Newspaper Publishes Facts on California Online Poker
Written by Matt W | Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
With any advancement on the Californian online poker bill being hampered by disagreements between Native American tribes, it was refreshing to read the article by Robin Martin in the Sacramento Bee highlighting some of the true facts of this issue.
As a recap, the California Tribal Business Alliance, an entity that represents a number of local tribes, is at odds with the argument presented by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians that online poker will benefit the state and will not affect their land businesses. The CTBA, instead, argues that any changes to the existing law will be seen as going against existing gambling pacts between them and the state.
In his article, Martin opens with a powerful quote attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan that “everyone is entitled to their own opinion but they are not entitled to their own facts”.
Martin argues that it is categorically untrue that legalizing online poker in the state would be a violation of tribal gambling contracts. State law shows that the Legislature can allow Californians to play poker from their own computers without violating existing guarantees to local tribes. Interestingly, when this line of argument was offered to those who attended the February 9 hearing on internet poker in California, the CTBA did not rebut the explanation as they probably were unable to.
Other facts offered by Martin in his article include statistics such as “a million Californians a week are playing poker” and “California is struggling with soaring deficits” – all facts that the CTBA cannot argue against.
Martin ends his article with an opinion – that California needs to seriously examine the option of providing itself with a steady stream of income, based on its current deficit.
“If a legalized, regulated and taxed system of intrastate internet poker could provide one of these many revenue streams, California needs to give it serious consideration,” writes Martin. “Time is of the essence. Every day we wait means millions of dollars in potential revenue that should stay in California leave California.”
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· Written by Matt W · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
