Californian Poker and iGaming in 2024: Industry Size, Laws & Co.

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Picture Los Angeles; even if you haven’t visited the City of Angels in person, you must have certain images stored in your head from popular culture. Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills, Venice Beach, Pasadena Stadium, Hollywood… all right, you got the gist. While these mental images are rolling on the big screen in your mind, there’s one thing you won’t see: large casino-promoting billboards.

In this article, we’ll explain why this is the case and where you can play casino games or poker in the State of California.

Cardrooms and Poker in the Golden State

Let’s start with simpler terms: brick-and-mortar cardrooms – poker rooms included – are legally allowed in LA and the entire state.

So, if you’re planning to pay a visit to Sacramento, San Francisco, LA, or any other major city, you can freely enter a cardroom when you see one. Within these premises, however, you’ll most likely play against other poker enthusiasts. Poker rooms prefer organizing such games because playing against the house is still in the grey area, law-wise.

On the other hand, local Californians and their guests can turn to online poker platforms for more diverse games. Even though the legality of online poker rooms in California is a burning question, there are always offshore-registered iGaming websites that people can freely access from this state, as well. As Techopedia’s iGaming journalist Jamie Wright puts it, from Texas Holdem and Omaha to Pai Gow, video poker, and many other varieties, players can enjoy themselves to the full at offshore gambling sites.

Back to the cardrooms matters: as reported in the Overview of Gambling in California, cardrooms generated $850 million in payouts only, in 2018. Since there have been no new licenses for these gambling premises since 1995, we can soon expect changes in the related legislation, allowing for new card-playing places.

Commercial Casinos and Tribal Gaming Premises, CA

According to the report published by the American Gaming Association, there are no licensed commercial casinos on Californian soil.

There are, however, 87 tribal casinos, managed by several Indian tribes. Players can freely play different versions of poker, other card games, and prescribed gambling games, from slots to roulette within such casinos.

The economic impact of CA-based Indian casinos amounts to $34.56 billion per year while supporting 184,071 jobs. To top it all off, their gross gaming revenue in 2016 was $8.41 billion.

The tradition and common business operations run by Californian tribal casinos are still immune to the potential penetration of big casino companies. For the time being, Californians who wish to try what non-tribal casinos have to offer will still have to drive all the way to Reno or Las Vegas for such an experience.

Proposals 26 and 27 Rejected

After a long preparatory period and a lot of lobbying, November 8, 2022, saw voting on two legal bills that would have changed the gambling legislation in California.

Proposition 26 and Proposition 27 were meant to allow in-person betting at horse racing venues and tribal casinos and legalize online betting via large sportsbook players, respectively.

The funding of these campaigns was immense. Tribal casino owners invested assets in promoting Proposition 26, while cardroom owners lobbied against it. The former invested a bit more than $120 million on ‘yays’, while the latter funded ‘nays’ with $40+ million. Some 67% of voters (7.1 million people) rejected this proposition while 33% (3.5 million people) agreed with the suggestion.

In terms of Proposition 27 – once again, allowing online sports betting on commercial sportsbook premises – big betting companies invested $160+ million to advocate the benefits of such a decision. On the other hand, tribal casinos spent the mind-boggling $240 million to highlight the issues with such a decision.

In the end, 82% (8.8 million people) of voters went for a NO, while 18% (1.9 million voters) were in favor of such a decision.

What’s Next on the Californian iGaming Scene

Based on the ballot results and the stats above, it’s clear that the people of California want to retain the status quo in the gambling and iGaming industry. What’s interesting is the turnout at these mini-referendums.

If we know that California has a bit more than 39 million inhabitants, around 25% of citizens went out to show what they think about each of these propositions. Compared with the US presidential election in 2020, when around 17 million Golden State citizens took part in voting, the turnout at these ballots was relatively high, given that it’s not a direct political matter.

In the time ahead, we can expect further lobbying from sports betting big shots and pressure on the state authorities to change legislation to their benefit. Tribal casinos, on the other hand, will keep running their premises and defending their rights to operate brick-and-mortar casinos.