DFS legislation suffers major setback in California

Two of the state’s largest tribes oppose daily fantasy sports bill AB 1437, say it should be amended to include online poker 

The rapid progress made by daily fantasy sports (DFS) legislation in California looks to have hit a major stumbling block after two of the state’s largest tribes raised concerns over legalizing the sector. [private]

Tribal leaders from the Morongo and San Manuel Band of Mission Indians have written letters to Assemblyman Adam Gray regarding his bill seeking to explicitly legalize DFS in the state.

“Our members are very concerned a retroactive approval of a form of gaming that is otherwise illegal, simply because it is popular, is a very dangerous precedent,” Morongo chairman Robert Martin wrote.

San Manuel chairwoman Lynn Valbuena is understood to have sent Gray a similar letter, according to reports in local newspaper The Sacramento Bee.

Morongo and San Manuel have joined forces with three of the state’s largest card rooms and poker giant PokerStars to push online poker legislation across the line in California.

In their letters, Martin and Valbuena said that compared to the hours of testimony about online poker, Gray’s bill has had “very little vetting or deliberation.”

However, both tribes suggests that daily fantasy sports and online poker be combined in a single bill because the issues share “many of the same questions.”

They also said they would move to block Gray’s bill if it was not amended to their satisfaction, the first time the bill has encountered opposition since its introduction.

The bill has made rapid progress through the California legislature in legal months, as other states move to either legalize or block daily fantasy sports.