Online Poker in California

The Golden State

Regulated Online Poker California.

California also is the Golden State when it comes to online poker. Almost 12% of the total US population that is 21 or older lives here and before Black Friday California alone stood for 4% of the world’s online poker revenue. The Golden State is known as a bit of a trend setter. So it is no surprise many poker enthusiasts think that online poker will kick off for real in the US when the Golden State decides to regulate it. And the question is when rather than if.

There’s still a lot of work to be done here though. California held an online poker hearing bringing the state’s Indian tribes to a consensus and what to do about a “bad actor” clause.
PokerStars and their ally, dispute that the bad actor clause would limit competition which in turn would mean a smaller amount of tax revenue. Opposing tribes believe that all sites that operated in the US after the UIEGA should be punished. In the beginning of June 2014, 13 California tribes came to an agreement on a proposed online poker bill. Who was opposing this agreement? PokerStars and their partners, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, Bicycle Casino, Commerce Club and Hawaiian Gardens Casino. The key point in the proposed bill that caused the conflict was of course a bad actor clause that would shut out sites, among them PokerStars. Fortunately for PokerStars, they have the Morongo Indians and the three biggest card clubs in California on their side.

Many believe that the Golden State will be the fourth state in the US to regulate online poker after New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware. Time will tell if this will be the case, but undoubtedly they have gotten pretty far in the regulation process. Unfortunately for the rest of the US they belong to the states that could survive on their own, without joining an interstate network and sharing player pools.