California's online poker rooms getting ready

The Golden State seems to have brought the attention of the largest poker rooms in the market. San Diego’s Native American groups have been the first ones to start up the online gambling industry in California but now, another group of Native Americans, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, will continue with this effort to open up California’s online gambling market. The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians is a Native American tribe located near the city of Highland, an Indian reservation federally recognized and established in 1891 where the tribe has built up the San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino. But not only the Native American tribes from California are pushing the envelope by developing and launching online poker rooms, casinos and bingos; just behind these Indian tribes, we can easily find big names from the online gaming industry.

San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino, the gambling establishment from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians from California, has made partners with one of the most relevant gaming developers ever in the history of the online poker industry, PokerStars. PokerStars, probably the most significant poker room in every international online gambling market, and its parent company, Amaya Gaming, have both struck a deal with the San ​Manuel Band of Mission Indians. The partnership will work on an online platform for the casino to launch an online poker room as soon as California creates any form of regulation for the online gambling industry.

PokerStars has been pursuing different agreements with casinos in California but, unfortunately, the only choices available were the Native American Indian casinos. So far, PokerStars has signed agreements with the Morongo Band of Mission Indians as well as California’s three largest card rooms (the Bicycle Casino, the Commerce Club, and the Hawaiian Gardens Casino). The different between these other agreements and the one made with San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino is that the tribe had joined the Bad Actor measure, stopping any online gambling license process in California, turning the online poker market illegal. Lynn Valbuena, Chairwoman of San Manuel, said: “We are pleased to join this coalition. We are convinced that the various interests must work together if we are to be successful in establishing a well-regulated environment and the best-in-class internet poker industry for California”. Morongo’s Chairman Robert Martin said: “We are excited about the momentum and opportunities this new agreement represents in getting legislation passed. As tribes come together on this issue, the opportunity for success grows”. Guy Templer, Group Business Development Director with PokerStars said: “San Manuel is a strong, forward thinking operator and is a great partner to join our coalition in advocating for the development of an open and well regulated iPoker market in California. We are looking forward to working with the Legislature and with other stakeholders to help develop an industry that will benefit California consumers and the State alike.”