A few years ago the future of gaming in California was on the ballot. Between the two sides, $200 million was spent. Now it looks like the California economy is going to get another big push.
“The current reconciliation between the one-time antagonists goes beyond just a well-staged panel discussion at an industry trade show. The Sports Betting Alliance has established a tribal advisory board and had top executives meet with tribal leaders during last week’s conference in San Diego to discuss potential frameworks for collaboration.
Any significant breakthrough would require a return to the ballot. (Prop 1A, passed in 2000, amended the constitution to legalize gambling but only through compacts with Native American tribes.) One possibility now being floated by the sports betting operators: The creation of a single entity containing all 109 recognized tribes, which would then contract with operators to offer online betting platforms. The operators would, in that scenario, foot the bill for a future statewide initiative as early as next year.”
The better news is that the two opponents from 2022 appear to be on the same side this time. The issue is sim[le, should tribes be allowed to create online betting? As for me, what difference does it make. Yes, it creates more competition—which is good. But, why should any entity have a monopoly on gambling? Hope it gets on the ballot and we get over this issue.
Sports-gaming companies court tribes for return to California ballot
Executives at the companies behind 2022’s failed Prop 27 have acknowledged any path forward should be led by the tribes.
By Emily Schultheis, Politico, 04/07/2025, https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/07/sports-gaming-companies-court-tribes-for-return-to-california-ballot-00277542
Three years ago, California’s powerful tribes poured more than $200 million into defeating Prop 27, an initiative from DraftKings and FanDuel that would have legalized online sports betting.
Tempers appear to be cooling from that bitter fight over who gets to determine the future of gaming and betting in California — so much so that the companies and tribes are actively talking about collaborating. But tribal leaders are making it clear that an agreement on a framework for sports betting in California, including a future statewide ballot initiative to establish it, is far from settled.
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins and FanDuel President Christian Genetski were on hand for a discussion on “The Power of Partnerships” at the annual Indian Gaming Tradeshow and Convention last week. In their on-stage conversation with Indian Gaming Association Conference Chair Victor Rocha, both executives repeatedly acknowledged they accepted what tribal leaders were saying loud and clear in the 2022 ballot fight: That any path forward for online sports betting in California needs to be led by the tribes.
“I’m not going to sit here and say we don’t make mistakes — we’ve made many mistakes,” Robins said. “But I think those who partner with us, and those like you who’ve gotten to know us, understand we really do care and we want to do it the right way … Having tribal relationships and partnerships is absolutely essential — there’s no other way to do it here.”
The Sports Betting Alliance’s members — including DraftKings and FanDuel as well as Fanatics and BetMGM — found themselves at odds with the tribes when they qualified Prop 27, to legalize online sports betting, for the 2022 ballot. The tribes pushed their own concurrent measure, Prop 26, which would have legalized in-person sports betting on tribal lands. Both measures failed overwhelmingly, with more than 80 percent of voters rejecting corporate-driven Prop 27.
“It was a well-intentioned but uninformed and misguided attempt,” FanDuel chief Genetski said in a self-flagellating appearance at the Western Indian Gaming Conference last February. “It was definitely a spectacular failure on our part. It wasn’t the right plan or the right time. So we looked in the mirror and said, ‘It was a failure, what will we do?’”
The current reconciliation between the one-time antagonists goes beyond just a well-staged panel discussion at an industry trade show. The Sports Betting Alliance has established a tribal advisory board and had top executives meet with tribal leaders during last week’s conference in San Diego to discuss potential frameworks for collaboration.
Any significant breakthrough would require a return to the ballot. (Prop 1A, passed in 2000, amended the constitution to legalize gambling but only through compacts with Native American tribes.) One possibility now being floated by the sports betting operators: The creation of a single entity containing all 109 recognized tribes, which would then contract with operators to offer online betting platforms. The operators would, in that scenario, foot the bill for a future statewide initiative as early as next year.
But tribal leaders are making it clear they won’t rush into anything with their one-time adversaries. The California Nations Indian Gaming Association pushed back on a since-updated media report that an agreement between the two sides had been reached. The meeting was “productive in some ways,” the CNIGA statement said, but cautioned that any suggestion of a confirmed agreement is “simply false.”
“Further discussions among tribal governments are expected to take place in the coming weeks and months,” the statement said. “Let there be no false illusion: establishing an acceptable framework and governance model will take time.”
Sports betting expert John Holden, a professor at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, told Playbook he estimates an official announcement could be “months, if not years, away” because each of the tribes will have to approve any agreement before it can move forward.
“You’re dealing with 109 governments … and government doesn’t move quickly,” he said. “There may have been some good things talked about, but getting a consensus on board with a plan is going to take time. It’s not, ‘Yes, we sat down at the table, and this is all worked out.’ It needs approval.”
The stakes for both sides couldn’t be higher. As DraftKings’ Robins put it at the convention in San Diego: “There’s no other state out there that has the ability to impact our long-term growth than California.”
But it’s clear why the companies are eager to leave the impression a deal has already been reached. “At the end of the day, [the sports betting operators] are not going to have a lot of influence on what happens,” said Holden. “If sports gambling happens, it’s going to happen how the tribes want it to happen.”
