As expected after the dissolution of the California Online Poker Association last month, the free to play online poker site run by the organization, CalShark.com, closed its doors earlier this week.
On Wednesday, an e-mail was sent to players who participated in play on the site to announce the closure of the online poker room. “We hope you have enjoyed the competition and state-of-the-art experience offered by CalShark.com, which has consistently provided players with the thrill of playing live poker on their personal computers,” the e-mail began. “CalShark.com was launched by the California Online Poker Association (COPA) and dedicated to providing players with the highest-quality play-for-free experience available online. Our goal was to seamlessly transition CalShark.com to live, real-money play after online poker was legalized in California.”
“Unfortunately, despite more than three years of effort, the State Legislature has not acted on Internet poker legislation and COPA has decided to dissolve,” the e-mail concluded. “As a result, CalShark.Com will be closing immediately. COPA and the staff at CalShark.com deeply appreciate your support, and we hope you enjoyed your time on our site.”
The decision to close CalShark.com comes on the heels of the dissolution of COPA, which was a coalition of the different live poker venues, horse racing tracks and Indian casinos inside the Golden State to bring an intrastate online poker network to the state’s citizens. COPA began to break apart late last month with the departure of the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians from the group, quickly followed by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. On October 25, the group officially disbanded, leaving the future of CalShark.com up in the air as well as the future for a lobbying group to push the issue in the state legislature.
The debate over the future of online poker in the state of California is a complex one. Without such an organization as COPA to push for the issue – and now the departure of their free play site from the internet – some believe that there is a better likelihood that the state will move on the issue. On Two Plus Two, several posters believe this side of the argument but do not offer any suggestion as to how it would be achieved.
The loss of COPA and CalShark is “a positive move,” according to poster ‘LastLife.’ “This means that California is unlikely to be purely intrastate,” the poster stated. “California will have (and will be one of the first) iPoker (outlets) in the future. It just won’t be shaped by COPA.” QuadJacks’ Marco Johnson agreed with the poster, stating, “Internet poker in one of the country’s largest states is not a ‘lost hope’ just because a smattering of loosely organized tribes couldn’t keep it together the first time around.”
On the other side of the argument, poster ‘Honey Badger’ looked to the history of internet poker as a bellwether. “I remember (posters) said the UIGEA was good for poker because the government was never going to shut down the large poker sites because playing online poker was actually not illegal,” he wrote. “Federal regulation may be years away. I could see (a) situation where Nevada is the only state with legit internet poker for several years. (The California situation is) not a positive thing for online poker….while it isn’t dead in California, I wouldn’t spin this as a positive.”
The issue is going to be under further debate after a contentious federal election that offers little hope over the next month or so. The “lame duck” session of Congress is set to begin next week, but there are issues that will supersede passage of federal legislation on the subject (if there is no action, any bill in Congress will ‘die’ with the seating of the next Congress just after the new year). California is also beset by infighting, not only among those that would be at the forefront of an intrastate online poker system but also by the very legislators that are looking to pass said legislation. It doesn’t look as if there will be any move on the issue in California at this time and the outlook on the federal landscape is bleak as well.
