If the gaming industry must settle for state-by-state legalization, California represents the Holy Grail of online gambling in the US. It’s by far the most populous country in the union with a $2 trillion economy which could rank number 8 on earth when it was its own country. International gambling sites have gone out of the way to acquire licenses in countries much smaller than California.
All eyes are on California as countries mull legalizing a variety of types of online gaming. If California does go the way of legalization, it would by default be the standard by which gambling is quantified from the USA. If the state does finally dominate gambling and it is successful, other states will certainly follow suit. We might even see something eventually happen at the national level.
Various pieces of legislation have been released, shot down and reintroduced in recent decades. We do not have anything important to report however, but most observers are cautiously optimistic that California will at some point make a significant move toward legalization. Here is why:
The state has a pro-gambling culture The state already has legal casinos and card rooms
It is home to numerous Indian tribes who are experienced in gambling California has a spending problem and the potential tax earnings must surely be tempting for state lawmakers
Present Collection of Betting Sites in California
We’ll discuss the different gaming choices in California in greater detail below, however I’d like to start with a fast list of gambling sites which are available at this time in California. If you came here searching for a place to gamble online, these are the sites that will let you play and wager real money today.
Sports Gaming:
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Fantasy Sports:
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Horse and Greyhound Betting:
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Online Lottery Tickets:
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Games of Skill:
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Daily Offers and Specials
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Sports Betting in California
Lawmakers in California have demonstrated some interest in legalizing sports gambling of late. A bill introduced in the 2017/18 session proposed amending existing gambling legislation to allow the California legislature to authorize sports betting determined by the Supreme Court overturning the national sports betting ban (which it did).
ACA 18 itself didn’t seek to legalize wagering; it rather offered a constitutional amendment that would enable lawmakers to legalize and regulate sports betting later on. After he introduced the bill, Assemblyman Adam Gray said,”The choice isn’t’if we have sports wagering or not have sports wagering.’ We do have sports wagering.”
The point he was making is that sports gambling is already a huge black market in California and throughout the United States. The American Gaming Association quotes Americans wager at least $154 billion each year on sports with online sportsbooks and local bookies in contrast to regulations. The current state prohibition is not functioning, the logic goes, so the wise thing to do is legalize it, regulate it and tax it.
A report by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming published in 2017 considers California is likely to legalize sports betting within five years from the date of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn PASPA. California has plenty of potential to become a significant sports gambling market, but as you’ll see in another segment, competing interests in the state have a tendency to complicate matters.
Assemblyman Gray introduced the exact same legislation again in 2018 and 2019 as he continues to push the issue. Finding the tribal groups board has been exceedingly difficult since they dominate an $8 billion gambling industry and are highly reluctant to get on board with sports betting at risk of opening their profitable compacts with the state to negotiation once again.
Online Poker at California
The pursuit for online poker in California has been fought in the courtrooms because you read these words. Bills seeking to control internet poker have been released annually since 2007. None of those bills have made it all of the way through the legislative process due to vying factions on either side of the issue, but each year brings us closer to finding an arrangement that satisfied all parties that are interested.
In reality, much of the difficulty can be attributed to rival interests in the state. It appears everybody has an agenda and it isn’t easy to find consensus among the Indian tribes, brick-and-mortar operators and present online brands. 1 group or another always feels left out or targeted by the wording of legislation. And to be honest, that is frequently a legitimate concern.
To increase the difficulty, there continue to be powerful lobbying groups that actively fight the legalization of poker or another kind of online gambling in the united states. Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson has vowed to fight legalization across the nation. In California alone, he spent more than $300,000 to lobby against poker.
Not a single one of those bills introduced over the last decade-plus has made significant progress due to the various competing interests in the state. The following bill is just one of many efforts to make something happen in California, but it serves as a Normal example of how complex and difficult it is to make progress in California:
AB 2291: Promising Start but Died in Committee
Meeting Bill 2291 was introduced way back in February 2014 but not made it outside the committee phase. It was reintroduced in 2015 and 2016, but was unable to gain the traction it had to make it much in the legislative process.
The bill sought to legalize online poker just and issue 10-year permits . The proposed fee for licensing has been initially set at $5,000,000, with this fee being utilized to offset future taxes. Lawmakers bumped that charge up several times until the fee hit a high of $12,500,000 without offsetting taxes.
Early versions of AB 2291 included several clauses that have caused tension between various factions competing for a part of the poker pie. Most controversial among them is a”bad actor” clause. AB 2291 initially sought to require potential licensees to get at least five decades of gaming experience in California. Additionally, it required every facet of a procedure, from its own employees to its equipment to its bank accounts to be held in state.
Essentially, AB 2291 would have averted all current online poker suppliers and newer neighborhood casinos in California from competing. The wording of the bill very clearly preferred a few established California casino classes at the expense of fair competition.
Another issue with AB 2291 was that it would have prohibited California from entering agreements with other nations to unite player pools and improve liquidity. In other words, you would only see other Californians at the table no matter how many sates legalize poker. To top it all off, the bill would require the state to determine of any legislation passed at the national level permitting online poker.
Some progress was made in 2016 with a proposed amendment that could significantly alter the lousy actor clause. Previously, the bill would have barred all online poker firms that functioned after the passage of the national Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Such limitations would have prohibited established brand such as PokerStars from entering the marketplace.
The last amendment proposes to rather transfer the chalk date for the bad actor clause up towards the end of 2011. In other words, sites like PokerStars that operated after the UIGEA but left the market after the Black Friday indictments at 2011. This would stop the most egregious violators from entering the market but afford PokerStars a chance to offer online poker legally in California. You can read more about the proposal here.
Looking Back at 2018: The Good and Bad
The Bad Lawmakers and tribal groups are stuck in stalemate for about four decades now. It is wonderful to see some progress on this front, however it is also discouraging to see that the outright stubbornness on the portion of varying factions. Poker players will be better served through an open and competitive market and player-sharing arrangements with other nations.
Worse than that, online poker appears to have taken a step back in 2018. For the first time in over a decade, no bills seeking to legalize online poker were introduced. Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sayer told Online Poker Report he’s giving up on online poker laws for this season since there’s just no progress being made in reaching a compromise between the tribes, local card rooms and other interested parties.
The Great There are a number of positive things to say about all this. If poker is really legalized in California, the possible player pool will much bigger than that which we have seen in other nations that have legalized online poker. Besides the fact that 38 million people call California home, the state has a poker culture already as a result of its numerous brick-and-mortar card rooms.
California is likely to have fewer problems with geolocation of gamers due to the sheer size. New Jersey had all types of problems verifying players were really located within the nation. This ended up with loads of possible players being unfairly barred from the state-sanctioned websites there. California doesn’t need to contend with congested cities piled up on country boundaries.
Fantasy Sports
Whenever the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has been passed in 2006, it provided two noteworthy exceptions to internet gaming: horse racing and fantasy sports. The UIGEA didn’t just exempt those kinds of gaming; it essentially gave operators the go-ahead to provide their games to customers right here in the united states.
Some states have since passed legislation banning online fantasy sports but California is not one of those. In case you have a thing for sports gambling but would rather do it in a safe and regulated fashion, fantasy sports is the thing to do. You draft a staff just like in regular fantasy leagues but now you get paid real money if you win.
FanDuel.com and DraftKings.com will be the two largest players in this marketplace. They accept customers from CA and offer single-day fantasy leagues for your NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, college basketball and college football.
One of the pleasant things about online fantasy sports is each contest only lasts for a week per week at the most. You are not stuck with a single team all season. Rather, your team racks up stats over the duration of a single week. You can play in heads-up competitions against other players or test your ability in massive tournaments which sometimes give away more than a million bucks to the first place winner.
You can read more about dream sports gambling here.
Legislative Efforts for Daily Fantasy in California
2016 was an important year for its daily fantasy sports industry in California. In January of 2016, lawmakers introduced AB 1437 in an attempt to make a regulatory framework for everyday fantasy sports websites. If enacted, the bill would need DFS sites to obtain a license, enforce a minimum age of 21 for all clients, maintain all clients’ funds in a segregated account and offer self-exclusion programs for players.
The bill advanced past three major votes with a total of 101 for and two against. This is a significant bill for California and it looks increasingly likely to be passed into legislation. On the other hand, the bill itself does not actually legalize online fantasy sports competitions; it only sets the conditions where the business would be regulated.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris is expected to issue a judgment on whether fantasy competitions constitute illegal gambling under state law. If she principles favorably, AB 1437 will have everything set up to license and controlled fantasy sites instantly. The AG’s judgment has been expected for more than a year now. Meanwhile, California fantasy sports websites continue to function freely.
As of 2019, advancement on the bill appears to have fully stalled. The good news is fantasy sports websites continue to be active through the state. Legalizing dream sports in California would basically be a formality at this point.
Online Casinos
There are not yet any lawful casinos in California. The nation has not even tried to pass laws in this respect so it’s going to likely be years until we see legitimate gaming sites open to CA residents.
Do not be tricked by the hundreds of other sites that are recommending”legal” online casinos. All these are actually offshore gambling sites that have no legal presence whatsoever in the USA. They’re unlicensed and completely unregulated.
Although to be fair, there are no state or federal laws which prohibit playing at offshore casinos. Should you choose to play online, nobody will come kick in your front door. The largest risk is financial — you never know for certain who you are working with on the other side of the screen. Some offshore casinos could be secure while some are definitely outright scams. But no matter where you play, you have no legal recourse if things go belly up.
Your very best option would be to look at some of the other authorized, licensed and secure forms of gambling that can be found right now in California. Between horse racing, fantasy sports and many likely online poker quite soon, there are still plenty of different ways to play real money games online at protected, accredited websites based in the US.
Horse Betting
Online horse racing is alive and well in California. The horse betting situation here isn’t nearly as complex as the poker situation. California does allow residents to perform US-licensed horse wagering sites for example TwinSpires, BetAmerica and TVG.
All the significant US-based horse betting sites accept clients from California. The country also enables off-track betting (OTB) facilities. OTB facilities function as brick-and-mortar betting shops where people may walk in, put bets on races and collect their winnings in person.
Five racetracks run upon the state and they too allow for real money wagering. In total, you can bet online at any of the horse gambling websites, off-track with an OTB location or in-person at any of the monitors listed below. California is also home to county and state fairs that hold races at different times each year.
The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) oversees all horse racing and wagering within the country. The CHRB’s mission is to ensure the integrity, viability and security of the nation’s horse racing industry. They manage wagering, breeding, bodily security as well as the marketing of horse racing.
California Racetracks
CalExpo:
The California Exposition and State Fair operates a year-round harness racetrack that runs every day at around 5:20 PM.
1600 Exposition Drive
Sacramento, CA 95815
Site Golden Gate Fields
This track is located in Berkley with races and simulcast events every week.
1100 Eastshore Highway
Berkley, CA 94710
Website Santa Anita
Santa Anita is one of the most widely recognized racetracks in the United States and home to major events such as the Santa Anita Derby, Santa Anita Handicap and occasionally the Breeder’s Cup.
285 W. Huntington Drive
Arcadia, CA 91007
Website Del Mar
Del Mar started in 1937 with a famous race between Seabiscuit and Ligaroti. Seabiscuit hardly took the race and became a legend of his own. Today, Del Mar plays host to racing events, concerts, family fun days and more.
2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd..
Del Mar, CA 92014
Website Los Alamitos
Los Alamitos Race Course is home to daylight thoroughbred racing and night quarter racing. The track is home to a number of the greatest quarter horse stakes races in the US.
4961 E. Katella Ave.
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
Site OTB Locations
There are 31 off-track betting facilities in California. OTB facilities can be seen in fairgrounds, racetracks, specialty OTB shops, casinos and fairgrounds. You can see a full list of locations and addresses here.
Internet Bingo
There seems to be no motivation to especially legalize online bingo in California. The only realistic possibility I see online bingo coming to California is if it gets caught up in some future online casino legislation.
Lottery Games
Ca lottoThe California state lottery isn’t authorized to sell tickets online or through telephone. For many years, the federal Wire Act prohibited states from selling lottery tickets on the net. This may not be the case forever. In 2009, New York and Illinois asked the Department of Justice to explain its position on the Wire Act and explain exactly which types of online gambling were prohibited.
The DOJ reacted in 2011 with a choice that’d far-reaching consequences beyond just the lottery. Back in September of 2011, the DOJ issued a statement that its official interpretation of the Wire Act only applies to sports gambling on the internet. This gave countries the go-ahead to sell tickets online if they select.
Lottery Subscription Sites California hasn’t yet joined the growing list of countries that sell lottery tickets online. But, there are a range of messenger services which will go buy lottery tickets at face value for a monthly subscription fee. You may log into all those sites, pay attention for your tickets and the company will go and purchase tickets in your title.
For instance, LottoGopher.com is a California-based membership website that offers this specific service. The website is registered in California, its owners are background-checked by lottery commission officials and it abides by all state and federal laws. They are not legally permitted to sell lotto tickets for more than face value, therefore that they instead charge users a subscription fee.
A membership at LottoGopher lets you purchase tickets online, pick certain amounts and even form lotto pools with other members. Should you win less than $600, Lotto Gopher will credit the winnings to your account that you may then draw right to the bank. Should you win more than $600, Lotto Gopher will maintain the prize on your behalf in person and then send you a check for the full amount.
The site does not take a cut of your winnings. They only way they make money is by charging clients a flat subscription fee. At this moment, LottoGopher is only available in California. You can learn more and give it a try here:
www.lottogopher.com
lotto gopher
Is Lotto Gopher untrue?
Yes. They’re located in California and state lottery officials understand who they are. It’s great that you ask though since there are tons of online lotto sites that look and feel untrue but are not. Lotto Gopher actually is lawful and 100% untrue.
They have been all over the press in the past few decades as well. Forbes and ABC have written articles regarding the support.
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