August 17, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — The new initiative by one influential Southern California tribe to pursue a new form of legalized online poker in that state (read about that here) apparently isn’t enjoying widespread support among all tribes in that state.
In particular, one major tribe in San Diego County is opposing the new plan announced last week by the Morongo Band of Cahuilla Mission Indians, according to San Diego’s North County Times.
Legalized online poker will be bad for the land-based casinos that they operate in California, according to this tribe and others associated with the state's casino industry. The Viejas Band of Mission Indians, an influential tribe that operates a casino in eastern San Diego County, is among those that is against the new plan.
"This proposal represents an unprecedented expansion of gambling and could have serious negative consequences," Viejas spokesman Robert Scheid stated. "There are serious constitutional, financial, legal, regulatory and other questions that need to be addressed carefully and deliberately before this scheme goes any further."
So far, according to the story, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger “has not taken a position on the matter.”
To read more at San Diego County’s North County Times, please click here.