California’s sports betting hopes were dashed on Monday as tribal opposition to a state legislator’s proposal proved too high a hurdle.
On Monday, Bloomberg reported that state Sen. Bill Dodd was withdrawing his Senate Constitutional Amendment 6 (SCA-6), which would have asked state voters to amend the state constitution to allow land-based and mobile wagering by tribal casino operators and state racetracks.
Dodd, who sponsored SCA-6 along with Assemblyman Adam Gray, cited opposition from tribal operators as the primary factor in his decision to pull the bill. Restrictions imposed by COVID-19 also played a role in preventing the state’s “significantly diverse stakeholders” from arriving at a mutually acceptable compromise.
In order to make it onto November’s ballot, SCA-6 would have needed to be approved by a two-thirds majority in both legislative chambers by Thursday. The next opportunity for a referendum on amending the constitution won’t come until November 2022, meaning California bettors won’t have legal wagering at their disposal until 2023 at the earliest.
The tribes opposed SCA-6 in part because it would have formally legalized the ‘player-banked’ card games operated by the state’s numerous cardrooms. The tribes believe they hold a monopoly on ‘house-banked’ card games such as blackjack and baccarat, which the player-banked games resemble in everything but name.
Dodd made several tweaks to SCA-6 following a contentious hearing in which the tribes made their opposition plain. But the tribes refused to budge on the idea of rewarding the cardrooms’ duplicity by giving their player-banked games the legal stamp of approval.
The tribes also objected to SCA-6 because they have their own betting proposal that doesn’t include mobile wagering and also includes squat for the cardrooms. COVID-19 meant the tribes were forced to halt their collection of the required 1m signatures to get their proposal on the ballot, and the tribes took offense to Dodd and Gray rolling out SCA-6 while the tribes’ hands were effectively tied.
The tribes have filed a lawsuit against the state in order to gain more time in which to collect the remaining petition signatures. The tribes maintain that they shouldn’t have to start from scratch – and spend another $8.5m – to get their amendment proposal on the 2022 ballot, particularly as the order to stop collecting signatures came from the state.
