Bet on this: The political landscape on California gaming is about to change

[BingoT]

Bet on this: The political landscape on California gaming is about to change


Lobbyists, lawyers and other sharks showed up Wednesday for the first legislative hearing held by Los Angeles Democratic Sen. Roderick Wright on his latest plan to legalize Internet gambling. Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, is pushing a competing bill at the behest of a major Southern California casino tribe, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, and something called the California Online Poker Association, which represents 29 tribes and 13 card room-casinos.

It’s not clear that the state can collect payments from tribes, but there is no doubt that the state could collect taxes from non-Indian gambling interests. Advocates estimate that a million Californians gamble a total of $1 billion a year on offshore poker Internet sites that are illegal under federal law and pay no taxes.

Brown is open to Internet gambling and the money it might raise, telling me early last year: “I don’t think it can be stopped. If it can’t be, then there ought to be some way that the state can derive some tax revenue from that.”

Many politically powerful tribes will oppose Internet gambling and could no doubt block its passage, at least for a time.

But here is a sure bet: Gambling advocates will attempt to seize the opportunity created by California’s budget crisis and tantalize lawmakers with the promise of hundreds of million of dollars, sufficient to, say, save day care for the infirm elderly from the budget ax or maintain precious tax breaks for their friends.
By DAN MORAIN

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[3mptyseat]

I just don't understand how the hell this government can be spending money and not just considering gambling revenues, but instituting them...

It makes no sense if u look at the normal breakdown of niche industry and govt: politics sleeps with special interest bc special interest gives good tips... Special interest likes politics bc politics can get things done that no one else can do, and in ways never done before... And they are discrete, out of inter-dependent self-preservation...

So wtf is taking so long? I just can't believe with billions in state debt, that Californians (who with current boarders could stand alone as the 5th largest economy in the world) don't do one of two things;

1)Secede and take Oregon and Nevada with us (hydroelectric from the former and gambling revenues from the latter) and create a much more sustainable system with less govt interference, legalized off shore drilling, legalized recreational/industrial/medicinal Cannibus, and a tourism industry that would be unrivaled...

OR

2)Start legalizing vice and generating revenue in general so we might be able to one day give our grandchildren a California that projects to smell a little less like vomit than the current projections suggest.

So bravo Moonbeam Brown!! Maybe ur not out of marbles yet!

 

[Da_Gambla]

Advocates estimate that a million Californians gamble a total of $1 billion a year on offshore poker Internet sites that are illegal under federal law and pay no taxes.

I really wonder about a billion? I see the potential for a billion, but is a billion really currently fighting its way through the Internet Gaming act? If that's true, then imagine the potential...

- Keith

 

[Da_Gambla]

I just don't understand how the hell this government can be spending money and not just considering gambling revenues, but instituting them...

It makes no sense if u look at the normal breakdown of niche industry and govt: politics sleeps with special interest bc special interest gives good tips... Special interest likes politics bc politics can get things done that no one else can do, and in ways never done before... And they are discrete, out of inter-dependent self-preservation...

So wtf is taking so long? I just can't believe with billions in state debt, that Californians (who with current boarders could stand alone as the 5th largest economy in the world) don't do one of two things;

1)Secede and take Oregon and Nevada with us (hydroelectric from the former and gambling revenues from the latter) and create a much more sustainable system with less govt interference, legalized off shore drilling, legalized recreational/industrial/medicinal Cannibus, and a tourism industry that would be unrivaled...

OR

2)Start legalizing vice and generating revenue in general so we might be able to one day give our grandchildren a California that projects to smell a little less like vomit than the current projections suggest.

So bravo Moonbeam Brown!! Maybe ur not out of marbles yet!

Vegas has always controlled the pot in this card game, and always seems to be able to lay down a flush whenever they wanted to. Do the Indians got game now? I hope so... Vegas has controlled California since the day I gulped in my first breath of oxygen.

As for the MaryJane laws, that's still gonna be a fight on the Federal level via big drug companies. That industry has money in it that Vegas can only dream of.. :notworthy

- Keith

 

[jstrike]

Vegas or not, the Indians could have pulled this off last year if they'd been willing to share revenues with each other and with the card rooms. My understanding was that Pachanga were the ones who undermined the whole agreement when they realized that any way they cut the math this was going to end up hurting their land-based operation.

For all the yapping, I think intrastate gaming is always going to be dead on arrival. Nevada's a good example of why. A guy I know at the gaming control board told me the Vegas Sun did a survey there, found out only 4 to 5% of Nevadans said they'd play online if it were legal, intrastate. I mean the reason for that's pretty obvious, you don't have to play online if you live in Nevada. But the thing is, you don't really have to play online anymore if you live in a lot of parts of California either... pretty much everyone's within driving distance of an Indian casino now. The 5% who don't want to get out of their underwear aren't worth it for something that's gonna inevitably come back and bite the land-based casinos in the ass.

And the agreement the Indians and the card rooms had worked out with the State was a pretty sweet deal, about as sweet as it could get for them. The State was going to only allow 3 master license holders, period, end of story. Giving them basically a total lock on the market. I'm glad it didn't work out because it was just a huge corrupt giveaway, but the only reason it didn't is that the greedy so'n'sos couldn't come to terms about how they'd divide up all the loot.

 

[Da_Gambla]

Indeed the Indians have their share of infighting over revenue. Don't forget that although states like CA don't have legalized gambling, they do run Lotteries, and so after all these years still have a vested interest in protecting those revenues.

This isn't a 'free market' industry even in places where it's legal. First of all, it's not a tangible 'product'. Since it's not produced or manufactured, it's extremely hard to control, monitor, and/or tax. I guess it might be more accurately categorized as a 'service'? lol...

- Keith

 

[jetset]

Looks as if the CNIGA tribes and the COPA alliance of the Morongo and the cardrooms are putting their support behind Lou Correia's proposal rather than Wright's latest bill in California.

That still leaves a few recalcitrant tribes to throw a spanner in the works, though.

Correia's bill pretty much ties up the online poker business for the tribes and the card rooms.

Iowa's getting interesting, too - but again any moves are looking very protectionist of already established companies in the state.

Florida likewise with Rep. Abruzzo's bill...he proposes that licensed dog and horse tracks and jai-alai frontons be permitted to create portals to legal online poker rooms. The state would get 10 percent of each card room's revenues, the same amount it gets now from live poker rooms.

I think the recent exchanges between Nevada and Alderney are also interesting. Nevada took a run at legalising online gambling years ago, but backed off when the feds became restive.

I see the liaison between the Nevada Gaming Commission and Alderney (and perhaps other experienced online gambling regulators) as an indication that there are some forward-looking folks who want to be sure their ducks all line up if intrastate regulation becomes a trend.

Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli said earlier this year that he wants to collect as much information as possible before lawmakers act on online gaming regulations.

"There is no question that the Internet gaming world is moving quickly and at a good speed toward Nevada," said Lipparelli. "We've realized that it is important for Nevada to form these alliances. We need to look at the places that have been regulating Internet gaming and engage these regulators."

 

[onlineprime08]

Gaming would be harder then. Anyway, thanks for the post.

 

[Simmo!]

Presumably, as Caesars lobbied to stop NJ on the basis that a Federal law might be better, one would assume they will do the same here? That idea does make some sense and you have to ask, would they have lobbied against NJ if they didn't think federal was a distinct possibility? Especially considering the Nevada-approved tie up between them and 888 that Infopowa reported yesterday.

On that front, 888 and Caesars? 888 have lots of experience true, but they don't have the range of games that US punters who frequent land-based are going to want. Either they plan on creating a new software platform and doing some serious licensing with IGT, WMS, Aristocrat etc or there is a big strategic oversight IMO.

 

[lots0]

I find it odd that the Morongo Mission Tribe supports this Bill.

If this is true, the Morongo Tribal Elders have done a complete about face on the issue of online gambling in just the last couple of weeks...

 

[BingoT]

Tribe: Internet gaming could be an $82M boon

Legalizing Internet gambling in California can pump another $82 million annually into the state's depleted coffers, the chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians says.

“It's big business,'' said chairman Robert Martin, whose Morongo Resort & Spa near Cabazon hosts the annual California Nations Indian Gaming Association conference that begins today.

“This (Internet gambling) industry generates $13 billion annually, and that's all going offshore,'' he said in an interview with The Desert Sun.

“Today, 2 million people play each week. It's a huge market, and it's illegal. Not a dime out of that money comes back to the state.”

For two years, the Morongo tribe has publicly pushed for the legalization of Internet gambling, which is expected to be the main talker at the conference.

With the state's $25.4 billion deficit, Las Vegas-style Indian casinos strapped for cash and the state of New Jersey also pushing to license online gambling, the Morongo Band isn't backing down from its push.

Martin said the tribe is part of a poker-only Internet initiative — led by California Online Poker Association — that will enrich woefully depleted state coffers, provide revenues to American Indian tribes and keep California's gambling economy solvent.

COPA, a group of 29 tribes and 13 non-Indian card clubs, has introduced a bill by Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, to regulate, legalize and operate Internet poker — quite likely on three sites — in exchange for fees on gross revenue.

The state could reap $1 billion over 10 years — and shore up the budget gap — if online poker is authorized, Martin said, quoting a Jan. 5 study by Blue Sky Consulting Group that was commissioned by COPA and co-authored by former state finance director Tim Gage.

The projection is based on estimates the state would initially earn $82 million per year, assuming a 10 percent operator fee on gross gambling receipts. Budget bailout prospect aside, the legislation has not gained widespread support among tribes.

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Debra Gruszecki