California’s tribal casinos won a key vote on a gambling bill earlier this month after showering members of an obscure legislative committee with more than $1 million in campaign donations since the start of last year.
That included funneling $92,500 in campaign donations to key members of the committee in the weeks before the vote.
The tribes’ competitors, private card rooms, see the legislation as an existential threat both to their businesses and to city budgets across the state. But the card clubs lost the vote despite giving members of the committee nearly $393,000 in campaign donations over the past year and a half.
