The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel has been promising a legal, real money online poker room in California since July of this year. Multiple delays have stalled the tribe’s efforts, but according to the latest updates on the poker site, PrivateTable.com, real money online poker may be a lot closer to a reality than recently suspected.
Numerous renovations were made to the Private Table site lately. The most noticeable would be a fresh layout, but much more importantly are the new segmentations. For example, there is now a welcome bonus promotion that offers a “$100 bonus with any deposit of $15 and up”, as well as a tournament plug that details daily freerolls with $10 “gift cards for iTunes and Google Play”.
In fact, according to the verbiage of the website, it would certainly appear that Private Table has gone from “coming soon” to the official “open for business” stage. I could not find a single statement on the online poker site to inform players that real money play is not yet available. However, there are multiple indications that deposits (including Visa, Bitcoin and in-person payments) are being accepted, bonuses are being offered and cash games and tournaments are readily available.
Alas, upon further investigation, it became clear that Private Table is not yet available for real money play. The only evidence I could find that cash-laden online poker games are not yet open to customers is the fact that the multitude of real money poker tables found in the poker lobby do not actually have any players at them. To confirm one way or another, I opened a live chat support window and spoke with representative ‘Monika PK’.
| Your Question: Your website says Private Table is accepting deposits and offering real money online poker games now. Is that true?
Please wait and one of our operators will be with you shortly. Your request is important to us. Please wait and one of our operators will be with you shortly. You are now chatting with Monika PK (Customer Service Agent) – Private Table 11:07 Monika PK: Hello Donna. Thank you for playing at PrivateTable.com, my name is Monika 11:07 Monika PK: Please note that we are not open for real money yet 11:07 Donna: Hi Monkia 11:08 Donna: Oh you’re not, okay. The website makes it sound like you are. Do you know when you will be? 11:08 Monika PK: No,we don’t have an exact date set |
While the site is not officially open for business just yet, we can at least presume that the Santa Ysabel do intend to push forward with the real money online poker room for California players, ostensibly sooner than later.
When the Iipay Nation delayed the real money launch of PrivateTable.com, the tribe switched gears and instead opened Desert Rose Bingo – “The first tribal Class II online bingo site in the United States” – in early November. The Attorney General of California immediately filed legal documents to have the online bingo site shut down, and just as quickly, the Iipay Nation argued the state was violating their “tribal sovereignty”.
If and when the California online poker site does reach official, real money gaming status, as repeatedly promised, the Santa Ysabel can surely look forward to another prompt filing of legal action against them. What it all boils down to is the legitimacy of the Santa Ysabel Gaming Commission as a regulator of Class II (non-banked) online gaming.