Efforts To Legalize Sports Betting In CA Ramp Up

CALIFORNIA — Proponents of an effort to legalize sports betting in California were cleared this week to begin collecting signatures for the proposal to appear on the ballot in front of voters statewide in November.

The proposal would allow sports wagering on tribal lands and online, if operated by a federally recognized Indian tribe. Fifteen percent of the profits would go to nonparticipating tribes and 10 percent to regulatory costs and homelessness and mental health programs.

The proposal needs more than 997,000 signatures from registered voters — 8 percent of the total votes cast for governor in 2018 — by July to qualify for the November ballot.

It is one of several proposals aiming to get the question of legalizing sports betting in front of voters this year. Proponents of another proposal that would allow sports gambling only in-person at tribal grounds and certain horse tracks have submitted signatures for verification, according to The Action Network.

A 2018 Supreme Court ruling struck down a federal ban on sports betting, letting states decide whether sports gambling would be allowed. More than two dozen states have since legalized sports betting, according to the Action Network.

California could be next, with fantasy sports sites like FanDuel and DraftKings looking to take advantage of the lucrative market that the Golden State offers.

“Oh, sure. It’s not only coming, it’s going to be coming pretty soon,” I. Nelson Rose, a professor emeritus at Whittier College and a gambling law and public policy expert, said to KQED.

The proposal could result in at least tens of millions of state revenue dollars each year. State regulatory costs would be in the range of the low- to mid-tens of millions of dollars annually, but they would likely be offset by the revenue boost, according to an estimate by the Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance.