California tribes are furious with card rooms trying to prevent sports betting

Peter LewisPeter Lewis | January 11, 2022
California card rooms trying to prevent sports betting initiatives

With November of 2022 inching closer and closer, folks all over the Sunshine State are ready to see if sports betting in California will be able to be voted on. With that said, many people out there want to see things get turned away. Well, California tribes are furious with card rooms trying to prevent sports betting from happening. Cali betting has been in the works for a while now, and people are excited to vote.

Having said that, a group of card rooms in California are ready to stop things in the middle of the race, as they’ve filed different lawsuits claiming that the California tribes and the different initiatives that have been presented are not legal. Well, per local reports, those same California tribes are downright angry at those card rooms, going as far as to call them hypocritical for filing a case in this instance.

“Petitioners’ challenge to this Initiative while supporting another measure that has the same combination of provisions – albeit tailored to the interests of the Cardrooms – is not only hypocritical, but further demonstrates that this Petition represents a veiled political attempt to gain an advantage for an alternative ballot measure,” the tribes stated via casino.org.

At the end of the day, the California tribes have a feeling that the card rooms are only trying to prevent sports betting from going down because they fear that it will take away from their business moving forward. This would make sense, as folks would surely make their way to sportsbooks located on California tribes property, should things move forward. Now, the battle will continue for a long time.

The card rooms are ready to do anything to block the sports betting

What’s been made increasingly clear here is that the card rooms are ready to do anything to block the sports betting measures from being passed and voted on in November. Having said that, that truly is an uphill climb, as multiple different initiatives are expected to be presented. Once November does roll around, folks appear ready to get their votes in, with sports betting expected to go through.

For the card rooms, as we mentioned above, they know that legal sports betting will take away millions of dollars from them on a yearly basis. That’s just an obvious, as folks would much rather go and make live bets in person at sportsbooks, or check things out through a mobile sports betting app. Once this does pass, the card rooms will become a bit of old news all over California. It will change things completely.

“The Initiative engages in ‘log-rolling’ by forcing voters to accept or reject an all-or-nothing grab bag of disparate provisions,” the card rooms’ complaint said via casino.org. “The Initiative ties a popular sports wagering measure to unrelated, controversial measures that the Gaming Tribes have tried and failed to obtain by other means.”

With the card rooms pulling out these stops now, they’re hoping that once November does roll around, the people of California won’t have the option to vote sports betting in through the California tribes. While there is some additional opposition to sports betting becoming legal in California, the vast majority wants to see it cross the line. More than 30 states have legalized sports betting. Cali should join the list.

More lawsuits are expected to arrive in California down the road

It goes without saying, but more lawsuits are expected to arrive in California down the road in the coming weeks/months. This is only going to grow with more initiatives making their way to potentially be ready for the November 2022 ballot. Of course, what we’ve seen happen in Florida is also going to impact things here for California and not in a good way at all for those who want to be able to make legal sports bets.

Everything was all set for Florida in mid-October, as The Seminole Tribe and the state had agreed to their 30-year pact. However, after one lawsuit was tossed out in Federal Court, a different one prevented the launch from going down. On top of that, the same U.S. District Judge not only sided with the defendants in that case, but they also ordered the Hard Rock’s sports betting app to be shut down as well.

With Florida’s sports betting project now in complete limbo, that has encouraged others across the country to try and step up and prevent sports betting from being made legal elsewhere as well. Obviously, California is one of the biggest states in the United States this is still waiting for laws to pass so their citizens can be able to take advantage of the proper sports betting laws. With that said, it’s still tough.

And things are only going to be made more difficult for people if more and more lawsuits do in fact come in. While there’s growing optimism that sports betting in California could arrive next year, people are going to have to wait and see how things shape out. We could be in for another legal battle in California as well.

Peter Lewis

Peter Lewis Jr. comes from Mississippi where he and his family spend their days discussing college football and basketball. He's written sports journalism for years after studying journalism at a local university.