Morongo pushes shock California bill
California gaming tribe the Morongo Band of Mission Indians is looking to pre-empt Harry Reid's federal push to legalise online poker.
California Senator Louis Correa has introduced an intrastate poker bill in an attempt to get State legislation on the books ahead of the federal bill currently being pushed by Harry Reid.
A source close to the matter told eGR that the bill, backed by The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, is a revised version of the five-page draft the Morongo failed to find a sponsor for in September last year after a lack of support from other tribes, as opposed to the bill sponsored by Senator Rod Wright which stalled in Committee in June this year.
The Poker Voters of America, the architects of Wright’s bill, said it expects to announce the new sponsor of its revised poker-only draft shortly. Original sponsor Wright was indicted on eight felony charges accusing him of filing a false declaration of candidacy, voter fraud and perjury and has since pleaded not guilty.
Wright’s bill stalled amid opposition from the Morongo and card clubs, including the Commerce Casino and the Hollywood Park Casino, ostensibly because it would have allowed offshore poker sites and Las Vegas casinos to run web gambling in California.
The author of the state’s first intrastate bill, Lloyd Levine, at the time laid the blame at the door of the Morongo, arguing that their decision to oppose Wright’s bill after earlier trying to force through their own version was “because they don’t get to own the whole thing.”
The Morongo, whose initial attempt to force through its bill failed amid accusations by other tribes it was trying to monopolise online poker by forming a consortium with the card clubs and Morongo in the driving seat, announced in September it had been joined by 21 tribes and a number of card clubs in the newly formed California Online Poker Association (COPA). The San Manuel is the only other gaming tribe to have so far has come out in support of the Morongo’s bill, eGR understands.
The chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association Daniel Tucker in January called Barney Frank’s efforts to establish a federal licensing framework for egaming in the US “the greatest threat to Indian gaming in 20 years”. The Morongo also gave arguments against a federal licensing system during the hearings for Frank’s bill.