California Cardrooms Against Modifications of Player-Banked Rules

California cardrooms are aware of their industry profit and they don't want to pull back. As a result, they are firmly against the proposed cardroom changes which would restrict payments from player-banked games.

Background of the Story

The California Bureau of Gambling Control (BGC) has disclosed detailed draft regulations this past week. The Draft requires cardrooms to alter the conduct of player-banked games, where the house has the role of ‘third-party proposition player’ responsible for collecting losses and paying out winnings to customers.

According to the present rules, users at a gaming table should change their places every 60 minutes. Despite the previous system, everything can be changed if the additional players refuse the opportunity while the table restricts activity for two minutes.

If the modifications come into force, all customers would be required to have the banking role, which would change every two rounds. If the player refuses the banking role, he would need to leave the table and the game must terminate if no user is willing to take the position.

Future Plans

BGC is going to organize additional hearing on the proposed alterations on December 18. As it previously mentioned, cardroom changes come because “Department of Justice is looking at various issues related to gaming and is interested in receiving input and engagement from the public.”

The Department of Justice is interested in a cardroom operation due to several reasons. One of them has to do with ongoing financial secrets around the industry which result in serious enforcement actions. Only recently, California’s Attorney General has reached the $3.1m settlement deal with Hawaiian Gardens Casino regarding cardrooms.

Meanwhile, The California Gaming Association (CGA), which consists of the state’s 72 cardrooms, warned about proposed changes. CGA believes that it “would kill the cardroom industry and devastate dozens of communities.” Additionally, it would put at risk thousands of jobs and half a billion dollars in overall tax revenue.

It is also important to mention that Tribal gaming operators from California have compacts with the state which gives them a monopoly over house-banked card games. However, they have already denied regulators’ disinterest in restraining the cardrooms’ infringements on a tribal level. If we take a look at the recent tribal proposal for sports betting legalization, we could see that cardrooms are not included.

Source:

“California cardrooms protest plan to change player-banked rules“, Steven Stradbrooke, calvinayre.com, December 6, 2019.