{"id":119644,"date":"2019-11-13T09:44:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T17:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=119644"},"modified":"2019-11-13T11:12:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T19:12:29","slug":"california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/","title":{"rendered":"California Cardrooms Are Important Contributors to Local, State Economies, Says Industry Group"},"content":{"rendered":"

California’s 72 cardrooms aren’t traditional casinos and often draw the ire of tribal operators. But the venues are important drivers of economic activity throughout the Golden State, according to the California Gaming Association (CGA).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Larry Flynt’s Lucky Lady Casino in Los Angeles is one of many California cardrooms contributing to the state economy, says the CGA. (Image: Daily Breeze)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Full disclosure: the CGA has a stake in extolling the benefits of cardrooms because it’s the industry’s trade group. The Sacramento-based organization \u201cis the definitive voice of the state\u2019s cardroom industry,\u201d according to its web site.<\/p>\n

A study by John Dunham & Associates, a New York-based economic consulting firm commissioned by the CGA, indicates the total annual economic impact from California cardrooms is $5.6 billion, and that the venues support more than 32,000 direct and indirect jobs.<\/p>\n

In total, the California cardroom industry directly and indirectly creates about 32,425 living wage jobs with wages and benefits estimated at $1.64 billion,\u201d according to the CGA. \u201cTax revenue generated by California cardrooms totals roughly $500 million, with $398.8 in state taxes and $100.9 million in local jurisdiction gaming taxes.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That $5.6 billion figure trails the more than $8 billion in annual revenue generated by California’s roughly 70 tribal casinos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Long-Running Feud<\/h2>\n

The Golden State is home to some of the largest gaming properties in the US<\/a>, including Morongo and Pechanga, which are located in Riverside County in the southern part of the state. Those are tribal gaming properties and direct competitors to cardrooms.<\/p>\n

Cardroom and tribal operators are in the midst of a long-running tiff in California. Earlier this year, the state\u2019s Bureau of Gambling Control (BGC) considered actions that would limit the games offered by the cardrooms.<\/p>\n

\n

The CGA pushed back, saying a crackdown on offerings at its members’ venues could threaten jobs, and the idea of making life hard on cardrooms came under more scrutiny when local media reports revealed that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, received campaign contributions from tribal gaming entities. Beccera’s office oversees the BGC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

California cardrooms don’t offer slot machines or electronic gaming terminals. Nor do they have \u201chouse-banked\u201d games.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery player in a cardroom has the opportunity to wager as the dealer, an opportunity not found in tribal casinos,\u201d according to the CGA.<\/p>\n

Still, the state’s tribal operators believe that’s nothing more than a legal loophole and that cardrooms threaten the tribes’ exclusivity accord with California.<\/p>\n

Colorful Characters<\/h2>\n

There are interesting and controversial personalities behind some California cardrooms. For example, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt owns two such venues<\/a> in the Los Angeles area, while members of the Kingston family, believed to be a polygamous group from Utah, run the Lake Elsinore Casino in Riverside County.<\/p>\n

Many of the state’s cardrooms are located in or around major cities, providing some geographic advantage over tribal properties, the bulk of which are multi-hour drives from large metropolitan regions.<\/p>\n

Approximately 22,000 of the 32,425 jobs supported by California’s cardroom industry are in Los Angeles and San Diego counties and the Bay Area, three of the state’s most densely populated sections.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California’s 72 cardrooms aren’t traditional casinos and often draw the ire of tribal operators. But the venues are important drivers of economic activity throughout the Golden State, according to the California Gaming Association (CGA). Full disclosure: the CGA has a stake in extolling the benefits of cardrooms because it’s the industry’s trade group. The Sacramento-based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":119646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33810,18456],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCalifornia Cardrooms Drive Economic Activity, But They're Controversial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"California cardrooms make significant contributions to state and local economies, but tribal operators still oppose these competitors.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California Cardrooms Drive Economic Activity, But They're Controversial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"California cardrooms make significant contributions to state and local economies, but tribal operators still oppose these competitors.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-13T17:44:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-13T19:12:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/hustler.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"4835\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"3038\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/\",\"name\":\"California Cardrooms Drive Economic Activity, But They're Controversial\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/hustler.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-13T17:44:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-13T19:12:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"California cardrooms make significant contributions to state and local economies, but tribal operators still oppose these competitors.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/hustler.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/hustler.jpg\",\"width\":4835,\"height\":3038,\"caption\":\"Larry Flynt's Lucky Lady Casino in Los Angeles is one of many California cardrooms contributing to the state economy, says the CGA. (Image: Daily Breeze)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gaming Business\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gaming-business\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"California Cardrooms Are Important Contributors to Local, State Economies, Says Industry Group\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\",\"name\":\"Todd Shriber\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Todd Shriber\"},\"description\":\"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"California Cardrooms Drive Economic Activity, But They're Controversial","description":"California cardrooms make significant contributions to state and local economies, but tribal operators still oppose these competitors.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"California Cardrooms Drive Economic Activity, But They're Controversial","og_description":"California cardrooms make significant contributions to state and local economies, but tribal operators still oppose these competitors.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2019-11-13T17:44:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-11-13T19:12:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":4835,"height":3038,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/hustler.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Todd Shriber","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@etfgodfather","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Todd Shriber","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/","name":"California Cardrooms Drive Economic Activity, But They're Controversial","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/hustler.jpg","datePublished":"2019-11-13T17:44:25+00:00","dateModified":"2019-11-13T19:12:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85"},"description":"California cardrooms make significant contributions to state and local economies, but tribal operators still oppose these competitors.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/hustler.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/hustler.jpg","width":4835,"height":3038,"caption":"Larry Flynt's Lucky Lady Casino in Los Angeles is one of many California cardrooms contributing to the state economy, says the CGA. (Image: Daily Breeze)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-drive-economic-activity-but-theyre-controversial\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Gaming Business","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gaming-business\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"California Cardrooms Are Important Contributors to Local, State Economies, Says Industry Group"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85","name":"Todd Shriber","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","caption":"Todd Shriber"},"description":"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/","https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}