New Analysis: California Online Poker Faces Many Obstacles
"The purpose of today's hearing is to establish a framework for the legislature to look at Internet poker," Wright said.
"This is not about supporting or opposing anyone's idea. This is not about anyone's proposal," Wright added. "We're trying to identify the best course of action for the state of California. We're trying to educate ourselves on what makes sense."
"In the end, what we do will end up in court, so Judge Wagner will definitely decide this," Wright added.
Wright joked about a potential legal dispute over online poker (detailed later) but was quite serious about the educational purpose of the hearing. Those invited to testify at the hearing included Ed Andrews, managing director of Gaming for Ladbrokes, Cormac Barry of Paddy Power, former Tain CEO Roberto Savio, and Jonas Sunderland, head of business intelligence at the Swedish Gaming Board.
Andrews had no doubt that California's regulated online poker market would thrive. 안전 토토사이트
"Why would people play games on legitimate sites? Why would they play games on illegal sites?" Rep. Andrews said earlier when asked by a lawmaker. " (Because) players want to play games on regulated sites. They want to play where they can find trust and share trust."
Barry was more optimistic about California's prospects for online poker.
Barry said there was "very severe pent-up demand." "Studies by the Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC) show that the California online poker market will be $150 million to $200 million in three years," Barry said.
Barry added: "California could get a significant licensing fee that's bigger than Italy. Because businesses want access to the U.S. market (you) could easily charge a single-digit fee of millions of dollars and an extra fee (about 5 to 7 percent) higher than France."
Barry also said online poker could bring jobs to California if it acts quickly.
"It's a unique opportunity to be a centerpiece of online poker's excellence, not just in California, but globally," he said. "Other states will eventually do this, and if California didn't do that, all businesses will go there to find jobs."
The Commission received independent confirmation of the growth potential and scale of the California online poker market from William Edington, professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Reno and Simon Holiday at H2 Gambling Capital.
Holiday said the online poker market, where California is regulated, amounts to about $200 million. And Eddington confirmed to the committee that players will accept the restrictions.
"If you make legal alternatives attractive, the market increases," Eadington said.
When Native American tribes negotiated agreements called "Compact" with the state of California that allowed the construction of casinos, one of the provisions that was part of the compact gave the tribes the exclusive right to provide gambling devices. This meant that the state could allow card rooms to provide poker, and although the state has many state-sanctioned poker rooms, no gaming facility could allow them to offer slot machines or other forms of gambling related to gambling devices.
The exclusions cost Indian casinos in California a considerable amount of money, amounting to $365 million a year, to the state coffers by a witness. And if this is violated, these casinos won't have to pay the state money.
So the legal debate surrounding online poker is whether it relies on gambling devices, which violates the exclusivity clause. According to Wright, the California Legislature's legal adviser doesn't think so. Neither does George Forman, a lawyer for the Morongo tribe who wants to bring regulated online poker back to California.
