California Cardrooms Say New Regulations Could Devastate Entire Cities

California’s new cardroom regulations could have serious adverse effects, businesses warn. Representatives emphasized that profits aren’t the only thing at stake here, since many locals could also lose their jobs.

Controversial Cardroom Changes to Come into Effect Soon

California’s law provides tribal operators with exclusivity when it comes to casino games. However, cardrooms have for years found other ways to offer similar entertainment. To avoid the prohibition of banked games, businesses have long employed third-party player-dealers, devising new variants of blackjack that do not violate the local rules.

Tribal operators, however, have never been quite happy with the existence of cardrooms and have long sought to put an end to this form of entertainment. Tribes’ biggest triumph came only recently as Attorney General Rob Bonta and the Bureau of Gambling Control proposed sweeping regulatory changes that were eventually approved by the Office of Administrative Law.

The new rules are set to come into effect on April 1 and will impose stricter limits on the player-dealer format. Cardrooms will also have to file reports about their plans to modify their games in accordance with the new law by May 31, 2026.

Entire Cities Could Go Bankrupt, Cardrooms Warn

News of the new rules sent the cardroom industry into turmoil, with many businesses having grim predictions about the future. In an interview with The Fresno Bee, Kyle Kirkland, owner of Club One Casino noted that the regulatory changes will effectively deprive cardrooms of one of their primary sources of revenue. He predicted that the changes could have a domino effect and could end up impacting up to 600 working families in the county of Fresno alone.

Kirkland postulated that the ban would significantly reduce cardrooms’ tax contributions to the local economy, effectively hurting even people who are not directly associated with cardrooms. To put things into perspective, player-dealer card games comprise approximately 60% of Club One’s revenue, with blackjack alone contributing 25% of the business’s entire revenue. Prohibiting this primary source of income would cause the club’s tax contributions to plummet by as much as 75%, Kirkland warned.

At the same time, business stagnation could force cardrooms to cut jobs, further affecting the economy.

For context, Club One contributes roughly $1 million a year to the county. Kirkland predicted that the sudden disappearance of cardroom contributions could lead to cities in Southern California going bankrupt.  

Kirkland Blamed the Changes on Potential Tribal Lobbying

In his interview with The Fresno Bee, Kirkland attributed the crackdown on cardrooms to tribal operators’ continued campaigning against the vertical. He emphasized that the only ones he’s heard allege that Club One’s games cause public harm have been tribal entities.

In any case, Kirkland vowed to pursue legal remedies. It should be noted that the new rules prohibiting the player-dealer model have received almost two thousand public comments and have been scrutinized by many.

At the same time, tribal operators welcomed the news of the new regulations, saying that it was high time cardrooms were forced to comply with stricter regulations. Tribal authorities encouraged strict enforcement of the new rules in order to protect the tribal exclusivity to gaming.