Gambling software developer signed a deal with a California based corporation to supply it with poker software
World renown gambling software developer Playtech is paving its own way to the possible future online poker market in the US. Recently it has won a tender to supply poker software to California Online Poker Association (COPA). Run by Indian tribal councils and card rooms, COPA is an umbrella organization of state licensed land based poker rooms.
Since the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006, which banned online gambling, including poker on the federal level, governments of several states have been discussing options of allowing regulated online gambling on the state level. In the last months such discussions became more active in states like New Jersey, Nevada, Florida and California.
In light of these discussions COPA has decided to prepare itself for the possible introduction of the state regulated online gambling and is planning to open a network of poker websites, which would be launched as free-game sites, but as soon as online poker is allowed, the sites will be offering money wagering in games.
To run these websites, COPA would require dedicated software, and here Playtech joins the game. It won the tender announced by COPA, overtaking such companies, as bwin.party, Betfair and others. In case of legalization of online poker in California within the next five years, COPA along with Playtech hope to dominate the local market, which today, though being illegal, is estimated circa 13 billion US dollars.
