CyberArts throws down gauntlet on Californian gambling 27/05/2009
California-based software developer CyberArts has thrown down the gauntlet to rival Gtech ahead of the proposed legalisation of single-operator intrastate poker in California.
As reported on EGRmagazine.com earlier this month, CyberArts recently beat Gtech to the contract to provide French lottery operator
Francaise des Jeux with their online poker product (more).
Speaking to eGaming Review today, CyberArts chairman Ken Arnold said: “We just beat them in France for the FDJ deal. We’re looking forward to competing again. They are our major strategic competitor.”
The challenge was in response to news from Jim Tabilio of Poker Voters of America, the lobby group working on a bill to legalise intrastate online poker with California stakeholders (more). Tabilio told eGaming Review this week that the contractual model the group is examining is the California lottery, which is run by Gtech parent company Lottomatica.
Tabilio told eGaming Review that “the political comfort level” among regulators and law enforcement in California is for a pooled liquidity network run by an experienced single operator with no history of US exposure.
Gtech has such experience via its roles as lottery provider for California and as poker provider for Swedish monopoly Svenska Spel via its Boss Media subsidiary.
Tabilio said: “They want to be able to do their regulatory due diligence on a daily basis. Also, having someone operating in California who has had access to US customers at any point, and therefore has been operating, in the view of the Federal and California DOJ, outside of the law, would create problems for legislators and regulators.”
Tabilio added that suppliers who had taken bets from US citizens might have problems passing a ‘fit and proper test’ as part of the licensing process, although he emphasised this would come down to how regulators interpreted the language in the bill.
Don't miss out on egaming news: sign up for our free, daily Snapshot email. Or get the news as its breaks with the free eGaming Review RSS feed.
Posted: 27/05/2009
User comments
egrjobs.com
Online Marketing Manager – Gala
Gala Coral , UK
Online Marketing Manager – Coral
Gala Coral , UK
SEO Manager
Gala Coral , UK
Online Advertising Manager
Gala Coral , UK
Local Marketing Executive
Gala Coral , UK
smillar@millarlaw.net
An interesting point to consider is whether the State of California will enfranchise one or multiple providers, at some point in the future as the techology source. No one has yet to show how the underage problem is solved by anyone in a fashion that may be acceptable from a pure techology standpoint. What is going on here is a debate over who should get or share a monopoly, if the state ever moves forward to legalize on-line gambling.
» Report this comment