The U.S. Supreme Court enabled states to offer sports-betting two years’ ago but California has been left stalemated on the issue, with the latest effort collapsing this week in the state Legislature.
Betting on sports has been legalized in approximately 24 other states, including New Jersey, Oregon and New York but attempts have been set back down in California due to influential Native American tribes that operate over 60 casinos having clashed with competing card clubs over how to share the nation’s largest gambling market.
Although advisors to Gov. Gavin Newsom endeavored to broker a compromise, this week state Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) revealed that there was not enough time to finalize the complicated negotiations to get a sports betting measure on the November ballot. He is, therefore, postponing legislation for the year.
Sen. Dodd commented that given the deadlines for getting a measure on the November ballot and the impact of COVID-19 on the public’s ability to weigh in, they were not able to get the bill across the finish line this year.
Dodd also said that it remains important that they lift this widespread practice out of the shadows to make it safer and to generate money for the people of California.
Chris Grove, a gambling industry analyst and partner with Eilers and Krejcik Gaming, which has advised the Legislature on the issue, said that the bottom line in California is that too many stakeholders in the state’s gambling industry have too many existing high-stakes conflicts to allow sports betting to move forward. He added that in many ways sports betting is a footnote for tribal and commercial gambling interests in the larger conversation around gambling in California.