As many as four referendums could land on the California ballot next November, as signature gathering is under way. But the one ballot measure that has already been approved by Secretary of State Shirley Weber could be in trouble after a pair of cardrooms have filed suit saying the wording of the referendum violates the state constitution.
Hollywood Park Casino and Cal-Pac Rancho Cordova (Parkwest Casino Cordova) contend that the measure includes several issues which is specifically forbidden under the constitution. “The initiative’s proponents seek to exploit the popular demand for legal sports wagering by hitching two unpopular wish-list measures to a sports-wagering initiative,” the suit reads. The constitution says that referendums can only apply to one issue. The actual clause in the constitution says “(d) An initiative measure embracing more than one subject may not be submitted to the electors or have any effect.”
The initiative is backed by more than a dozen state tribes. In addition to retail sports betting, the referendum would legalize roulette and some dice games as well as allow for the use of private lawsuits to settle gaming disputes.
But the initiative being pushed by the cardrooms may have the same fatal flaw. While it would legalize statewide mobile wagering and retail wagering at card rooms, professional sports venues and racetracks, it also would allow card rooms to “additional games that are played with cards or tiles.” Despite this similar issue, Weber has approved the measure to start to gather the 997,139 verified signatures needed to be placed on the November ballot.
Meanwhile a measure backed by online gaming operators like DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, WynnBet and others would legalize mobile sports betting with the licenses tied to tribal gaming operations. While it doesn’t mention retail sports betting, it’s likely that approval would allow tribes to add sports books to their physical casinos. The measure is called the California Solutions to Homelessness and Mental Health Act, which would dedicate money to solving the homelessness issue that is engulfing major cities in the state.
The fourth potential referendum, one supported by four tribes— San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and Wilton Rancheria—allows for both mobile and retail sports betting, with funds going to a similar source as the sports betting operators, the “Age-Verified Tribal Online and In-Person Sports Wagering & Homelessness Solutions Act.”
The language of this initiative was changed last week in response to a federal court ruling the Seminole compact with Florida to be in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act because the compact deemed that bets made on the Hard Rock mobile sports books were actually taking place on Indian land. Now the initiative copies the language of the sports betting compacts made with tribes in Arizona and Connecticut that allows bets to be made anywhere in those states, not just on Indian land.
With the challenge to the first tribal initiative, the fourth bid could emerge as the only tribal bid because it protects tribal sovereignty, benefits all tribes in the state, not just the gaming tribes, and creates a fund to address homelessness and mental health.
