Attorney General Rob Bonta

 

SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) – The California Gaming Association recently condemned new regulations by Attorney General Rob Bonta and the Bureau of Gambling Control (Bureau) that prohibit long-approved blackjack-style and player-dealer games, slashing licensed cardroom revenues by more than half.

The Bureau’s most optimistic economic analysis projects that the regulations will cause the loss of roughly 50 percent of cardroom jobs, putting tens of thousands of working families at risk and threatening severe budget deficits for cities that rely on cardroom taxes to fund police, fire protection, parks and other essential services.

The Bureau advanced the regulations without any showing of legal necessity, or any public harm or safety risk caused by these popular games, which have been approved by Attorney General Bonta’s predecessors and offered in cardrooms for decades. More still, the Bureau failed to provide proper notice of the regulatory changes or meaningfully engage with the public as required by law.

Kyle Kirkland, president of the California Gaming Association, issued the following statement:

“Attorney General Bonta and the Bureau have unilaterally implemented extreme regulatory changes that will harm thousands of working families and the dozens of California communities that depend on cardroom taxes. By the Bureau’s own simplistic economic assessment, these unnecessary regulations will eliminate over half of all cardroom jobs and force many communities to cut police, fire, parks, senior and food programs when the long-standing tax base disappears.”

With other stakeholders, we documented serious legal and economic concerns in these flawed regulations, yet Attorney General Bonta refused to identify a single threat to public safety, refused to engage with the communities, working families and long-standing businesses that the regulations would devastate and advanced the regulations without good faith discussion or lawful disclosure. 

Given the Bureau’s failure to follow the laws they are bound to follow, our industry intends to pursue legal remedies to preserve our lawful, legitimate businesses and defend the livelihood of the working families and the communities who depend on us but have been dismissed as politically irrelevant by Attorney General Bonta.”

Multiple California cities, elected officials, employees and other stakeholders have warned state officials about the economic and legal consequences of the regulations. The Attorney General’s actions risk significant local fiscal harm while undermining regulatory transparency and due process.

For more information or copies of submitted letters, contact [email protected].