There were serious efforts to get sports betting legalized and regulated at the state level in California.
There were originally two pieces of legislation introduced that would make sports betting legal. Each had its own cause and stipulations. Advisers to Governor Gavin Newsom worked with the two sides to try and reach a compromise.
Senator Bill Dodd indicated that there just wasn’t enough time to get it done this year. Dodd: “Given the deadlines for getting a measure on the November ballot and the impact of COVID-19 on the public’s ability to weigh in, we were not able to get the bill across the finish line this year,”
The state of California would look to generate $700M in revenue per year if sports betting were legalized and taxed. Now, experts think that a realistic forecast for when Californians will be able to place a legal sports betting is the year 2022.
Governor Newsom has been quoted by the LA Times as saying: “It’s more complicated than it appears because there’s so many different players, and we’ve got to accommodate for those concerns — card rooms, tribal interests — [and] obviously address all those issues together.”
image source KCRA.com
