A legislative committee today took up the proposal to permit Californians to use their laptops and iPhones to legally wager in an intrastate Internet gambling network run by tribes and card rooms and taxed by the state.

While there is no active bill in the Legislature, the issue packed a state Senate governmental affairs hearing in arguments over whether California should cash in on hundreds of millions of dollars in currently illegal online bets made by as many as 1 million Californians a year.

"We feel the games should be controlled by the tribes and the state - and taxed," said Robert Martin, chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, a powerful casino tribe from Riverside County.

But another wealthy tribe from the same county vociferously fought the proposal.

"We simply do not agree with the consequences of authorizing intrastate Internet poker," said Mark Macarro, chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians.

Arguing that the games violate the tribes' gambling agreements with California, he said his tribe may withhold more than $42.5 million in annual casino revenue-sharing payments to the state if California approves online poker.