongoing federal law does not ban intrastate online gambling. But it is more profitable to create interstate, online player-banked poker sites in states like California. States which have less number of people are not able to generate a considerable amount of betting pool. It is not possible to support intrastate Internet gaming system for states like Connecticut and Mississippi.
