Casino-owning tribes target a competitor

State legislators ban certain types of online sweepstakes that the tribes see as a threat.

- BY RYAN SABALOW

THE JAMUL Casino in 2020. Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn't indicated whether he'll sign the legislation.

(K.C. ALFRED San Diego Union-Tribune)

For the second straight year, casino-owning tribes persuaded lawmakers to pass legislation that directly attacks the tribes’ business competitors.

Earlier this month, the California Legislature approved Assembly Bill 831, which bans companies from offering certain types of online sweepstakes that the tribes see as a threat to their exclusive rights to gambling in California.

In an example of how much political clout the tribes have — thanks in part to the millions of dollars they have donated to legislators’ reelection campaigns — the measure easily passed both legislative chambers without any of California’s 120 lawmakers voting against it.

In total, the groups for and against the bill have spent at least $1.7 million on lobbying the Legislature so far this year, according to filings with the California secretary of state.

Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t indicated whether he'll sign Anaheim Democratic Assemblymember Avelino Valencia’s bill. It follows a bill Newsom signed into law last year that allowed tribes to sue their rivals, privately owned gambling halls called card rooms, to try to stop them from offering table games such as blackjack.

The tribes immediately sued card rooms after they won one of the most expensive political fights of the last two-year legislative session.

The feuding gambling factions each spent millions on lobbying and on lawmakers’ campaigns.

The tribes’ case against card rooms is pending.

This year’s measure attacks companies offering a style of gaming that’s exclusively online — and already offered in California.

Players typically download an app to play a game of chance such as slots or cards.