Latest California sports betting initiative stamped out by tribes
Ballot measure seeking to legalize sports betting in 2024 pulled due to stiff tribal opposition as legislation efforts head back to the drawing board
California residents will have to wait at least another year, and likely longer, for legalized sports betting after the state’s latest ballot initiative was officially pulled following stiff opposition from tribal gaming interests.
Kasey Thompson, a spokesperson for the proposed measure that had been seeking to bring sports betting to the November ballot, confirmed to PlayUSA that the effort was over.
“This initiative was supposed to be for the tribes but is only causing division,” Thompson told PlayUSA. “That was never my intent. I see now the needed unity is not coming, and so I’m standing good to my word and not moving forward. I’m pulling it in full.”
As Thompson indicated, tribal support was a requisite of the proposed ballot measure but failed to manifest as anticipated, with only a fraction of California’s 110 federally-recognized tribes coming out publicly in favor of the initiative.
Conversely, the prominent California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) – which counts the influential Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians and San Manuel Band of Mission Indians among its dozens of members – maintained staunch opposition to the measure, effectively rendering it doomed from the start.
In addition, the Sports Betting Alliance (SBA), a consortium of online operators including market leaders FanDuel and DraftKings, also went public with its opposition to the initiative.
“We recently learned that the authors of two sports wagering initiatives in California are trying to find financial support for signature gathering from sports betting operators,” Nathan Click, an SBA spokesperson, said in a recent interview with Legal Sports Report. “In the interest of clarity, and consistent with our previously stated opposition to these measures, we can commit that SBA won’t be funding or otherwise supporting either of these sports wagering initiatives.”
The unified opposition laid the groundwork for Thompson, who had previously indicated he was preparing to print and distribute 1.2 million petitions in concert with a top signature-gathering firm in California, to formally end the effort before it could even begin in earnest.
The initiative included requiring participating tribes to pay up to 25% of sports wagering profits to non-participating tribes and up to 1% to the state for regulatory costs.
The result is Californians are unlikely to see sports betting on the ballot until 2026 at the earliest, with CNIGA chairman James Siva saying on a recent webcast it likely won’t come until 2028.