California's legislature has taken significant steps towards recognizing the rights of tribal nations with the approval of a bill concerning card games in the state. The Senate passed the amended Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act on the final day of the 2024 session, following the General Assembly's unanimous approval two days earlier.
The Senate vote concluded at 32-2. If Governor Gavin Newsom signs the bill into law, California tribes will be granted the opportunity to sue the state’s cardrooms over violations of their gaming rights.
James Siva, chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, expressed enthusiasm for the bill's passage, stating, "The passage of SB 549 is fantastic news for California’s tribal nations. For over a decade, California tribes have engaged in considerable efforts to defend our exclusive gaming rights guaranteed in the California Constitution. The Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act gives tribes access to justice that has been denied not only in this case, but throughout California history."
Under the bill, tribes would not be allowed to seek monetary damages, but must file a lawsuit by April 25. The legislation permits tribes to bring legal action against licensed California card clubs and third-party proposition player services, challenging whether games banked by these providers violate state law and tribal rights.
California voters affirmed tribal exclusivity for Las Vegas-style gambling in 2000, facilitating the establishment of businesses that support tribal self-sufficiency. Bill sponsor Josh Newman stated, "This legislation is about doing right by California’s Indian tribes, to whom Californians made a binding commitment in 2000 by passing a proposition which explicitly gives them an exclusive right to certain games in recognition of the historical harms to which they were subject."
For a decade, tribes have argued that the use of third-party providers, which act as the bank for games like blackjack, contravenes state law and undermines tribal gaming rights. This conflict centers on the operation of player-banked games in California's cardrooms.
Cardrooms, legally permitted to offer these games, have increasingly employed third-party banking models since 2007, which tribes argue violates their gaming rights and costs them significant revenue, with estimates upwards of $100 million annually.
While cardrooms warn that abandoning this model could threaten their financial viability, tribes insist they are merely seeking to uphold the exclusivity rights granted to them, and many tribal leaders contend this situation illustrates broader issues where tribal rights are overlooked.
"All too often throughout history, tribes in California were promised certain treaty rights and even large tracts of fertile land that were taken away from us," Siva added. "In those cases, we were stripped of our ability to defend those rights as we were denied access to justice. If this bill becomes law, it will reflect a new day in California history in regard to the civil rights of this state’s tribal nations."
The bill's amended version includes several technical changes, notably clarifying that the state is not a party in legal actions and that any court orders resulting from successful lawsuits would take effect 60 days after the order is issued.
Introduced in February 2023, the Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act faced delays last summer until it gained traction again in June. Throughout this period, cardrooms have expressed strong opposition, with labor unions and local newspapers raising concerns over potential revenue losses for cities hosting these establishments.
Tribal leaders maintain that such claims are false. "We’re not moved by the fact that they are not going out there to innovate or find ways to make revenue," stated Tuari Bigknife, attorney general for the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, in a recent podcast. "The cardrooms have been in existence over 100 years; they have only been doing this illegal gaming since 2007. So there is no reason that they cannot go back to the way it was before instead of trying to do it on the backs of tribes."
