Opinion: Letting the genie out of the bottle with Internet gaming

Friday, January 7, 2011  

"Well, do we let the genie out of the bottle? Does this genie lavish untold wealth on its owner or wreak devastation on an established treasured enterprise? By the way, to whom does this genie belong?

In California, state legislation appears from time to time allowing intrastate Internet gaming. One such bill in preliminary discussion in Sacramento and elsewhere would grant a license for Internet intrastate poker to an enterprise consisting of card clubs and Indian tribes. That license would unleash a genie co-owned by those two sets of entities. This bill would allow for online poker and not Class III gaming. What is not included in this discussion is the race track or state lottery.

Class III gaming includes card games played against the house and Las Vegas-style slot machines. In time more than one license could be issued to more than one business entity. This intrastate gaming by definition would be confined to California. Intrastate Internet poker where there is no bank and no percentage take could yield hundreds of millions of dollars.

Internet gaming may: 1) reap billions for its owners; or 2) generate a lot of excitement and not much else; or 3) diminish the most successful gaming structure in California – Native American land."

Get the Story:
Ralph B. Saltsman and Stephen Warren Solomon: Letting the genie out of the bottle? (Indian Country Today 1/7)