California gambling online for real money may become a reality in 2014. In 2013, a proposal to launch Internet gambling operations in the Golden State went unapproved, with state legislators and gaming industry analysts saying that early 2014 would probably see the entrance of the most populous state into the US online gambling industry, expanding the options for players when it comes to California casinos, CA poker rooms, and other gambling venues.
When the US Justice Department made an about-face concerning its attitude towards Internet gambling in December of 2011, that paved the way for Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware to deliver an online gambling state-supported presence. That regulation allows for each individual state to develop its own online gambling industry, as long as it does not include sports gambling.
Last year California joined Massachusetts, Illinois, Texas and Iowa as several states which unsuccessfully offered some type of legalized Internet gambling legislation. And of the 28 states which do offer land-based gaming facilities run by native American Indian tribes, which include a total of 460 brick-and-mortar casinos, there are no online gambling options … yet. And the individual US states continuing their push towards legalizing online gambling is also reflected and supported at the international level.
Currently, online betting in some form generates close to $30 billion of estimated revenue globally each and every year. Americans are responsible for $4 billion of that spending according to the American Gaming Association, an impressive percentage of the overall take considering the limited number of legal online gambling options currently available from US-based and sponsored Internet casinos and poker rooms.
Obviously, numbers like that make the virtual versions of casino and poker gambling very attractive to the 240 Indian tribes in the United States. With Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware delivering Internet gambling options for less than one year, it is hard to ascertain the financial impact the new industry will deliver to US companies.
However, market and industry analyst Fitch Ratings says its research shows between $300 million and $750 million annually will be delivered to those three states alone over the next several years. And at least one Native American Indian tribe in rural California is not waiting until 2014 to deliver the first Internet tribal gambling effort seen in the United States. Additionally, they will not need US federal approval to do so.
In 1988 the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed, providing that the federal government in the US must approve state-tribe compacts, brick-and-mortar casino management contracts and most other tribal gaming ordinances. But a significant loophole lies in the fact that this only applies to those gambling options which are classified as Class III entities. This includes but is not limited to blackjack, roulette and craps, slot machines, electronic video games and other electronic gambling games of chance.
This means that recognized Native American Indian tribes do not need federal approval to launch and manage Class III games of chance such as pull-tabs, lottery contests, punch boards and bingo halls. And this also includes Internet options, which is why the Alturas Indian Rancheria Tribe in California is pushing forward with its late 2013 online gambling launch of Class II classified games.
In a similar move, the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma are aggressively pushing to launch a website which will target real money gamblers who live outside the physical United States. And in several locations in the Midwest, the financially impressive possibilities have attracted the attention of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, who stated that they are currently prepared for making an online launch as soon as “more states or the federal government sanction online gambling.”
In many states where Indian tribes offer gambling options in the physical sense, both those tribes and the state share casino revenue. California is already home to such a compact, and with that state ready to move forward with its own Internet gambling launch in early 2014 according to state gaming regulators alongside new Indian tribal offerings, a similar agreement could mean that the New Year brings multiple Internet gambling options for the most populous US state.