RE: This is now...15 Jun 2020 20:47
Tribes not given up on their version of sports betting.A coalition of California Indian tribes was remarkably close to the threshold of signatures needed to get its sports betting referendum on the November ballot when Gov. Gavin Newsom put the state on lockdown to battle the spread of COVID-19 on March 20. And now the tribes are suing for the right to finishing collecting those signatures — for the 2022 ballot.
In a lawsuit filed June 9 in Superior Court of the State of California in Sacramento, the Coalition to Authorize Regulated Sports Betting argues that it had collected 971,373 signatures in just eight weeks. Per the state attorney general’s office, the tribes need 997,139 signatures to get the measure on the ballot, and were required to collect 110% of needed signatures, or 1,096,853 by July 20. The difference because referendums are verified, and some percentage are usually void. Initiatives have to be approved 180 days before the election, which would be June 25, and the tribes can’t possibly collect the remaining signatures and have them verified in the next 10 days.
California has been under some level of “lockdown” since March 20, with gatherings still prohibited and six-foot social distancing measures still in place, making it challenging at best, for anyone to collect signatures for a ballot initiative. Those signing are required to use a pen and provide identification, both of which require close contact. In addition, according to the lawsuit, signature verification workers have not been working because that work is “typically done in small, rented offices that do not meet the social distancing requirements.”
The tribes asked that the signature deadline be extended and that current signatures be considered valid in order to prevent the tribes from having to start over for 2022.
Sports betting in CA budget?
California has been a hotbed of sports betting discourse this month. The state Senate is moving its own referendum through Sacramento, and it should be on the Appropriations Committee agenda for a vote on Thursday. The tribes are vehemently opposedto the legislative proposal and have voiced their concerns at several hearings.
And Monday, state lawmakers and the governor must approve a 2020-21 budget. The sides are at odds over multiple issues, but if the legislative budget is approved, it could include a mention of sports betting revenue.
The tribes were the first to make a move toward legal sports betting when in November the coalition got approval to gather signatures for the ballot initiativeon Jan. 20. The one-page initiative reads, in part:
AUTHORIZES NEW TYPES OF GAMBLING. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY AMENDMENT. Allows federally recognized Native American tribes to operate roulette, dice games, and sports wagering on tribal lands, subject to compacts negotiated by the Governor and ratified by the Legislature. Beginning in 2022, allows on-site sports wagering at only privately operated hor
Sign In
Follow the stocks
