California's cardrooms have banded together and formed an organization in an effort to make sure that their interests are represented in the nation's largest state.
"Communities for California Cardrooms" consists of 88 cardrooms operating in the Golden State. The group is designed to protect the cardrooms' economic interests, which may include participation in online poker. While many of the state's Indian tribes have formed unions in order to be recognized, the poker rooms realize that strength in numbers can help their cause as well.
Many of the cardrooms in the new coalition were once part of the California Online Poker Association (COPA). That now-defunct group included the alliance of both tribes and cardrooms. COPA chose to dissolve last year when efforts to push Internet poker legislation fell short of the goal. COPA had developed and operated CalShark.com, a free-play poker site aiming for a real-money transition that landed in the muck when legislation stalled and the group disbanded.
The Sacramento Bee reported that Communities for California Cardrooms has lined up two Sacramento-based firms to lobby on their behalf. That lobbying may include the support or opposition of any one of three online poker bills currently in front of state legislators. The group intends to further analyze the proposals currently on the table before voting aye or nay with regards to any of them, a spokesman said.
Those Internet poker bills are apparently on hold in the Golden State while lawmakers wrestle with immigration, budgetary, and gay rights issues. But the cardroom coalition has united to be prepared if and when online poker takes center stage.
