Senate Hearing on Internet Gaming's Effect on TribesThe Poker Players Alliance Will Speak on Web Poker |
|
A Senate oversight hearing on Internet gaming and it’s implications for tribal groups will begin Thursday afternoon on Capitol Hill.
The gathering of some of gaming’s leading experts in front of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will discuss the question: “What’s at stake for tribes?”
The list of witnesses:
D’Amato and Pappas’ PPA said in a statement that it wants Federal legislation to “treat Indian tribes fairly by allowing them to participate in a regulated poker market as licensors, operators, or ancillary service providers.”
The PPA said it supports a market that is as “wide-open and competitive as possible.” The lobbying groups states that a Federal bill would not negatively affect tribal gaming companies, citing that poker rooms in Indian casinos are “a small part of their business.”
According to the PPA, gaming in such brick-and-mortar operations represents about 30 percent done nationwide, and that “one would expect their share of an Internet poker market to be proportional.”
D’Amator and Pappas are in favor of interstate legislation, and their organization is critical of a push for an intrastate system in a state like California, which saw its efforts for an online poker bill fail in 2011.
“We are aware that some California tribes are pushing the idea that each state should be able to license Internet poker on an intrastate basis, creating as many as 50 distinct markets,” the PPA said. “In such a model, poker players could only play with players located in the same state. Few states have sufficient population to support a robust intrastate poker market. In addition, such a model would punish tribes from all but the two or three largest states.”
Follow Brian Pempus on Twitter — @brianpempus
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
