Court favours California tribes over sports betting bill

A US court has given tribes extra time to collect signatures for sports betting ballot.

US.- A Superior Court has taken the side of Californian tribes and approved their plea for an extra 90 days to collect signatures to get sports betting on the ballot for a vote this November.

The news comes after a bill circulating through the California legislature to legalise sports betting was dismissed. Tribes had been working on their own proposal collecting signatures throughout the state but the iniciative was halted by the Covid-19 lockdown.

Before lockdown, tribes were about 20,000 signatures short of the nearly 1 million needed to get sports betting on the 2020 ballot in California this November. The period of lockdown meant that they failed to make the deadline to collect the remaining signatures, leading to the tribes’ court request for more time.

A statewide referendum is necessary to legalise sports betting in California. If the tribes succeed in bringing their proposal to the November ballot, and it is approved by the state’s citizens, sports betting would be allowed at any of California’s 70 tribal casinos. No mobile or online betting would be allowed.

If the tribal proposal is not passed this year, the issue will be dead until the 2022 election cycle, which would mean 2023 would be the earliest Californians could place a bet with a legal sportsbook in the state.