Top sportsbooks would love to operate in the state of California, which would surely become one of the best states for them in terms of regular handle and revenue.
What’s stopping sportsbook operators from entering California? The legal wheels are churning slowly.
Currently, no form of sports betting has been legalized in the state.
However, a lot indicates that this status quo will change at some point. The support for legalizing sports betting is clearly there.
Discussions will need to happen in order to hammer out the complexities that form a part of the legalization process.
We’re familiar with these complexities attached to the details of a legal sports betting landscape by looking at how political discussions have transpired in other states.
The good news is that the initiative to legalize sports betting doesn’t seem imperiled in California as it does in other states.
What’s Going On in California?
Legally speaking, there are two competing initiatives to legalize sports betting in California.
One such initiative is backed by federally recognized Native American tribes who want sports betting to be confined to their in-person model that is attached to the tribal race tracks and casinos.
The other initiative is backed by the professionals in the game, the sportsbook operators.
Unsurprisingly — and I mean this word very cynically — the tribes found in a poll that most Californians oppose the online sports betting that sportsbook operators offer.
However, there is obvious evidence to the contrary, which suggests that most Californians do want online sports betting to happen.
Californians are, after all, not aliens. Like other Americans, they want the convenience of betting in their pajamas.
Politicians — guys like Jerry Dyer, the major of Fresno, and many others have spoken out — also support online sports betting.
Online sports betting can bring massive revenue to a state that, given its notorious homelessness crisis and other issues, sorely needs it.
Here’s to hoping for everybody involves that the sports betting sites get to make life better for everyone in the Golden State.
We’ll see what voters have to say in November and then, hopefully, legal sports betting may become a reality in the middle of 2023.
