CardPlayer.com: No Online Poker Partnership Between California and Nevada

The state of California with a population similar to that of Canada at 37.7 million will go it alone when it comes to online poker legislation.

California is looking to enact real money online poker laws within the year while neighboring Nevada has already done so.  Both states will require poker be played within their borders, however, pacts are possible using a model similar to that of the state lottery PowerBall platform.  Internet poker typically requires a significant player pool.  Nevada can use some help with a population that is less than 4 million people.  

A source close to CardPlayer.com suggests California has little interest in joining forces with the Silver State.

“We’re not going to partner with Nevada, not today,” a source close to California’s online poker legislation told the online news site. “Nobody from Nevada has approached us, and we haven’t approached them.”

California’s ability to legalize Internet poker will rely heavily on the approval of Tribal casino operators. 

“The legislation as described would also let out-of-state interests come in to essentially extract revenue from California with no real constraints other than that they ‘partner’ with a legal entity,” Leslie Lohse, chairwoman of the California Tribal Business Alliance, said in a February press release.

- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher