California group fails to gain support for sports betting
An initiative to put the sports betting legalisation in the state on the 2020 ballot failed to gain enough support to qualify.
US.- Completely opposite to the good news coming from Minnesota, California may not see sports betting approved anytime soon. There were hopes around an initiative to put the segment’s legalisation on the 2020 ballot but there were no signatures gathered as it got stuck in the earlier stages of the issue.
“We never advanced to get a single signature,” Russell Lowery, a consultant for the group Californians for Sports Betting. “It started a conversation in California gaming on what is the right path forward, and those conversations will continue until they figure out the puzzle.”
The push to gather 623k signatures to get the topic on voters’ ballot didn’t even get one as there was major opposition for such a decision not to be taken by lawmakers. According to Lowery, such an approach is wrongful as he said: “The difference between June and today is everyone understands it’s not going to happen legislatively without some sort of pressure from an initiative. In the cardroom and sports betting industry, I think everyone now understands that if it’s going to happen, it’s going to be through an initiative.”
However, there is still hope that a new initiative could get the whole process completed as there’s enough time to do it from scratch, since rules require them to be circulated for 180 days and to be certified at least 131 days ahead of the election (June 25).
