The Bee's editorial board said that the legalization of the Internet gambling was inevitable but "there are many unanswered questions, and no need to rush."

In fact, many questions have been answered. And, this issue has been discussed in Sacramento and numerous forums in California since 2009. Events of the last few weeks indicate time is short.

On April 15, the U.S. Justice Department indicted three offshore Internet poker companies on a variety of federal charges. The most significant was the violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. It was passed by Congress in 2006, and it made all forms of Internet gambling illegal in the United States.

When it passed, many companies immediately ceased taking American bets. They did not want to run afoul of U.S. law in hopes that someday it would be made legal and they would be allowed to participate in any new market.

The firms that were indicted chose to flout U.S. law, and for the last five years they have been taking illegal bets from players in America.

But The Bee lumps all the offshore firms together, saying the indictments underscore "the shady nature of the business." This charge is without any basis in fact.

Unfortunately the Justice Department action left 1 million California players with no place to play Internet poker, legal or otherwise. But it did create an opportunity for California's licensed gaming interests to fill the void and give these players a legal and regulated Internet poker system that would get the state much needed revenue and offer consumer protections to players.

Already the powerful Nevada gambling companies have stepped up their efforts to get federal legislation passed that would put California's gaming tribes and card rooms at a competitive disadvantage. Their ally, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., tried and failed to slip Internet poker legislation into a few bills during the lame duck congressional session last year. One has only to read Reid's bill to see that it would be devastating to California's gaming industry.
California has the largest potential Internet poker market in the United States. The longer we wait the more likely it will be that federal legislation will pass that will cripple California's gaming industry and adversely affect the economy of communities all across the state.

California's tribes and card rooms working with qualified legal operators can deliver a regulated revenue-producing Internet poker system now.