CA Would Require Voters to Decide on Legalized Sports Betting

(Associated Press) - State lawmakers and tribes who run California casinos say voters would have to change the state’s Constitution before legal sports betting could come to the nation’s most populous state.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down a 1992 federal law that barred gambling on the results of football, baseball, basketball, hockey and other games.

Democratic Assemblyman Adam Gray of Merced immediately said he will try to move forward with a constitutional amendment allowing sports gambling and deputizing the Legislature to regulate the wagering.

But lawmakers face a late June deadline to put it on the November ballot, and lobbyists say that’s unlikely.

It would take a two-thirds vote, and tribes would likely vie with card rooms, horse tracks and online operations for the chance to run the sports book.

By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press