It's been nearly two months since seven prominent, casino-operating California tribal nations filed a lawsuit against virtually every cardroom in the state, alleging the ongoing illegality of the rooms' offering house-banked, third-party proposition player (TPPP) games. As expected, due to the enormity of the case, not much has happened to date.
Much of the first six weeks of the case, which was filed in the Sacramento Superior Court of California, has been sent in serving notice to and creating a communications process for the case's 96 corporate defendants. Besides the cardrooms, the long list of those named as defendants also includes a large handful of TPPP-specific business entities associated with some of the cardrooms.
The seven tribal plaintiffs are a familiar collective to those who have monitored California's decade-long legislative battle to legalize many forms of iGaming, including online poker. They are:
- Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians
- Barona Band of Mission Indians
- Pechanga Band of Indians
- Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation
- Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians
- Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation
- Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation
The case, numbered 25CV000001, is titled 'Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians v. Parkwest Bicycle Casino' and has the honor of being the first 'Unlimited Civil' action filed in 2025 in the Sacramento Superior Court.
Temporary restraining order denied
In addition to the nearly 100 service notices sent to the defendant cardrooms, there has been one action of interest in the case to date. That was an attempt by the tribal nations to obtain a temporary restraining order (TRO) forcing the cardrooms to cease offering the disputed TPPP card games pending the outcome of the trial.
That motion for a TRO was denied by the case's presiding judge, Lauri A. Damrell. The order of denial did not detail the judge's reasoning, but two factors had to have weighed heavily. First, the TPPP games remain legal under existing rulings from the state's gaming regulators. Second, this case will almost certainly go not only to trial but also into a long appellate process. Granting a TRO would cause undue economic hardship for the cardrooms throughout the trial and appeals, which could take several years.
The tribal nations' lawsuit was authorized via California Governor Gavin Newsom's signing in late 2024 of the Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act. The new law granted the tribal nations a one-time chance to litigate the TPPP issue, rather than continue to be bound by the state's gaming regulators' past rulings.
