- Cardrooms sue California attorney general over sweeping new blackjack restrictions
- Rules could cut half of cardroom jobs and force closures
- Cities risk losing millions used for police, fire, and services
California’s looming restrictions on blackjack in cardrooms are an “unprecedented power grab” by state Attorney General Rob Bonta that will have disastrous economic consequences, according to new lawsuits filed by the cardroom industry.
The California Gaming Association, backed by the California Cardroom Alliance and Communities for California Cardrooms, filed two suits in the San Francisco Superior Court Monday this week seek to block the new rules from taking effect.
Those regulations effectively ban cardrooms from offering blackjack and other player-dealer games in their current forms. From April, cardrooms will be prohibited from branding any of their games to include the number 21 or the word “blackjack.”
Don’t Call it Blackjack
Players will no longer be able to “bust” – instead, hands will be resolved through a comparison with the player-dealer. That also means an ace with a 10-value card will no longer trigger an automatic win.
Meanwhile, the player-dealer will have to be a seated person, and the position will have to be offered at the start of every hand and must rotate to at least two other players every 40 minutes or the game ends.
Cardrooms argue the rules will hurt profitability by slowing down gameplay, causing tables to pause when dealer rotations break down, and eliminating blackjack-style mechanics that typically boost game volume and player losses.
For years, California’s powerful tribal casino operators have challenged cardrooms over so-called “California games” — modified versions of table staples like blackjack and pai gow poker — arguing that they encroach on tribes’ exclusive rights to run house-banked casino games. Now, the tribes appear to be getting their way.
Budgets in Trouble?
According to the Attorney General’s own impact assessment, the new rules could eliminate at least 50% of cardroom jobs and revenue, leading to closures.
In cities like San Jose, Hawaiian Gardens, Commerce, and Gardena, gambling revenue helps fund police and fire services, road upkeep, and other general municipal expenses. In San Jose alone, city officials say cardroom operations generate roughly $30 million in annual revenue for the city.
These games have operated legally for decades under multiple Attorneys General, yet one public official is now moving to shut them down without identifying a single public safety concern or addressing the 1,764 public comments about these regulations,” Kyle Kirkland, president of the California Gaming Association, said in a statement.
“Our industry repeatedly raised legal and economic concerns throughout the rulemaking process, but the Attorney General refused to engage with the communities and working families who will be harmed,” he added. “We are asking the court to stop these unlawful regulations before they wipe out thousands of jobs and put many local economies into fiscal distress across California.”
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Rephrased by The Mystic Gambler