The sportsbooks have gone back on the offensive in the increasingly bitter battle to legalize sports betting in California. One week after the "No on 27" coalition of native tribes released a state-wide TV ad accusing operators of sponsoring legislation that was motivated more by greed than any humanitarian concerns, the operators retaliated with an attack ad of their own.
The new ad comes with barely three months to go before the November 8 American mid-term elections, which will also see Californians vote on two opposing legislative measures for legal sports betting in the state: the sportsbook-backed Proposition 27, which would finally open the state to mobile wagering, or the rival tribal coalition bill, Proposition 26, which would allow only for in-person wagering at tribal casinos and four horse racetracks, maintaining the tribes' control of state gaming operations.
On Monday, the sportsbooks released a 30-second spot that said the real villains were the rich native tribes seeking to retain their stranglehold on state gaming operations. The ad unfolds with a rhetorical question: "So who’s attacking Prop 27? Wealthy casino tribes who want all the money for themselves," says the solemn-voiced narrator.
Then, against a backdrop of images of impoverished California tribal lands, the narrator's message paints a dark picture of tribal inequity: "For years, California’s non-gaming Tribes have been left in the dust...Wealthy tribes with big casinos make billions while small tribes struggle in poverty."
The TV spot is sponsored by the "Californians for Solutions to Homelessness and Mental Health Support," a movement funded by the major sportsbooks that are backing Prop 27 — almost immediately, tribal coalition leaders responded by issuing a sharp denunciation of the sportsbook-backed ad.
In a press release issued Tuesday by the "No on 27 - Californians for Tribal Sovereignty and Safe Gaming" coalition, James Siva, Chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, called the ad shameful and despicable.
"The out-of-state corporations and their Wall Street investors funding Prop 27 have deceptively tried to convince voters that their measure will help tribes," said Siva. "The truth is now out. More than 50 tribes – including gaming and non-gaming tribes – overwhelmingly oppose Prop 27 because it jeopardizes vital funding tribes use to support education, health care, cultural preservation, and public safety for our communities.”
In the same release, Glenn Lodge, Chairman of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, said that "It’s shameful to attack tribes that have a proven track record of sharing hundreds of millions with limited and non-gaming tribes like mine," while Lynn Valbuena, chairwoman of the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations, expressed a sense of outrage over the spot that will be running across California TV and social media outlets for weeks to come.
"The out-of-state corporations behind this ad should immediately pull it off the air and apologize to the tribal leaders," said Valbuena. "These profit-driven Wall Street corporations have stooped to a new low by minimizing the progress California tribal nations have made through tribal government gaming."
Her remarks set the tone for the epic struggle between the two sides that will increasingly grow uglier in the 100 days remaining before Californians head to the ballot box.
At stake is the richest betting market in the U.S. — California — with an estimated $3 billion in annual revenues generated from the rollout of online sports betting. This explains why the total ad spend, by the sportsbooks and tribes alike, is expected to set a new record for the most money ever spent on a legislative campaign — far exceeding the $224 million spent on the November 2020 Uber/Lyft-sponsored bill to exempt their drivers from state labor law (and which ultimately won voter approval).
As part of the effort to convince voters to back their online sports betting bill, the sportsbooks have enlisted the support of three have-not tribes — the Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians, the Big Valley Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, and the Santa Rosa Rancheria Tachi Yokut Tribe — who are among the many tribes who do not currently share in the billions of dollars accruing to the state's largest and most powerful native groups.
A key component of the online operators' Prop 27 is that their legislation obliges them to partner with state Native American tribes in order to operate in California. This will pour millions of dollars into tribal areas that are currently underfunded and economically disadvantaged.
Furthermore, Prop 27 earmarks 85% of the money generated from the projected 10% state tax on online betting revenues towards funding homeless and mental health care. In the coming years, this could lead to hundreds of millions in additional funding being funneled to state programs in these fields.
If the sportsbooks' Prop 27 is successful, online wagering could become live as early as January 2023 — in time for the start of the NFL playoffs, which would be a boon to operators as well as to the state treasury.
