California Online Poker Signs Up Playtech

More good news following the disaster that was Black Friday - the California Online Poker Association announced this week that it has selected Playtech joint venture Sciplay to provide intrastate online poker services.

Under the new deal, Sciplay, which is a joint project between online gaming software leader Playtech and the Scientific Games Corporation, will become sole provider to the biggest state in the union of local online poker services. In the hope that legislation will soon allow Californians to play legally, the deal will currently allow, free play for fun mode.

COPA has signed an additional software licensing agreement with Playtech to provide online poker software and related technology, adding to the more than 80 poker and casino networks that the global giant powers worldwide.

The agreement came after more than five months of talks and research, COPA said, with the aim of creating a platform through which California residents could legally participate in online poker. Of course this was all happening amidst the backdrop of the federal crackdown on poker in April, which targeted PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker.

Sixty percent of American poker players live in California, so this deal is lucrative. Each week more than 2 million of them play online poker with offshore operators, which is why the states Senate Bill 40 - which would allow native Americans and card clubs to operate online poker - is so important.