Is Sports Betting Legal in California?

No. Sports betting is not legal in California. 

The most realistic way for Californians to be able to legally wager on sporting events may well be if the more than 100 native American tribes in the state can come to a partnership agreement with the nation’s leading sportsbook operators. But a pair of 2022 statewide ballot questions led to ugly infighting – and to still-lingering hostility.

Why Californians Would Want Legal Sports Betting Or Not

Best Reasons to Legalize Betting

1. The Golden State has so many professional sports franchises that it is inevitable that it has been home to many championships – creating loyal fan bases that include many who no doubt would like to wager money legally on their favorite teams. Titles just in this century include MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers (2020, 2024, 2025), the San Francisco Giants (2010, 2012, 2014), and Los Angeles Angels (2002); the NBA’s Golden State Warriors (2017, 2018, 2022) and the Los Angeles Lakers (2001, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2020); the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams (2021); and the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings (2012, 2014) and Anaheim Ducks (2007).
2. If sports betting was legal in the state, the UCLA men’s basketball team’s preseason ranking of No. 12 would have gamblers with long memories hoping for a return to the glory days of the Bruins’ program. On the women’s side, UCLA scored a preseason ranking of No. 3.

Realistic Reasons Not to Bet

1. Not all of the state’s sports franchises are so blessed, and fans of those teams might not want to “double down” by risking money on what for them have been perpetually disappointing results. The NHL’s San Jose Sharks, MLB’s San Diego Padres, and the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and Sacramento Kings have never won a championship. Long droughts include the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers (last title in 1963) and San Francisco 49ers (since 1994), and MLB’s Athletics (since 1989).
2. In spite of all of the college athletic programs in the state, success in the two largest NCAA sports has been hard to find in recent decades. Since 1980, the only California NCAA football titles are by USC – in 2003 (shared with LSU) and in 2004 (vacated due to rules infractions). UCLA has the most-ever men’s basketball championships with 11, but only one (in 1995) has come in the last 50 years.

California Sports Betting Timeline of Legal Acts

There have been several key moments shaping the historical legal timeline of sports betting in the Golden State.

2017-2018

• July 20, 2017 – A state Assembly member introduced a bill – in a scenario that already had played out in several other U.S. states – that would preemptively legalize sports betting in the event that the federal government ever ended the virtual monopoly on the gambling enjoyed by Nevada.
• May 14, 2018 – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), opening the door for any state to offer legal sports wagering.
• June 12, 2018 – A proposal known as the “Gaming and Fairness Accountability Act” was filed to the California Attorney General, contemplating a 2020 statewide ballot question on sports betting legalization. But neither the act, nor a reintroduction of the 2017 Assembly bill, gained any traction.

2019-2020

• Nov. 14, 2019 – More than a dozen native American tribes announced their proposal for a Constitutional amendment called the “California Sports Wagering Regulation and Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act” to be placed on the 2020 statewide ballot, bypassing what has been a mostly-reluctant state legislature.
• Jan. 9, 2020 – A hearing at the state capitol in Sacramento known as the “California Joint Committee on Governmental Organization” featured numerous speakers in the gaming industry proposing ideas on how to bring mobile sports betting to the state.
• June 15, 2020 – As the state – and the world – was in the early stages of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, a group of tribes organized as “The Coalition to Authorize Regulated Sports Betting” sued the state, arguing that the deadline for collecting 1 million signatures to get its referendum on the ballot should be extended in consideration of the crisis. A few weeks later, a judge agreed. But the timing was such that the referendum realistically could not go to voters until 2022.

2021-2022

• May 28, 2021 – The California Secretary of State announced that a ballot question on whether to allow sports betting on tribal reservations and at four horse racing tracks would go before the state’s voters in November 2022. Mobile sports betting, which typically produces more than 90% of sportsbook total revenues, was not part of the equation.
• Aug. 31, 2021 – The artfully-named “California Solutions to Homelessness and Mental Health Support Act” was introduced by sports betting operators DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM in hopes of getting it added to the November 2022 ballot parallel to the tribal measure. The latter would feature only in-person wagering, while the operators’ proposal was for mobile wagering only.
• May 3, 2022 – The sportsbook operator-led proposal is found to have had enough signatures to land on the November 2022 ballot.
• Nov. 8, 2022 – After well over $100 million was spent on competing, often negative advertising attacking the two ballot questions, voters overwhelmingly rejected both proposals. The sportsbook version gained only 18% of the statewide vote, while the tribal option garnered just 33% support.

List of Online & Retail Betting Sites in California

There are currently no legal online sportsbooks and no legal retail sportsbooks in California. Instead, Californians interested in sports betting rely on alternatives such as social sportsbooks and DFS apps, which offer a similar, although not a true real money betting experience.

Official Sports Teams

With a state as populous as California, it’s no surprise that there would be a plethora of professional and D-1 college sports teams spread across the state.

MLB

California is home to five MLB teams: The Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, San Francisco Giants, and The Athletics (formerly in Oakland, now in West Sacramento).

NBA

The four NBA teams are the Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Sacramento Kings.

NFL

The NFL teams are the Rams and Chargers – who share a stadium in Los Angeles – and the San Francisco 49ers.

NHL

The state’s NHL teams are the Los Angeles Kings, the San Jose Sharks, and the Anaheim Ducks.

College

The state is just as blessed with a robust Division I set of programs that include football at USC, UCLA, Cal-Berkeley, Stanford, Fresno State, San Jose State, and San Diego State. They are joined in D-1 college basketball by California Baptist, Cal Poly, Cal State-Bakersfield, Cal State-Fullerton, Cal State-Northridge, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, Pacific, Pepperdine, Sacramento State, St. Mary’s, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara, UC-Davis, UC-Irvine, UC-Riverside, UC-San Diego, and UC-Santa Barbara.

Betting on Sports in California vs Neighboring States

Nevada has taken in $50 billion in wagers entering the fall 2025 college and pro football seasons – at least a few billion of which surely came out of the pockets of Californians visiting Las Vegas. Arizona has accepted $26.8 billion entering fall 2025, while Oregon has had only $3.2 billion in wagers on the DraftKings betting app and at tribal casino sportsbooks.

California’s Untapped Revenue and Handle

Sports betting is not legal in California, so there are no real figures to analyze yet. However, California is a state that is ranked 1st in U.S. state population with 39.4 million residents. For comparison, only three other states have even one-third of the population that the Golden State has. With this colossal amount of residents, one could quickly speculate how much revenue could be generated from legalizing sports betting.

Licensing & Oversight

The California Gambling Control Commission acts as the regulatory body over cardrooms and tribal casinos. The agency promises to “protect the public by ensuring integrity and justice in California’s controlled gambling industry through effective regulations and fair application of the law.”

Responsible Gaming in CA

The commission gives state residents a chance to voluntarily exclude themselves from California cardrooms. The form must be either notarized or witnessed by a licensed cardroom employee. This does not include Tribal casinos, which are independent.

Other sites worth your time

Final Thoughts on Sports Betting in California

Currently, California doesn’t permit sports betting in retail outlets or online sportsbooks.

The 2022 dueling referendums debacle still looms large in the state. There seems to be little momentum toward a 2026 ballot question, so a 2028 vote and 2029 formal legalization is likely the best-case scenario – to the chagrin of large sportsbook operators whose bottom lines would be thoroughly enriched by contributions from millions of California gamblers. The same goes for those who dream of sports wagering helping put at least a modest dent in the state’s multi-billion dollar fiscal deficit.

FAQ: California Sports Betting

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