My colleague, Haley Hintze, just published a typically excellent summary of the status of California Senate Bill 549, which was just passed out of committee and onto the state Assembly's Committee on Appropriations. I encourage you to read the article to understand the details, but here is a quick summary:
California Senate Bill 549 - the Cliff Notes
If passed into law, this bill would allow the California tribes to sue California cardrooms over the player-banked games. If you're not familiar with the California casino/poker scene, a little review will help...
There are two completely different types of regulated casino/poker rooms in California.
Tribal casinos
Various California native tribes have compacts with the state that allow them to operate full ('Vegas-style', if you will) casinos. They have all the games you'd expect at any casino, and those games are played just as they're played in any other casino in the U.S. or around the world. Importantly, you are gambling against the house (unless, of course, you're in their poker room). Examples of such casinos that have poker are Thunder Valley, Graton, and Casino Morongo.
California DoJ regulated cardrooms
There are about 70 'cardrooms' in California, which are regulated by the California Department of Justice. They are permitted to spread card games, but crucially, they may not offer 'house-banked' games. That means that you can't gamble against the house. That's just fine for poker, but it doesn't work for typical casino 'pit' games. The cardrooms have worked around this by allowing players to take turns banking various games that emulate traditional casino games such as blackjack, baccarat, and pai gow poker.
With time, those player-bankers have largely morphed into a couple of 'consortiums' that hire people to sit and act as bankers for the games. Such player-bankers are sometimes called 'Third-party Proposition Players,' or 'TPPP.' Everybody seems more or less satisfied with this arrangement, and these games provide vital revenue to the cardrooms.
DoJ-regulated cardrooms you might recognize: Capital Casino in Sacramento, Lucky Chances near San Francisco, Bay 101 and M8trix in San Jose. Club One in Fresno. In the L.A. area – Bicycle, Commerce, Hawaiian Gardens, and Hollywood Park. Oceans 11 in Oceanside, near San Diego. Oh, I forgot to mention – Hustler Casino.
Could HCL survive if the bill is passed?Also: the tribal casinos aren't subject to California's anti-smoking laws. There's smoking in the tribal casinos – there is no smoking in the DoJ-regulated cardrooms.
The tribes want the whole pie
Unsatisfied with having a monopoly on actual casino gambling in California, some of the tribal players are pushing through Senate Bill 549, which would allow them sue the DoJ-regulated cardrooms over the use of the TPPPs.
As Haley Hintze wrote in her piece, "SB 549 would allow the well-funded tribal casinos to launch expensive litigation against any room offering TPPP games, while also exempting the California Gambling Control Commission from any adjudged damages..."
Here's what happens if SB 549 passes
The tribes, and their fleets of expensive attorneys, bring a tsunami of lawsuits down on the cardrooms. The biggest cardrooms (Hustler, Commerce, Bay 101, etc) hire their own fleet of expensive attorneys to fight for their very existence. And be sure that cost will be passed onto the customer.
But there's also this: for every big bright-lights 'California casino,' there are half a dozen tiny-to-small rooms. My list above represents 11 of the over 70 licensed cardrooms. Many of those rooms have only a handful of tables. Just recently, I had the opportunity to play in a five-table room in the Gold Country that gets a $1/3 game going 4-5 times per week. It was a great time, people were friendly, and it was the sort of experience that reminded me how fun poker can be.
That Gold Country club cannot afford expensive attorneys. If SB 549 passes, that club probably has to close its doors. Many, perhaps most, of the smaller rooms, close down. And the golden age of poker in the Golden State would end.
Let's put it this way: if you play poker in a regular casino, how long do you think the poker room would be around if all of the slot machines and pit games were removed?
Look, political power plays are as old as politics, and I'm not surprised to see the tribes making this move. I'm not even sure I 'blame' them. But California poker is one of the prime engines of the game's health and growth in the U.S. In their quest for a monopoly, the tribes are more than happy to throw that poker engine in the trash.
What can you do?
If you play in a DoJ-regulated cardroom in California, speak to the management there. I promise they're aware of this bill. Ask them who you can contact, what you can do to help. Get the name of the appropriate Assembly-person or Senator and hit them in their socials.
Pass the word among your fellow players so they know what's going on, and the potential implications.
We, as a poker community – and not just in California – don't want to think about what could happen if SB 549 becomes law.
