Californian online poker site, PrivateTable.com, is deemed legal according to one attorney specializing in interactive gaming law, whilst South Carolina residents don’t want anything to do with iGaming.
Why does opening an online poker room, in American cyber space, feel like opening a nuclear power plant on ones doorstep?
Seriously, it shouldn’t be that much of a problem.
But it is and we have to be patient as the rulemakers squint and squirm above varying legislation that is being thrown around legal houses state by state.
Many believe that the state of California holds the key to the future of stateside online poker but the launch of PrivateTable.com was still met with a lot of trepidation.
The first online poker room to be offered to Californian residents is the brainchild of the Lipay Nation of Santa Ysabel and there has been quite a furor since its launch, particularly around the legality of the enterprise.
A recent article on PokerUpdate suggests that the tribe, who partnered with the Kahnawake Gaming Commission to host a portion of its interactive gaming structure within the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake, has done nothing wrong after reaching out to the interactive gaming law attorney Martin Owens.
“If an Indian tribe has land of its own and wants to offer Class 2 gambling, they don’t have to consult state law at all,” Owens told PokerUpdate.
So where is this noise coming from?
With 110 different Native American tribes all holding federal licenses and some 90 businesses across the state relying on the gambling business for their income, it seems the noise is coming from the competition.
“There are some really deep-seated rivalries,” Owens said. “There are too many people whose main interest is making sure that someone else doesn’t get a chance.”
We will keep a keen eye on developments.
South Carolina Residents Opposed to Online Gambling
So California already has one foot in the iGaming doorway, what about South Carolina as the next state to join the pioneering three?
That just aint going to happen.
The Palmetto Politics poll, commissioned by the Post and Courier, surveyed 1,000 likely voters and found that 68 percent of them opposed its legalization, 17 percent supported it and 15 percent couldn’t care less.
“I think that gambling doesn’t sit well with a large percentage of the people in South Carolina for moral and religious reasons,” College of Charleston Political Science Professor Gibbs Knotts told Post and Courier. “The fact that over two-thirds of the people oppose legalizing online gambling would make it very difficult for folks in Columbia to pass that.”
These same religious folk had a different opinion when it came to getting stoned; however, with 53 percent supporting the use of medical marijuana, 36 percent opposing it, and 10 percent too stoned to even pick up the pen.
