{"id":130863,"date":"2020-03-23T08:45:03","date_gmt":"2020-03-23T15:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=130863"},"modified":"2020-03-23T12:06:49","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T19:06:49","slug":"california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"California Sports Betting Ballot Drive Stuck in Neutral due to Coronavirus Shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

California was one of the first large states to employ a shelter-in-place order to combat the spread of the coronavirus, with Gov. Gavin Newsom issuing that directive last Thursday. But that mandate carries with it an unintended consequence: preventing workers from gathering signatures for an array of ballot initiatives, including sports betting, that various groups are hoping to put before voters in November.<\/p>\n

\"\"
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s shelter-in-place order could affect ballot 2020 ballot propositions, including sports betting. (Image: Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the Golden State, law requires that groups proposing a ballot initiative gather 623,212 signatures to qualify. But that figure jumps to 997,139 for a constitutional amendment, which is the treatment of the sports wagering proposal.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, California Attorney General Xavier Beccera signed off on language proposed<\/a> by a group of tribal operators that would permit sports wagering at the state’s approximately 70 Native American casinos and racetracks.<\/p>\n

We are at nearly 1 million signatures and were on a trajectory to reach our goal well ahead of the deadline before the unprecedented orders around COVID-19,\u201d said Jacob Mejia, a spokesman for the sports wagering initiative, in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Any group attempting to put an issue before Golden State voters has until April 21 to gather the needed signatures. If that deadline is missed, the effort has to wait until the next election cycle.<\/p>\n

Coronavirus Stymies Signature Gathering<\/h2>\n

It’s not just the sports betting plan that’s being hampered by the COVID-19 shutdown in California. A representative from a company that runs petition efforts across the state told the Chronicle <\/i>that his firm recently bought 300,000 pens because those interested in signing didn’t want to use the same writing instrument as another person because of fears of contracting the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

\n

Other groups report plunging numbers regarding signature gathering, because would-be signers don’t want to get close to workers. Some critics and petition organizers alike believe efforts should be scrapped until the COVID-19 pandemic eases, because until that happens, both employees in the field and signers are at risk of contracting the respiratory illness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As of Sunday night, California had 1,752 cases of COVID-19 and 33 deaths.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mejia didn’t say where the sports wagering constitutional amendment stood in relation to the 997,139 goal. But it’s common in California for groups to overshoot that number to allot for duplicate and falsified signatures.<\/p>\n

Plus, there are controversial elements<\/a> to the tribal betting proposal, including freezing out the state’s card rooms and no provisions for mobile betting. The latter could prove particularly thorny because many of the Golden State’s tribal gaming properties \u2013 even the biggest venues<\/a> \u2013 are long drives from major cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Patiently Waiting<\/h2>\n

By some estimates, legal sports wagering in California would create $2.5 billion in annual revenue \u2013 making it the largest market in the US for the endeavor \u2013 while generating $250 million to $500 million in annual receipts for state coffers.<\/p>\n

Two-thirds of the legislature must approve the proposal before it moves onto the ballot for voter consideration. While California voters have thrice voted in favor of gaming expansion \u2013 the 1984 lottery bill and tribal gaming initiatives in 1998 and 2000 \u2013 some politicians there are leery about promises of big sports betting revenue, noting the lottery and legalized cannabis are falling short of expectations.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For gamblers, the potential of the Golden State’s sports betting dreams being shelved until November 2022 would be a blow, and mean that it’s all but certain sports wagering won’t happen<\/a> in the \u201cbig three\u201d of California, Texas, and Florida this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California was one of the first large states to employ a shelter-in-place order to combat the spread of the coronavirus, with Gov. Gavin Newsom issuing that directive last Thursday. But that mandate carries with it an unintended consequence: preventing workers from gathering signatures for an array of ballot initiatives, including sports betting, that various groups […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":130865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCalifornia Sports Betting Plans may Have to Wait due to the Coronavirus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Efforts to gather petition signatures for 2020 ballot propositions in California, including sports betting, are slowing because of the COVID-19 outbreak.\" \/>\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-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California Sports Betting Plans may Have to Wait due to the Coronavirus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Efforts to gather petition signatures for 2020 ballot propositions in California, including sports betting, are slowing because of the COVID-19 outbreak.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/\" \/>\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=\"2020-03-23T15:45:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-23T19:06:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/gn.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"853\" \/>\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-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/\",\"name\":\"California Sports Betting Plans may Have to Wait due to the Coronavirus\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/gn.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-23T15:45:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-23T19:06:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"Efforts to gather petition signatures for 2020 ballot propositions in California, including sports betting, are slowing because of the COVID-19 outbreak.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/gn.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/gn.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":853,\"caption\":\"California Gov. Gavin Newsom's shelter-in-place order could affect ballot 2020 ballot propositions, including sports betting. (Image: Reuters)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Politics\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/politics\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"California Sports Betting Ballot Drive Stuck in Neutral due to Coronavirus Shutdown\"}]},{\"@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 Sports Betting Plans may Have to Wait due to the Coronavirus","description":"Efforts to gather petition signatures for 2020 ballot propositions in California, including sports betting, are slowing because of the COVID-19 outbreak.","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-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"California Sports Betting Plans may Have to Wait due to the Coronavirus","og_description":"Efforts to gather petition signatures for 2020 ballot propositions in California, including sports betting, are slowing because of the COVID-19 outbreak.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2020-03-23T15:45:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-03-23T19:06:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":853,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/gn.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-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/","name":"California Sports Betting Plans may Have to Wait due to the Coronavirus","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/gn.jpg","datePublished":"2020-03-23T15:45:03+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-23T19:06:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85"},"description":"Efforts to gather petition signatures for 2020 ballot propositions in California, including sports betting, are slowing because of the COVID-19 outbreak.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/gn.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/gn.jpg","width":1280,"height":853,"caption":"California Gov. Gavin Newsom's shelter-in-place order could affect ballot 2020 ballot propositions, including sports betting. (Image: Reuters)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-sports-betting-plans-may-have-to-wait-due-to-the-coronavirus\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Politics","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/politics\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"California Sports Betting Ballot Drive Stuck in Neutral due to Coronavirus Shutdown"}]},{"@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\/130863"}],"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=130863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}