Dave Vialpando, the chairman of the Tribal Gaming Commission for the Santa Ysabel community in southern California, has called on the state to legalise online gaming to enable California’s wider gambling market to evolve.
Speaking ahead of his appearance at GiGse next month, Vialpando said that online gaming remains a “natural evolution” of gaming and to deny such opportunities would be “counterproductive to consumer demand.”
He said: “I fully support legal, well-regulated online gaming in California, as long as all potential entrants are afforded the opportunity to enter the market and artificial legislative barriers which serve no other purpose than exclusion to limit competition are kept out of the legislation.”
However he added: “I believe the chances of legislation being enacted in California this year are slim.
“Too many potential entrants to this market, including the state, are too busy trying to guide the structure of legislation to maximise the benefit to the constituency they represent, often to the exclusion or detriment of others, rather than concentrating on crafting a framework which best serves the needs of the gaming public.”
GiGse takes place at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, California, from April 20 to 22.
