Following the pulling of the bills intending to legalize online poker at the committee stage by the California politicians Reggie Jones-Sawyer and Lou Correa, Pokestars alliance has issued a statement. The alliance, which comprises of Morongo tribal group, Pokerstars and LA card rooms have said that it is still committed in participating in legalized poker in the State of California.

Robert Martin, the Chairman of the Morongo tribal group said that they have been working on the legalization issue for the last five years. They had been optimistic on the success of the bill in 2014 though the commitment is for the long run. He said it is better to have a good bill even if it is going to take long than passing a bad bill.

He said that the issues relating to the current bills of limiting competition unconstitutionally, prohibiting racetracks and the rewriting of the longstanding successful policy on California’s oversight on gaming were a lot to handle in this session. Martin asserted that they would continue working with other partners, state regulators, legislators and other California tribes to develop iPoker legislation that will meet constitutional tests and that provides consumer protection to the two million California online poker punters.

Keith Sharp, the spokesperson for three card rooms in the pokerstars alliance namely Hawaiian Gardens, the Bike and Commerce, put his emphasis on importance of having a successful and consumer protective intrastate market. He confirmed that card rooms would remain committed to the current activities, as well as what would will take place in the coming legislative session.

The director of Pokerstars-Rational Group, Guy Templer was in support of the other alliance spokespersons. He commented that Pokerstars has a lot of history in working with regulators and governments from the whole world. He said that Pokerstars is looking forward to working with regulators and lawmakers in California in structuring a market that will provide strong competition and a regulatory oversight that is strong.

The alliance is looking forward to bringing best practices in promoting responsible gaming, e-commerce, online security, game integrity and protection of the funds of players in the new California online poker market.

The Pechanga/ San Manuel tribal coalitions have not given any public reaction to the withdrawal of the bills by Correa and Jones Sawyer. The tribal coalitions have been persisting on the use of ‘bad actor’ clauses in a bid to exclude Pokerstars from Californian market. Despite their persistence, they are yet to introduce their proposals to the legislature.

The two politicians – Correa and Jones Sawyer pulled the bills after time ran out to deal with the issues pertaining to the bills with the deadline of the legislative session being 31 August. The bills were introduced to legalize online poker in the State of California, which is thought of by the poker operators to be a good market.

The potential of the market is what is making it difficult for the online pokers operators to come to an agreement. Some operators want to prevent others from entering the market to reduce competition by including the ‘bad actor’ clauses on the bills.