Existing law, the Gambling Control Act, establishes the California Gambling Control Commission, which is responsible for licensing and regulating various gambling activities and establishments. Existing law requires the Department of Justice to investigate any violations of, and to enforce, the act. Under the act, a city, county, or city and county may authorize controlled gambling consistent with state law. Existing law, however, prohibits an ordinance that would result in an expansion of gambling in the city, county, or city and county from being valid unless the amendment is approved by a majority of the voters. Existing law requires an amendment to a city or county ordinance relating to a gambling establishment or the act to be submitted to the department for review and comment before the ordinance is adopted by the city or county.

Prior law, until January 1, 2023, prohibited the commission from issuing a gambling license for a gambling establishment that was not licensed to operate on December 31, 1999, except as specified.

This bill would reenact that prohibition until January 1, 2043, and would prohibit the commission from issuing a gambling license for a gambling establishment that was not licensed to operate on December 31, 2022, and that is pending before the commission as of January 1, 2024. The bill would also invalidate a gambling license for a gambling establishment that was not licensed to operate on December 31, 2022, and that was issued between December 31, 2022, and January 1, 2024.

Prior law, until January 1, 2023, prohibited the governing body or board of electors of a city, county, or city and county that had not authorized legal gambling within its boundaries prior to January 1, 1996, from authorizing legal gambling, and prohibited an ordinance in effect on January 1, 1996, that authorized legal gambling within a city, county, or city and county from being amended to expand gambling in that jurisdiction beyond that permitted on January 1, 1996.

This bill would reenact those prohibitions until January 1, 2043. The bill, notwithstanding those provisions, would authorize a city, county, or city and county to amend its ordinance to increase the number of gambling tables that may be operated in a gambling establishment that operates fewer than 20 tables, by up to 2 additional tables the first year, and up to 2 additional tables every 4 years thereafter, as provided. The bill would require an ordinance that was approved by a majority of the voters in a city, county, or city and county in an election that occurred after November 1, 2020, that authorized an increase in the number of gambling tables at a gambling establishment, and that became operative on January 1, 2023, as the result of the repealed provisions above, to remain operative on and after January 1, 2024. The bill would invalidate an amendment or adoption of an ordinance that occurred on or after January 1, 2023, by a city, county, or city and county resulting in an expansion of gambling that was not authorized or permitted under the act as of December 31, 2022, or that is not authorized or permitted under these provisions.

This bill would state that its provisions are severable.