There may be no change radical enough to get California’s gaming tribes to support two proposed ballot measures that would provide legal sports betting in the Golden State.
California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) Chairman James Siva said Wednesday that the proponents of the twin initiatives said they were willing to take amendments from the tribes.
“But in my mind, I was like, why would we even entertain sending them amendments and give them some of our credibility?” Siva said during an episode of “The New Normal” podcast hosted by Victor Rocha. “Why would we risk our credibility by even associating with these individuals?”
A double doink?
The unveiling of the so-called "Tribal Gaming Protection Act" and "Sports Wagering Regulation and Tribal Gaming Protection Act” in late October was a surprise to CNIGA, which is made up of 52 federally recognized tribal governments and associates involved in the gaming industry.
And, while the proponents of the two measures have ties to Pala Interactive, an online gaming company majority-owned by the California-based Pala Band of Mission Indians before it was sold to Boyd Gaming in 2022, they are without tribal support at the moment.
Although the initiatives would put California’s Native American tribes in control of legal sports betting in the state, CNIGA officially voted to oppose the two proposed ballot measures last week.
That would perhaps be enough to cause most people to abandon such a costly effort, as California’s tribes were instrumental in shooting down an online sports betting measure in the state in 2022. Now, though, Siva said the "goalposts" may be moving.
“When we met with [the initiative architects], they said, ‘We're not going to move forward unless we have 100-plus tribes in support,'” Siva said. “And then it quickly changed to the majority of tribes in support. And… now, they're down to 52 tribes, 56 tribes in support. I mean, is it just going to continue to move? Or are they going to end up in a place where we'll move forward as long as we have at least one tribe in support of this?”
Lots to do, not much time to do it
The comments from Siva are not surprising, as he has spoken before about the two initiatives and their proponents as an unwelcome development. However, the allure of the massive California market may still prompt the backers of the two initiatives to move forward with them, even without CNIGA in their corner.
The public can comment on the two proposed initiatives until Monday, and any amendments to the measures must be filed within five days after that. The process in California means the signature-collecting cannot begin until the end of January, Siva said, which gives the proponents just a handful of months to qualify their measure for the ballot next November.
“The amount of time they've left themselves is incredibly short,” Siva said. “Signatures are incredibly expensive now in California. So we'll see, but I don't think they get that far. I don't think they actually go forward down that path.”
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