Election results 2022 California - AP projects: Voters reject Prop 26, measure legalizing sports betting at tribal casinos and race tracks
AP projects Californians have rejected Proposition 26, the measure proposing the legalization of sports betting.
Historically, people in California could only bet on horse racing. However, Prop 26 proposed the expansion of sports better to allow tribal casinos and four of the state's privately-owned racetracks to offer in-person sports betting.
While only people 21 years or older can place sports bets at race tracks, the age restrictions at tribal casinos would have been negotiated.
Opponents of Prop 26 argued that the measure would promote underage gambling.
"Despite state laws that make it illegal for anyone under 21 to gamble, one of the sponsors of Prop. 26 regularly allows 18-year-olds to gamble, and NOTHING in their measure stops underage gamblers from betting on college and professional sports in a tribal casino," opponents wrote in the state's official ballot argument.
California currently has compacts with 79 tribes, regulating gambling within the state. Since tribal lands are sovereign nations, the indigenous leaders who chose to offer sports betting would have negotiated the limits with the governor before memorializing it into the tribe's compact with the state.
Proposition 26 would have allowed tribal casinos to offer roulette and dice games, including craps.
Opponents argued that this would expand the "monopoly" tribal casinos have on gambling and would negatively affect communities of color across the state.
"If the sponsors of Prop. 26 are allowed to put card clubs out of business, some of the state's hardest hit communities of color will lose $500 million in local tax revenue that pays for essential services like police, fire, health care and after-school services," opponents wrote. "Those communities will lose 32,000 jobs, $1.6 billion in wages and $5.6 billion in economic output."
Opponents also argued the measure was designed to save the "dying" horse racing industry.
"Prop. 26 is cleverly designed to save the horse racing industry by expanding sports betting to horse racetracks around California—giving them millions in new revenue just to save a dying industry that drugs, abuses and kills horses year after year," opponents wrote.
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