程阳：加州网络博彩议案获印第安部落支持

Internet Gambling Bill Wins Support from Major Indian Gaming Association

 One of two competing bills to legalize Internet gambling in California has won support from a major Indian association representing more than two dozen casino and non-casino tribes.

加州议会提出的两项竞争性的议案，已有一项获得代表超过24个经营赌场和不经营赌场部落的大型印第安协会的支持。

The California Nations Indian Gaming Association, known as CNIGA, has voted to endorse Senate Bill 40 by Democratic Sen. Lou Correa of Santa Ana, said Jerome Encinas, director of government affairs.

加州印第安博彩协会（CNIGA）政府事务主任安辛纳斯（Jerome Encinas）表示，该协会已投票通过支持代表圣他安那（Santa Ana）的民主党参议员柯里亚（Lou Correa)提出的参议院40号议案。

Encinas said SB 40 is preferable to the competing measure, Senate Bill 45, because Correa's proposal is specific to online poker and calls for operators to be existing California businesses or tribes.

The Indian group opposes SB 45 but its decision to endorse Correa's bill was not unanimous, Encinas said.

"We had some tribes that were concerned, but at the end of the day it passed," he said.

安辛纳斯指称，40号议案具体针对网络扑克牌游戏，规定经营者必须是加州既存公司或印第安部落，因此比另一项参议院45号议案，更受他们的偏爱。他续称，印第安国博彩协会全体反对45号议案，但对40号议案的支持并不一致，有些部落对40号议案感到关切，不过此案最后获得通过。

Hot debate is expected in the Legislature this year over whether to legalize Internet gambling. The Senate Governmental Organization Committee has scheduled an informational hearing on the subject at 4 p.m.

互联网博彩业合法化议题，今年预期成为州议会的热辩焦点。参议院政府团体委员会周三下午举行说明听证会。

Consultants estimate that U.S. citizens place billions in bets each year on websites operated offshore or outside the nation's boundaries, according to SB 40.

By legalizing online poker, California could regulate the games to ensure their honesty and the state, rather than illegal offshore companies, could benefit financially from the activity, SB 40 contends.

据40号议案指出，博彩顾问估计，美国公民每年在境外或海外经营的网站上下赌。该议案辩称，加州若能使网络扑克牌游戏合法化，就能管理这类博彩活动，州政府也将取代境外公司，从博彩活动获取金钱利益。