If the gambling industry must settle for state-by-state legalization, California signifies the Holy Grail of online betting in the united states. It is the most populous state in the union with a $2 trillion economy that would rank number 8 in the world if it was its own country. International gambling websites have gone out of their way to acquire licenses in countries considerably smaller than California.
All eyes are on California as states mull legalizing various forms of online gambling. If California does ever go the method of legalization, it would by default be the norm by which gambling is measured in the United States. If the nation does eventually dominate gambling and it is successful, other states will surely follow suit. We may even see something eventually happen at the national level.
Various pieces of legislation have been released, shot down and reintroduced in the past several years. We don’t have anything important to report yet, but most observers are cautiously optimistic that California will at some point make a serious move toward legalization. Here is why:
The country has a pro-gambling culture The state already has legal casinos and card rooms
It is home to many Indian tribes who are experienced in gaming California has a spending problem and the potential tax revenues must surely be enticing for state lawmakers
Current List of Betting Sites in California
We’ll discuss the different betting options in California in greater detail below, however I’d love to begin with a quick list of betting sites which are available right now in California. If you’re here searching for a place to gamble online, these are the websites that will let you play with and bet real money today.
Sports Gaming:
RankBetting SiteBonusRatingVisit
1
100% up to $50
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Fantasy Sports:
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Up to 4 Free Entries
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2
Free Contest Entry
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Horse and Greyhound Betting:
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$20 Free + 100% up to $100
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100% up to $100
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Wager $500, Get $100
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Online Lottery Tickets:
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No Bonuses Offered
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Games of Skill:
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Daily Offers and Specials
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Sports Betting at California
Lawmakers in California have demonstrated some interest in legalizing sports betting of late. A bill introduced in the 2017/18 session proposed amending existing gambling legislation to allow the California legislature to authorize sports betting determined by the Supreme Court overturning the national sports gambling ban (which it did).
ACA 18 itself didn’t seek to legalize wagering; it rather provided a constitutional amendment that would enable lawmakers to legalize and regulate sports gambling in the future. When he introduced the bill, Assemblyman Adam Gray said,”The choice is not’if we have sports wagering or never possess sports wagering.’ We all do have sports wagering.”
The point he was making is that sports betting is currently a huge black market in California and across the USA. The American Gaming Association estimates Americans wager at least $154 billion per year on sports with internet sportsbooks and local bookies in contrast to the law. The present condition prohibition is not working, the logic goes, so the smart thing to do is legalize it, regulate it and tax it.
A report by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming published in 2017 believes California is very likely to legalize sports betting within five years from the date of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn PASPA. California has lots of potential to turn into a significant sports betting market, but as you’ll see in another segment, competing interests in the state have a propensity to complicate things.
Assemblyman Gray introduced the exact same legislation in 2018 and 2019 as he continues to push the issue. Getting the tribal groups on board has been exceedingly hard since they dominate a $8 billion gambling industry and are highly reluctant to get on board with sports gambling at risk of opening their lucrative compacts with the state to negotiation once again.
Online Poker in California
The pursuit for internet poker in California has been fought in the courtrooms as you read these words. Bills seeking to regulate internet poker have been introduced every year since 2007. Not one of those bills have made it all of the way through the legislative process due to vying factions on all sides of the issue, but each year brings us closer to finding an arrangement that satisfied all parties that are interested.
In fact, much of the difficulty can be attributed to rival interests in the state. It seems everyone has an agenda and it is difficult to find consensus among the Indian tribes, Cuban operators and existing online brands. 1 group or another always feels left out or concentrated from the wording of laws. And to be honest, that is frequently a legitimate concern.
To increase the difficulty, there continue to be strong lobbying groups that actively combat the legalization of poker or another kind of internet gaming in the US. Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson has pledged to fight legalization across the nation. In California alone, he spent over $300,000 to lobby against poker.
Not a single one of the bills introduced during the last decade-plus has made significant progress thanks to the many competing interests in the state. The next bill is Only One of many efforts to make something happen in California, but it serves as a Normal example of how complex and difficult It’s to make progress in California:
AB 2291: Promising Start but Died in Committee
Assembly Bill 2291 was first introduced back in February 2014 but never made it beyond the committee phase. It was reintroduced in 2015 and 2016, but was unable to achieve the traction it had to make it far in the legislative process.
The bill sought to legalize online poker only and issue 10-year licenses to operators. The proposed fee for licensing has been initially set at $5,000,000, with this fee being used to offset future taxes. Lawmakers bumped that charge up several times until the fee hit a high of $12,500,000 without offsetting taxes.
Early versions of AB 2291 included several clauses which have resulted in tension between various factions competing for a piece of the poker pie. Most contentious one among them is a”bad actor” clause. AB 2291 originally sought to require potential licensees to get at least five decades of gambling experience in California. Additionally, it required every aspect of a procedure, by its own workers to its gear to its bank account to be kept in state.
Essentially, AB 2291 would have averted all of current online poker providers and newer local casinos in California from competing. The wording of this bill very clearly favored a few established California casino groups at the expense of fair competition.
Another problem with AB 2291 was that it might have banned California from entering agreements with other states to combine player pools and improve liquidity. To put it differently, you’d only see other Californians in the table no matter how many sates legalize poker. To top it off, and the bill will require the country to determine of any legislation passed at the national level allowing internet poker.
Some progress has been made in 2016 with a proposed amendment which could significantly alter the lousy actor clause. Formerly, the bill would have barred all online poker firms which operated after the passing of this federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Such restrictions would have prohibited established brand for example PokerStars from entering the market.
The last amendment proposes to rather transfer the chalk date for the awful actor clause up towards the end of 2011. In other words, sites such as PokerStars that operated after the UIGEA but subsequently left the marketplace after the Black Friday indictments in 2011. This could stop the most egregious violators from entering the sector but manage PokerStars a chance to provide online poker legally in California. You may read more about the proposal here.
Looking back in 2018: The Good and Bad
The Bad Lawmakers and tribal groups have been stuck in stalemate for going on four decades now. It’s nice to see some progress on this front, however it’s also discouraging to find that the outright stubbornness on the part of varying factions. Poker players are better served through an open and competitive marketplace and player-sharing arrangements with other nations.
Worse than all that, online poker seems to have taken a step back in 2018. For the first time in over a decade, no bills trying to legalize online poker have been introduced. Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sayer told Online Poker Report he’s giving up on internet poker laws for this year because there is just no improvement being made in reaching a compromise between the tribes, local card rooms and other interested parties.
The Good There are some positive things to say about most of this. If poker is indeed legalized in California, the potential participant pool will much larger than that which we’ve seen in other states that have legalized online poker. Besides the fact that 38 million people call California home, the country has a poker culture already as a result of its numerous brick-and-mortar card rooms.
California is very likely to have fewer problems with geolocation of players because of its sheer size. New Jersey had all kinds of problems verifying players were really located within the state. This ended up with plenty of possible players being barred in the state-sanctioned websites there. California doesn’t have to contend with congested cities piled up on state boundaries.
Fantasy Sports
Whenever the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has been passed in 2006, it supplied two noteworthy exceptions to internet gambling: horse racing and fantasy sports. The UIGEA didn’t just exempt those forms of gambling; it essentially gave operators the go-ahead to offer their games to customers right here in the united states.
Some states have since passed laws banning online fantasy sports but California isn’t one of these. In case you have a thing for sports betting but would rather do it at a protected and regulated fashion, fantasy sports is the thing to do. You draft a staff like in regular fantasy leagues except now you get paid actual money if you win.
FanDuel.com and DraftKings.com are the two biggest players in this market. They accept clients from CA and provide single-day fantasy leagues such as the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, college basketball and college football.
One of the pleasant things about online fantasy sports is each contest only lasts for a day per week at the most. You’re not stuck with a single team all season. Instead, your team stands up stats over the course of a single week. It’s possible to play in heads-up contests against other gamers or test your ability in massive tournaments which occasionally give away more than a million bucks to the first place winner.
You may read more about dream sports gambling here.
Legislative Efforts for Daily Fantasy at California
2016 was an important year for the daily fantasy sports industry in California. In January of 2016, lawmakers introduced AB 1437 in a bid to make a regulatory framework for everyday fantasy sports websites. If enacted, the bill would require DFS sites to acquire a permit, enforce a minimum age of 21 for all customers, hold all customers’ funds in a segregated account and extend self-exclusion programs for problem gamblers.
The bill advanced previous three major votes by a total of 101 for and two against. This is a significant bill for California and it looks increasingly likely to be passed into legislation. On the other hand, the bill itself does not really legalize online fantasy sports competitions; it only places the states where the industry would be regulated.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris is expected to issue a judgment on whether or not fantasy contests constitute illegal gambling under law. If she principles favorably, AB 1437 will have everything in place to license and controlled fantasy sites instantly. The AG’s judgment has been anticipated for at least a year today. In the meantime, California fantasy sports sites continue to function freely.
As of 2019, advancement on the bill seems to have fully stalled. The good news is fantasy sports sites are still active throughout the state. Legalizing dream sports in California would essentially be a formality at this point.
Online Casinos
There are not yet any lawful online casinos in California. The state hasn’t even tried to pass laws in this respect so it’s going to likely be years until we see legitimate gambling sites open to CA residents.
Do not be fooled by the countless other sites that are recommending”legal” internet casinos. All these are actually offshore gaming sites that have no legal presence whatsoever in the United States. They are unlicensed and completely unregulated.
Although to be fair, there are no state or national laws that prohibit playing offshore casinos. If you do choose to play with online, nobody is going to come kick in your front door. The biggest risk is financial — you never know for certain who you are dealing with on the other side of the display. Some offshore casinos may be safe while some are definitely outright scams. But regardless of where you play, you don’t have any legal recourse when things go belly up.
Your very best option would be to look at some of the other authorized, accredited and secure types of gambling that are available right now in California. Between horse racing, fantasy sports and also many likely online poker very soon, there are still lots of other methods to play real money games online at protected, accredited sites based in the US.
Horse Betting
Online horse racing is alive and well in California. The horse betting situation here is not nearly as complex as the poker scenario. California does allow residents to play at US-licensed horse wagering sites such as TwinSpires, BetAmerica and TVG.
Each of the significant US-based horse betting sites accept clients from California. The country also enables off-track betting (OTB) facilities. OTB facilities operate as brick-and-mortar gaming stores where people can walk in, put bets on races and collect their winnings in person.
Five racetracks run across the state and they also allow for real money wagering. In total, you are able to bet online at any of the approved horse betting websites, off-track at an OTB location or in-house in any of the monitors listed below. California is also home to state and county fairs that hold races in different times each year.
The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) manages all horse racing and wagering inside the country. The CHRB’s assignment is to ensure the integrity, viability and security of the state’s horse racing industry. They manage wagering, breeding, physical safety as well as the marketing of horse racing.
California Racetracks
CalExpo:
The California Exposition and State Fair operates a yearlong harness racetrack that runs daily at around 5:20 PM.
1600 Exposition Drive
Sacramento, CA 95815
Site Golden Gate Fields
This track is situated in Berkley with races and simulcast events weekly.
1100 Eastshore Highway
Berkley, CA 94710
Website Santa Anita
Santa Anita is among the most widely recognized racetracks from the United States and home to Significant events like the Santa Anita Derby, Santa Anita Handicap and occasionally the Breeder’s Cup.
285 W. Huntington Drive
Arcadia, CA 91007
Site Del Mar
Del Mar started in 1937 with a renowned race between Seabiscuit and Ligaroti. Seabiscuit barely took the race and became a legend of his own. Now, Del Mar plays host to racing events, concerts, family fun days and much more.
2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd..
Del Mar, CA 92014
Site Los Alamitos
Los Alamitos Race Course is home to daytime thoroughbred racing and nighttime quarter racing. The track is home to some of the largest quarter horse stakes races in the US.
4961 E. Katella Ave.
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
Website OTB Locations
You will find 31 off-track betting facilities in California. OTB facilities can be found in fairgrounds, racetracks, specialty OTB shops, casinos and fairgrounds. You may see a complete list of locations and addresses here.
Internet Bingo
There appears to be no motivation to specifically legalize online bingo in California. The only realistic possibility I see of online bingo coming to California is if it gets caught up in some upcoming internet casino legislation.
Lottery Games
Ca lottoThe California state lottery isn’t licensed to sell tickets on the internet or via telephone. For years, the federal Wire Act banned states from selling lotto tickets over the net. This may not be the case forever. In 2009, New York and Illinois requested the Department of Justice to explain its position on the Wire Act and explain exactly which forms of online gambling were illegal.
The DOJ reacted in 2011 with a choice that’d far-reaching consequences beyond just the lottery. Back in September of 2011, the DOJ issued a statement that its official interpretation of the Wire Act only applies to sports gambling on the net. This gave countries the go-ahead to sell tickets on the internet if they choose.
Lottery Subscription Websites California has not yet joined the growing list of states that sell lottery tickets online. But, there are a range of messenger services which can go buy lottery tickets at face value for a monthly subscription fee. You may log into those websites, pay attention for your tickets and then the company will go and purchase tickets in your title.
As an example, LottoGopher.com is a California-based membership website that offers this exact service. The website is registered in California, its owners are background-checked by lottery commission officers and it abides by all federal and state legislation. They are not legally permitted to sell lotto tickets for more than face value, so they instead charge users a subscription fee.
A membership at LottoGopher allows you to purchase tickets online, select certain numbers as well as form lotto pools with other members. If you win less than $600, Lotto Gopher will charge the winnings to your account which you may then withdraw straight to the bank. Should you win more than $600, Lotto Gopher will maintain the prize on your behalf in person then send you a check for the full amount.
The website doesn’t take a cut of your winnings. They only way that they make money is by charging customers a flat subscription fee. At this time, LottoGopher is only available in California. You can learn more and give it a try here:
www.lottogopher.com
lotto gopher
Is Lotto Gopher legit?
Yes. They’re based in California and state lottery officials know they are. It’s good that you ask though because there are tons of online lotto sites which look and feel legit but are not. Lotto Gopher actually is lawful and 100% legit.
They’ve been all over the press in the past few years as well. Forbes and ABC have both written articles regarding the ceremony.
Read more: https://newyorknews.press/boxing-odds/