California's appeals court dismisses tribes' lawsuit against cardrooms

The California Fourth District Court of Appeals has affirmed a San Diego Superior Court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit brought by gaming tribes against Southern California cardrooms. The Court held that they lacked the standing to challenge the legality of games approved by the Department of Justice.

“We are pleased that the Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the tribal lawsuit challenging the legality of cardroom games brought by tribal casinos who contend they have a monopoly over all gaming in California,” said Kyle Kirkland, President of California Gaming Association, which represents California's cardrooms. “They do not.”

Similar efforts by other tribes against cardroom games have been rejected by federal courts, California Attorneys General and the State Legislature. This new decision is the fourth lawsuit brought by tribal casinos to be rejected by the courts. 

“If successful, these lawsuits would have devastated many California cities, unemployed thousands of Californians and decimated vital services on which cardroom communities rely,” said the California Gaming Association. “Unfortunately, these decisions will not stop tribal casinos in their pursuit of an untaxed monopoly over all gaming in California.”

Certain tribes in the state have spent resources qualifying a 2022 statewide ballot initiative that would legalize craps and roulette at tribal casinos, as well as bringing in-person sports betting on tribal lands. The California Gaming Association is denouncing this initiative isn’t in the best interest of the gaming industry.

“Hidden in the initiative is also a provision that would give any person the ability to sue cardrooms, their employees, guests, vendors and communities endlessly to bankrupt cardrooms and cities with litigation costs,” said the association. “That initiative hurts all Californians and only benefits tribal casinos.”

Should the tribal proposal move forward, it would make the fourth online sports betting initiative that California voters could see on their ballots in 2022. Commercial giants like DraftKings and FanDuel and card rooms are left out of sports betting in the tribal initiative

Three other groups representing card rooms, online sportsbooks, and another coalition of tribal nations, have already introduced their own initiatives. One backed by the Pechanga Band and other parties allows in-person wagering at tribal casinos and horse racetracks, but omits online betting, reports The Sacramento Bee. In comparison, initiatives backed by online operators and card rooms would legalize betting for entities outside the tribes.

According to tribal nations, if the DraftKings measure or the cardrooms one were to pass in November 2022, tribes would lose their exclusivity to class III gaming in California. “Such passage would accelerate the legalization of online gaming by non-tribal interests, threatening the existence of Indian gaming as we know it,” the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and Wilton Rancheria said in a letter sent to all federally recognized California.