Sports Betting Bill Didn’t Pass in California

Hopes for the legalisation of sports betting in the state of California were dampened when a bill detailing the possible change in betting legislation didn’t pass by the deadline.

The bill, introduced by Democrat Senator Roderick Wright in February this year, detailed the possible legalisation of sports betting in venues where gambling in general is already allowed, such as card rooms, horse racing tracks and Indian casinos.

Senate Bill 190 also specified that such bets would have to be made in person, an idea that was conceived in order to help revitalise the state’s ailing horse racing business. It is not surprising that Senator Wright was the one responsible for the bill’s introduction as his home district houses one of the biggest horse racing tracks in the state, Hollywood Park.

Many believe that the bill’s fate was doomed from the start as even with support from Californian law makers the bill would have had to be approved by Washington as it proposed alterations in direct conflict with the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act which allowed sport gambling exclusively in Nevada, Oregon, Montana and Delaware.