The effort to ban sweepstakes casinos in California and criminalize affiliates and suppliers who work with sweepstakes operators in the state moved a step closer to reality today, advancing out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. It now heads to the full Senate floor for a vote
AB 831 was one of the last bills to get a vote in the vote-only Suspense File hearing on Friday, when Chair Anna Caballero whizzed through more than 200 bills by alphabetical order of the sponsor’s name. The Suspense File is a mechanism for Appropriations to consider proposed legislation’s fiscal impacts on the state.
As with most other pieces of legislation, AB 831 was unanimously approved with no debate.
If the Senate passes the bill, it will still need to return to the Assembly for a vote since the measure is substantially different from the version the body originally passed earlier this year.
Gutted and amended under the name of Assemblymember Avellino Valencia after being approved in a very different form in the Assembly, AB 831 wadvanced out of the Governmental Organization Committee by a 15-0 vote on July 8 and green-lit by the Public Safety Committee 6-0 on July 15.
After that second vote, it was subsequently amended to remove a provision that would have allowed the state to criminalize players of online sweepstakes casinos and sportsbooks, as well as the operators and their supplier partners.
The Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation and the California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) are two of the groups most strongly pushing the legislation, though the majority of state tribes have voiced their support of the bill. However, in recent days, some limited opposition emerged from three smaller tribes, including sweeps operator VGW’s new tribal partner, the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation of the Cortina Rancheria.
Shortly before the Suspense File vote hearing, longtime sweepstakes contest operator Publishers Clearing House (PCH) also spoke out in opposition, stating that regulation of online sweeps is the way to go, rather than prohibition.
