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Forget waiting around another 10 years for online poker to become legalized in the world’s 8th largest economy. One California Tribe is moving ahead, with or without legislation.
The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel established Santa Ysabel Interactive and launched the I-gaming poker website Private Table at www.privatetable.com to offer Class II gaming to customers through Internet servers located on tribal lands, according to a press release issued by that Tribe.
“In offering online gaming through Santa Ysabel Interactive, the Tribe is exerting its sovereign right under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) to regulate and conduct Class II gaming from the tribe’s reservation. Class II gaming, as defined by IGRA, includes poker and bingo, but does not include slot-based games or house-banked games, such as blackjack. House-banked games and slot machines are defined as Class III games, and can only be offered in a tribal casino upon agreement with the state through a Tribal-State Gaming Compact. Santa Ysabel has had such a compact with the state since 2005, but has no plans to offer Class III gaming through its interactive website.
“The Santa Ysabel Gaming Commission has enacted comprehensive regulations to facilitate regulatory oversight of the operations of Santa Ysabel Interactive. The basic foundation of these regulations is the same as those approved by the State of Delaware to regulate that state’s legal interactive gaming activity. The Santa Ysabel Gaming Commission developed a robust set of gaming regulations for ensuring the integrity of the gaming activity and to prevent unauthorized access of the website or corruption of the website.
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“Santa Ysabel Interactive and the Santa Ysabel Gaming Commission have taken great care to address public agency and consumer concerns in the enterprise’s I-gaming platform by integrating substantial consumer protection strategies related to: age and location verification, safe and secure payment processing, protection of confidential player information, and responsible gambling resources, just to name a few.”
Noted gambling industry analyst Haley Hintze of 4Flush.com poses the question: Do United States-based tribal nations even need federal or state approval to offer online poker, if they’ve already been cleared via the Department of the Interior to offer gambling on their own tribal lands?
As legal rabbitholes go, this one’s deeper than most. And despite the fact that many industry and legal observers are dismissing the Santa Ysabel’s announcement as a negotiating ploy, the legal arguments supporting the possible Santa Ysabel move have been there all along. It’s just more likely now that these legal arguments will come to a head sooner rather than later.
Cash games were not immediately available but will be soon, according to the PrivateTable.com website.
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
