By BRIAN MELLEY, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The hassle to legalize sports betting in California ran headlong right into a typical challenge for competing ballot measures as each was battered in a torrent of negative promoting that doomed each to spectacular failure in the most costly ballot race in U.S. history.
Anytime voters face two measures at odds with one another, they have a tendency to reject each, said professor David McCuan, chairman of the political science department at Sonoma State University.
“Each time we’ve dueling ballot measures, and the competitors have an arsenal of dollars … the competitors will go nuclear. And in a nuclear war everybody loses,” McCuan said. “Essentially the most powerful money in California politics is on the ‘No’ side of ballot measures.”
The result was a pasting on the polls for each.
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With 5.3 million votes counted Wednesday, greater than 80% of voters rejected an effort by the gaming industry that will have allowed online and phone wagers on sports. A measure supported by Native American tribes that will have let gamblers place sports bets at tribal casinos and 4 horse tracks was opposed by 70% of voters.
But the results of Tuesday’s election will not be a doomsday scenario for sports betting in California. With what might be a billion dollar market within the nation’s most populous state, there’s simply an excessive amount of at stake for supporters to present up.
Greater than 30 other states now allow sports betting, but Californians are limited to playing slot machines, poker and other games at Native American casinos, and wagering at horse tracks, card rooms and the state lottery.
Supporters of each measures would not discuss specifics but said they were reevaluating how one can move forward to bring sports gambling to the Golden State.
Jacob Mejia, vp of public affairs for Pechanga, which has certainly one of the largest casinos, said it’s too soon to say whether tribal gaming interests would attempt to work with the Legislature or go on to the voters again.
“First, all of us must respect the desire of the voters and the message they sent last night,” Mejia said.
The campaign in support of online wagering issued a press release saying it remained committed to expanding sports betting in California.
“This campaign has underscored our resolve to see California follow greater than half the country in legalizing protected and responsible online sports betting,” the Yes on 27 campaign said. “Californians deserve the advantages of a protected, responsible, regulated, and taxed online sports betting market, and we’re resolved to bringing it to fruition here.”
Returning to the Legislature for an answer would require powerful tribes to take a seat down with their smaller peers, off-track betting operations, in addition to foes who operate card rooms and those that need to expand betting to mobile devices, McCuan said.
“The tribes have a lot money and so many resources that they imagine they might take their toys and go home,” McCuan said. “That has presented some problems to seek out a legislative solution.”
The origin of what became such a negative campaign with voters inundated with television ads during sporting events, on social media and in campaign mailers, began after several legislative efforts to permit sports betting failed in Sacramento.
California tribes planned to launch a ballot campaign in 2020 but needed to shelve that plan when the pandemic prevented collecting signatures needed to get it on the ballot.
Their measure — Proposition 26 — qualified for the ballot this 12 months, but they quickly shifted priorities to defeat Proposition 27 — the competing measure recommend by online gambling proponents.
“Tribes viewed this as the largest threat to their self sufficiency in a generation,” Mejia said. “These out of state operators tried to masquerade Prop. 27 as a tribally supported solution for homelessness, when in actual fact, it was neither.”
Attack ads said Proposition 27 would turn every cellular phone, laptop and tablet right into a gambling device. They said it couldn’t be adequately monitored to maintain children from betting and raised fears of making a generation of gambling addicts.
Opponents of Proposition 26, led primarily by card rooms that stood to lose out on any sort of sports betting, said the measure would increase the ability of rich tribes and grant them a virtual monopoly on gambling within the state. The measure would even have allowed casinos to supply roulette and craps.
Each measures promised to bring advantages to the state through tax revenues. Proposition 27 supporters touted funds that will go to assist the homeless, the mentally unwell and and poorer tribes disregarded of the casino bonanza. Proposition 26 backers said a ten% tax would fund enforcement of gambling laws and support programs to assist gambling addicts.
Of the roughly $460 million raised for and against each measures, about $170 million was in support of the web sports gambling initiative backed by DraftKings, BetMGM, FanDuel — the latter is the official odds provider for The Associated Press — in addition to other national sports betting operators and just a few tribes.
A coalition of tribes behind the No on 27 committee raised $116 million toward its defeat. Of the $128 million raised by the Yes on 26, No on 27 committee of tribal groups, Mejia said its spending was primarily to defeat the web measure and the group didn’t run a single TV ad in support of its own initiative.
Two groups funded mostly by card rooms raised $44 million to attack Proposition 26.
The huge fundraising greater than doubled the previous record in 2020 that helped Uber, Lyft and other app-based ride and delivery services to stop drivers from becoming employees eligible for advantages and job protection.
With a blowout on political promoting, voters often find yourself being turned off, McCuan said.
“What California voters object to is the vulgarity of getting campaign ads thrown of their face at every turn,” he said. “It has that backlash effect.”
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