Over two years ago, in May 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States has stricken down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act or PASPA of 1992 which has prohibited the operations of sports betting operators in the country for a long time.
Since sports betting is now federally legal, over 20 states have already legalized local sports betting. Most of these states are also now regulating sports betting. These include the states of New Jersey, Nevada, New York, and Oregon. We recommend Xbet for Oregon bettors if you are from that area.
Now, a few more states are expected to join the group of states that now has legal sports betting, and California may soon have its own operations. California already has a pending bill on this and based on studies made, the state could have over 200 million US dollars of annual revenue from sports betting once it has kicked off. However, there is a new proposed amendment from the tribal council leaders and they seem to have different thoughts and ideas about the money flow of the industry.
The current bill will possibly allow online wagering and this doesn’t seem to be what the tribal council leaders want. The amendment from the tribal council doesn’t want to allow mobile options when it comes to wagering. It would also cut card rooms out of the action. Basically, they want all wagers to be placed or made at the Native American casinos and four horse tracks in the state of California.
Indeed, the study made about how much the stare of California would make from sports betting that showed it could be up to 200 million Us dollars may no longer be possible if this will be the case. Mobile betting is simply the popular option right now for many punters and the lack of this can make the California punters wager elsewhere instead.
Take for example the state of New York that only allows in-person betting within the state. As of today, mobile or online betting in New York is still not legal, and many New York punters are still wagering off-shore or outside the state. There are even reports of how New Yorkers would rather ride the train to New Jersey to place their bets online rather than travel to upstate casinos where they can place their bets.
If this is what would happen to the state of California, that only betting in tribal casinos will be allowed, the 200 million US dollars of revenue may not be reached. This may not be something beneficial to the state because the state is now looking for ways to gain more revenue because of the ongoing pandemic.
Senator Bill Dodd and Assemblyman Adam Gray were the ones who wrote the constitutional amendment that could allow wagering in professional sports in California. Dodd said that they find it imperative for the state to find revenue sources and sports betting could surely help with this. He further said, “There are already billions of dollars of illegal sports gambling going on in the state. There’s no regulatory framework. There’s no taxation.”
The bill that these two legislators are trying to pass sets the minimum gambling age of 21. Collegiate sports wagering will also not be allowed. This also sets the tax rate of tribal casinos, which is at 10 percent. Meanwhile, online wagering will be taxed at 15 percent. Wagers placed on horse race tracks 6 ¾ percent.
Jill R Dorson, Sports Handle’s deputy editor based in the San Diego area. “Tribal opposition is fierce. Even if this gets on the ballot and even if it passes, I don’t think there will be sports betting in California anytime soon because the tribes will sue.”
Dorson added, “The tribes don’t want to invite commercial interests into bed with them and have not embraced this idea.” Dorson believes that a mature market in California could be the biggest sports betting jurisdiction in the world. However, she does think it won’t happen anytime soon.
She talked about this and said, “There are an enormous amount of details to work out, And the government and tribes here are not on the same page.”
If in case California finally decides to pass the betting bill, it would be the 24th state in the US to make betting legal. However, this may be a challenge because of the tribal council. We’ll still have to see how things will go before November. This is the month when the state could vote whether whatever amendment passes the Senate can already be implemented.
