California tribes win a ban on online lottery games

For the second consecutive year, casino -owned tribes have convinced legislators to adopt legislation, which directly attacks the business competitors of the tribes.

Earlier this month California’s legislator approved Assembly Bill 831which prohibits companies from offering certain types of online lotteries that tribes consider as a threat to their exclusive gambling rights in California.

In an example of how many political dill the tribes have – partly thanks to the millions of dollars they have donated to campaigns to re -elevate legislators – the measure has easily accepted both legislative chambers, without any of the 120 legislators in California against.

In total, the groups for and against the bill have spent at least $ 1.7 million in lobbying the legislature so far this year, according to documents to the Secretary of State of California.

Governor Gavin Newo has not indicated whether he will sign Anaheim Democratic Assembly Avelino ValenciaBill. Follows an account NEWSOM signed in law Last year, this allowed the tribes to judge their rivals, private gambling, called Card Rooms, to try to prevent them from offering table games like Blackjack.

Tribes Immediately judge rooms with cards After winning one of the most expensive political matches at the last two-year legislative session. The feuding gambling factions Everyone spends millions Concerning the lobbying and campaigns of legislators.

The case of the tribes against the rooms with cards is hanging.

How do the Tomboys Games work

This year, measures are attacking companies offering a game style that is extremely online – and is now available in California.

Players usually download an app to play a game of chance like slots or cards.

Every day they are given a limited number of free virtual gold coins for play. When players are left without free coins, they can buy more from the company to continue playing.

Even when buying a virtual coin, there is no money to pay money to win one of the chances games.

But to lure customers – and keep those who play – companies also distribute tokens called “lottery coins” that can be used to participate in total article that are separate from the map or games of the slot.

Sweepstakes coins are available to players as a “bonus” with the purchase of gold coins, through promotions or as free awards. These coins are potentially redeemed for rewards or money in the real world, unlike the play-game coins, according to Bill’s analysis.

At least one of the game companies has offered a $ 1 million total article.

Companies claim that since playing coins do not have monetary value and total -condition coins are not available for a direct purchase, their business model is not gambling and their scores are not illegal lotteries as there is no monetary risk for a player.

Virtual lottery games are popular. The so -called casino casino companies raised approximately $ 3.1 billion in 2022 and expected to exceed $ 8 billion by the end of last year, according to the bill.

The tribes told the legislators that the business model is a dangerous form of an unregulated gambling that should be banned in California.

They claim that virtual companies offering dual currency games are cutting to voters of exclusive rights in California in 1998 and 2000, they give tribes to offer gambling in their casinos, which provided an economic rescue line to discourage Indians.

“Unregulated online lottery threatens this voter -approved system by imitating casino games unattended, accountability or investment in the Community,” Isaiah Vivanko, chairman of the Soboba group of Luiseño Indians, told a Senate Committee This summer. “These illegal platforms delete all the benefits of regulated games while putting users at serious risk.”

VIVANCO, whose tribe has a casino in San Jackinto in Riverside County, told legislators that allowing virtual lottery casinos to continue working in California will “destabilize the whole legal playing ecosystem”, causing economic damage to communities across the country.

In total, the various casino ownership tribes who supported the measure of casinos of casinos have given at least $ 7.6 million to California lawmakers since 2015, according to CalMatters’ Database of digital democracyS

Card rooms and small tribes are opposed

In contrast, companies that officially oppose AB 831 did not give money to California’s legislators, according to digital democracy.

Online games companies say their games are safe to play.

“The industry itself has adopted responsible games for games, play restrictions, there is a consumer check, there is an age check,” Bill Ganz, a lawyer representing the Union of Leadership in Social Games, Before the legislators this summerS

Plus, play companies ask: if their business model is illegal, as tribes claim, why does the state need a law that explicitly does it?

“This does not transmit the smell test,” says Derek Brinkman, a executive product advisor at World Gaming World, one of the companies fighting against AB 831.

If Newsom signs the measure, it will create new criminal sanctions for companies offering the disputed lotteries, as well as “any entity, financial institution, payment processor, geolocation provider, game content provider, platform supplier or media partner, which supports the casino of the lottery, according to the Card County Analysis. Violators will be up to one year in prison and fines up to $ 25,000.

The threat of new criminal sanctions, potentially even for players, is the reason why the US Civil Freedom Union opposes the measure.

Card rooms and the cities association relying on revenue they receive from gambling halls also opposedS The bill is not specifically aimed at card rooms, but rival tribal gambling establishments, still smart from last year’s legislative defeat, worried that their competitors will find a way to use the hanging law against them.

A handful of small California tribes who do not have large casinos also opposed the measure and Hope Newsom imposes it with its veto. He has until October 12 to decide.

As the Newsom first ranked as governor in 2017, government tribes have contributed over $ 7 million to him through his voting measures, his campaign against re -recording and his various candidates.

Eric Wright of Klestsel dehe Wintun Nation, headquartered in Williams in the Sacramento Valley, said that some small tribes, like his hope of merging with virtual games for games to try to generate revenue for their impaired isolated communities using Sweepstakes games.

The income would be a meal compared to what the tribes with casinos for bricks and mortar, “he said.

“This is about justice,” Wright told Calmatters. “In the California Games, the frame works for some tribes because of geography. But whole tribes were abandoned. We didn’t even get a place on this boat.”

CalMatters data journalist Jeremiah Kimmelman has contributed to this story.