California Fails to Push Sports Betting Again

The possibility of California sports betting in 2024 was dealt perhaps its final blow on Tuesday with news that proponents of two initiatives were giving up on their push — at least for this year.

Kasey Thompson and partner Reeve Collins, the two business people behind the latest effort to bring retail and online sports betting to the Golden State have decided not to move forward with an effort to gain at least 874,000 signatures necessary to get the question of legal sports wagering before voters on the 2024 election ballot.

Uphill climb

The initiatives faced a serious uphill climb in the state, largely because of the intense opposition for the measures by the California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA). California's tribes hold a monopoly over all gambling activity in the state and never signaled any sort of support for the recent legal sports wagering plans. 

The proposals would have given control of a California's best sportsbooks to the tribes. Tribes would have been expected to pay 25% of the adjusted sports betting gross gaming revenue into a tribal sports betting revenue sharing trust, with 1% of the total handle going to the state to cover legislative costs of legalization.

“This initiative was supposed to be for the tribes but is only causing division,” spokesperson Kasey Thompson said of his decision to pull the proposed plans. “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.”

It was just three weeks ago that the California Attorney General green-lighted proponents' plans to move forward with the signature-gathering process.

Tribal opposition

There was never any grey area with respect to the California Nations Indian Gaming Association lack of support for the latest legal sports betting platform plans for the state. Simply put, without tribal support, any expansion of gambling in California was dead on arrival.

It turns out that the California tribes were never consulted, and there was no warning about the proponents' latest push to bring retail and online betting sites to the state.

“We are pleased that in the face of widespread tribal opposition, the backers of two initiatives have kept their word and withdrawn what we could only regard as a cynical attempt to legalize sports wagering and online betting in California," said James Siva, Chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association. "These initiatives attempted to use tribes’ good names to cleanse illegal offshore, online gambling corporations with an appalling track record of malfeasance. Let this failure also be a warning to others that seek to dubiously enter the California gaming market. Using tribes for your own gain will get you nowhere.”

What now?

Proponents of a legal sports betting platform and the best sports betting apps will likely now have to wait until 2026 before taking another kick at the legalization can. That is when the next chance to get the subject before voters in the Golden State.

Until then, some common ground between the state’s tribes, sports betting operators, and legislators will have to be found. Initiatives in 2022 failed miserably, and in 2024, there will not even be a chance for voters to have their say.

Each side has spent millions on campaigns fighting each other the last few years and no reasonable conclusion has resulted. So, it is back to the drawing board for all related parties in the push for legal sports betting in California again.