The launch of real money online poker games that were going to be offered to residents in California at PrivateTable.com has been delayed.
The gaming website, which is dubbed as “The Friendly Poker Room” for Californians, is run by tribal group, Nation of Santa Ysabel, located in San Diego County. The tribal gaming website has to date been offering free money games and was set to start offering real money play by the end of August, but due to the delay no firm launch date has been set other than to say in a statement that: “We are making the final preparations,” A site rep also went on to add that: “We are still double and triple checking everything and until that is all done we are not setting a date.”
A site representative from CaliforniaOnlinePoker.com got in touch with player support regarding the delayed launch via live chat and were told the real money launch was delayed a week. Their exact words were: “We are going to go live with real money during the first week of September.”
Although no reasons were given for the delayed launch of real money online poker games, many people in the industry are speculating that the checks are centered around the legality of real money online poker in California. However, according to Santa Ysabel Gaming Commission Chairman Dave Vialpando, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) has given the go ahead for the real money launch to proceed, since any such activity is not prohibited by any statute as PrivateTable’s operations is categorized under Class II gaming, which falls under tribal and federal jurisdiction.
According to PrivateTable.com their real money site will be accepting FinPay for all of their online payments. Real money players will first need to have a FinPay account which is free to obtain, after which they can use their virtual account to transfer funds to and from PrivateTable’s real-money site once it’s launched. During business hours, they will also be accepting cash deposits and withdrawal requests at the Smoke Shop which is located on their tribal lands in Santa Ysabel, California.
When the real money games at PrivateTable.com’s site do launch, players will be able to play Texas Hold’em, Seven Card Stud, and Omaha cash games, multi-table tournaments, and sit and gos in a variety of formats including turbo and hyper turbo heads-up, 6-max, and 9-seated games. There are also plans to add online bingo to their selection of gaming offerings further down the line. For the time being, players in California will have no other option but to play online at the play money tables of PrivateTable.com.
From a California online poker player’s perspective the last few months have been a roller coaster of a ride. With two online poker bills postponed until next year because legislators wanted to make sure the language in the bills were right but they had run out of time during the State Assembly, this had meant that most players in California were resigned to the fact that regulated online poker would not be a reality anytime soon.
Given that many Native American tribes in California have been reluctant to offer online gaming as they didn’t feel it would compliment their existing products but rather have a negative impact on their offline gambling revenues, it will be interesting to see how some of the other tribes in California will react to the Nation of Santa Ysabel real money online poker launch. Clearly, it has been a dividing issue for many of California’s tribal casinos.