A California coalition of tribes and card rooms that is angling to legalize online gambling in the state on Monday launched a play-free Internet poker site.
CalShark.com, featuring Omaha and Texas hold’em games, claims it can give poker players around the world an experience to match live games on their personal computers.
It’s viewed in the industry as COPA’s entry into online gambling.
California Online Poker Association, which has been behind a two-year push to legalize intrastate gambling in California, has 60 members.
Led at first by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, its membership base of tribes and cardrooms grew to include the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians of Highland and Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians, Coachella.
COPA long has said the bulk of online gamblers who gravitated to offshore betting parlors have been from California.
CalShark.com, offering Omaha and Texas hold’em games, aims to prove it.
It is 100-percent free to registered players around the world, said COPA spokesman Ryan Hightower.
It accepts no deposits; no credit cards.
But is the United States-based site that is powered by Playtech, and supported by Playtech, a joint venture between Scientific Games and Playtech, legal?
Nick Pacilio, a spokesman for the office of California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, said the office would have no regulatory oversight over the site if it is truly 100 percent free.
“Our system allows the players to stay engaged, earn chips and be extremely interactive with other players and friends, COPA online operations director Pierre Wuu said in a statement. Users can invite and add friends to the virtual gaming table.
Registration requirements include a name, e-mail address, affirmation a player is 18, zip code and, if playing from outside the United States, the players’ country of origin, Hightower said.
The Cabazon Band of Mission Indians in June 2010 added a “play-free” video poker link on its Fantasy Springs Resort Casino web site, featuring prizes that included free stays at the resort hotel.
The sites serve two purposes: They introduce gamblers to poker. “They will likely show there is a huge market for real-money, online poker in California,’’ Hightower said.
Debra Gruszecki covers tourism and Indian gaming for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at Debra.Gruszecki@thedesertsun.com or (760) 778-4643.