Late last week, PocketFives brought you an article about the bills regulating online poker in California being shelved for 2014. The reason, according to bill author and State Senator Lou Correa: “Internet poker is an important public policy. We need to make sure it’s done right.”

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California features a variety of competing interests, including Indian Tribes, casinos, card rooms, and race tracks. Add to the mix sites like PokerStars that are seeking a footprint in what has been dubbed the “Holy Grail” of US online poker markets and you can see why the state, which has nearly 40 million residents, has struggled to obtain consensus.

Last April, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians entered an agreement with PokerStars and three of the largest card rooms in the state – the Bicycle Casino, Commerce Casino, and Hawaiian Gardens – to offer online poker should legislation pass.

According to CardPlayer, Morongo Band of Mission Indians Tribal Chairman Robert Martinsaid of the effort to approve online poker being paused for 2014, “Clearly the issues surrounding the latest bills that sought to unconstitutionally limit competition, place prohibitions on race tracks, and rewrite longstanding, successful state policy regarding California’s oversight of gaming proved insurmountable for this session.”

Martin added, however, that the Morongo Tribe and its partners don’t plan to throw in the towel for next year: “We will continue to work with our partners, legislators, state regulators, and other California tribes on developing future i-poker legislation that meets constitutional tests and provides much-needed consumer protections to California’s two million online poker players.”

Attorney Keith Sharp shared the following sentiments of the three aforementioned card clubs: “Any legislation authorizing internet poker should ensure that we create the most successful market possible that provides consumers access to the trusted brands they want in a strongly regulated environment… We remain committed to continued discussions in the interim and next session.”

Also commenting on the postponement of legislation in California was the Poker Players Alliance, whose Executive Director, John Pappas (pictured), told PocketFives on Monday, “I think there is a new dance taking root in California. The internet poker shuffle is easy: one step forward, then two steps back. It is frustrating that for another year the California poker player is left out to dry as the hyper-competitive gaming industry elbows its way to another stalemate. I remain optimistic that California will be a frontier for online poker, but it looks like we have several more months until that can happen.”

California’s current legislative session comes to a close at the end of August.

In June, a coalition of 13 California Indian Tribes proposed legislationto regulate online poker that included a “bad actor” clause shutting out any company that serviced the state’s residents for real money post-December 2006. The language would affect sites like PokerStars, which didn’t vacate the US market until Black Friday in April 2011. Language in bills would have also expanded the “bad actor” clause to include software and player lists.

Visit PocketFives’ California poker community for the latest news and discussion from California players.

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