The vocal opponents of sweepstakes gaming and DFS 2.0 raised their voices during last week’s Global Gaming Expo and the shouts are reverberating in the days that have followed.
After speaking about sweepstakes during the Las Vegas conference, Indian Gaming Association (IGA) Conference Chair and President of Victor Strategies Victor Rocha hosted what he said will be the first of five webinars tackling the topic of unregulated gaming in California.
Rocha hosting five webinars on the legality of sweepstakes sites in CA
Joining Rocha for the premier discussion were IGA Executive Director Jason Giles and Chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) James Siva.
The trio began the discussion just asking whether or not sweepstakes sites and DFS snuck up on the state’s tribes at all.
Siva admitted that the tribes were very focused on defeating the commercial sports betting push in 2022 that it took up quite a bit of their bandwidth. What put DFS back in the spotlight was the request from the legislature last fall that California Attorney General Rob Bonta commission an opinion on the business.
It has been almost a year and still no results, but Siva said tribes were taken aback at how quickly the legislature and AG took action on that while they have advocated for clarity on what can happen at California card rooms for more than a decade.
“We were shocked by the timelines where we’ve been advocating for regulations for this other illegal form of gaming for a decade plus, and you haven’t moved on it,” Siva recalled.
California still waiting on AG opinion regarding DFS
Siva sees the long stretch without an opinion from Deputy Attorney General Karim Kentfield as a good sign for tribes.
“The Attorney General has still yet to promulgate those regs. So I think that’s probably a good sign. I think if it had gone fast, it would have been bad for tribes. But now that he’s getting pushback, I think he’s he’s thinking about this law deeply.”
To clarify, Bonta’s office will not be promulgating regulations but they will be issuing a stance on whether or not the state considers any or all types of DFS games in the state qualify as games of skill or another type of gambling.
Even though the viewpoint of the AG is still pending, Siva has very strong opinions on the standing of DFS operators.
“But just to clarify, in California, DFS is illegal. It happens. The states allows it to happen, but it is illegal. There’s no other way around it.”
Rocha, Siva and Giles also all clearly stated their belief that sweepstakes are in violation of the law. Rocha even compared these unregulated sites to vampires, arguing that they do not care about giving to the state and are not paying taxes.
Siva doesn’t believe the sweepstakes issue has hit Bonta’s radar yet, but CNIGA is taking steps to educate him. They recently sent a later to the office stating their position that sweepstakes sites are illegal. The targets of their next letters are a bit surprising as well.
CNIGA reaching out to tech companies about sweeps apps
Siva said Google is next up on CNIGA’s agenda, followed by Apple and the Play Store.
“We are sending another letter this week, actually, to Google, because now those all those apps, of all those companies you mentioned, are now in the Google Store, and we’re like, you guys are advertising illegal operations in the Google Store. It’s not just a technical violation of the law, it is a full violation of the law.”
The group discussed why the state is not being more proactive about the vertical and Siva said the state turns a blind eye because it is popular with constituents.
“This is gonna something that’s falling on the tribes again, but we will stand up and protect our our sovereignty every day of the week.”
Rocha noted that some of these operators, such as PrizePicks, have reached out to work with the tribes, but in his mind, it is too late.
“That is a transgression against the tribes to come in after the fact and look for permission. Why you’re already here taking money out of California? No, no, no, no, that’s not how it works. You’re not going to get permission.”
Rocha also suggested that, should the state ever expand regulated gaming, operators ignoring the law should be put in a penalty box or prohibited from entering the market altogether. If that were the case, it would potentially exclude both DraftKings and FanDuel from the Sunshine State, as both offer unregulated DFS there.
Nex up for Rocha is an interview with industry consultant Jeremy Kudon. That will take place next week.
