Californian Tribal Gaming Operations May Soon Be Able to Sue Cardrooms

A new bill has made it to the assembly floor after SB 549 was approved with a 14-0 vote in the Assembly Appropriation Committee.

The Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act will essentially allow Californian tribes to sue cardrooms over their offer of blackjack and poker games, which are supposedly the exclusive rights of the tribes and their gaming establishments.

Tribes Closer to Shuttering Cardrooms Thanks to New Bill

Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians attorney general Tuari Bigknife has welcomed the passage and said that he expected the bill to advance this week as well, and possibly be signed by Governor Gavin Newsom by August 31.

Tribal gaming has generally been pleased with the Biden Administration, and Newsom, a Democrat himself, is perceived as a sympathizer with tribal gaming matters.

As to the bill’s actual chances of passing this week, Assembly majority leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry is supportive of the bill, as are other members of the Assembly, meaning that there are few hurdles to clear if the bill is put to an actual vote.

Bigknife himself seems confident that the bill should get a vote in the remaining legislative session and clear the last remaining bars. This could be a new chapter in the saga over player-banked games, a “loopholes” that the tribes have vituperated against for many years now.

Essentially, cardrooms team up with third-party proposition player services that put the players in the role of a banker and thus are not liable under existing Californian legislation which prohibits anyone but the tribes to run such gaming options.

Tribes have been trying for several years now to try and force cardrooms to shut down, but to no avail, as courts have mostly found the complaints to lack legislative merit, tribal representatives have started to work on a legislative angle that would do away with any ambiguity and demonstrate that such establishments are illegal.

They have already had some success after in 2023 the California Bureau of Gambling Control pitched specific rules that would prohibit player-banked games from taking place on the premises of cardrooms. However, SB 549 may be what is needed for tribal operators to prevail.

Commercial Operations Call for Restraint on the Part of Tribes

Cardrooms have not been sitting idly as the Native American operators have reaped successes, however. Kyle Kirkland, president of the California Gaming Association, said that SB 549 is an unnecessary piece of legislation that is working against the interest of the state.

Card rooms employ 30,000 workers across California and shuttering them would translate into immediate economic harm. Kirkland has similarly said that the state is facing a huge deficit gap and adding to the economic woes by threatening businesses is not constructive.

However, Californian tribes are right. They have been given an exclusivity right under the state constitution which had to be changed, and ultimately allowed Native American tribes to run Las Vegas-style resorts based on compacts with the state, which generate a steady revenue for the state.