California Governor Jerry Brown last week signed a bill that will allow major league sports teams the exclusive right to sell raffle tickets known as 50-50 for charity.
California now joins many other states that allow the raffles, but which had been forbidden in the Golden State where charity raffle prizes had a cap. In the games half of the proceeds are paid out as prize money, with the rest going to the charity the team chooses to back.
The bill was criticized by some charities, which said that it gave the teams an unfair exemption.
