When the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel announced last week that it was launching an online poker room that would take real-money play from California residents, shockwaves rolled through the online gaming industry.California is online poker's whale. With a population of more than 38.3 million, the state has almost as many people the Netherlands, Belgium and Greece combined. If California was in Europe, it would be Europe's 10th most populous state.In terms of GDP, California is the world's eighth largest economy with a GDP of $1.959 trillion. That trails only the U.S. as a whole, China, Japan, Germany, France, Brazil and the United Kingdom.That makes California the big prize. While the online gaming industry would like all of the U.S. to open up its markets to a regulated online gaming product, California is the most important piece of the puzzle.Since 2007, there have been attempts to bring regulated online poker to the state. But the efforts, so far, have fallen short because the Native American tribes with successful casinos -- which wield significant political influence in California -- initially rejected online poker and have only recently begun to agree to a legislative framework that would regulate the market.Last week, the Santa Ysabel took matters into its own hands and announced it was launching PrivateTable -- a real-money online poker room for California residents only.When the announcement was made, the first question many people asked was, Is this legal? Martin Owens, a noted gaming attorney working on behalf of the Santa Ysabel, believes the answer is yes.For the rest of the article, click <a href="http://vinnarayanan.casinocitytimes.com/article/attorney-california-real-money-online-poker-site-legal-63464" >here</a>.
