California’s largest brick-and-mortar casino has inked a social casino deal with developers Ruby Seven Studios.
On Monday, the Pechanga Development Corporation announced it had entered into a strategic partnership with Ruby Seven Studios to develop an online social casino product for the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula.
The social casino, which will include video poker, bingo, keno, blackjack and slots, is scheduled to launch sometime in mid-2016. The slots offering will feature customized titles that incorporate elements of the brick-and-mortar resort’s expansive property.
Pechanga Development Corporation president Patrick Murphy said the new online presence would help “extend our brand beyond Southern California” by allowing players around the globe to interact with Pechanga from their desktop or mobile device.
Pechanga Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro added that the tribe was “very pleased” with what Ruby Seven had to offer while Ruby Seven founder/CEO Michael Carpenter said he was “thrilled” to have been selected to bring the Pechanga brand to a wider audience.
The Pechanga tribe has been among the most vocal in objecting to efforts to pass real-money online poker legislation in California, leading a tribal coalition that opposes participation by ‘bad actors’ like PokerStars and the state’s racetrack operators. Throughout, the Pechanga have insisted they aren’t anti-online poker, just that they want the last word on who gets to play in the online poker pool.
The Pechanga join a growing list of California tribal casino operators who – in real-money online poker’s absence – have jumped on the social casino bandwagon, including the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, who signed up with GAN last August, while the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio inked a deal with Scientific Games’ Play4Fun Network last April.
This is the first California deal for Ruby Seven, whose other social casino clients include Tropicana Entertainment, which launched its TropWorld app last July.
