As prediction market operators ramp up mobile sports betting in the state, the chair of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association said Monday they are preparing to put a measure on the ballot in 2028 to legalize sports betting at the retail and online level.
If it goes forward, the move would come six years after tribes battled with operators led by DraftKings and FanDuel to stop sports betting in the state. At the time, the tribes sought to legalize retail sports betting in tribal casinos and at horse tracks. The out-of-state sports betting companies sought online legalization. Both measures were soundly defeated after hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising were spent.
James Siva made his comments during the opening day of the Indian Gaming Association’s annual conference in San Diego. He provided some details that the tribes will push for both retail and online sports betting rather than retail only.
“That’s the goal, but we’ll see,” Siva said following a workshop discussing sports betting prediction markets. “We’re still walking the path and doing the work. We’ve been working behind closed doors, a lot of tribal meetings with ideas and concepts. It has taken us a lot of time to get here, and now tribes are more comfortable talking about in public.”
Siva said the arrival of prediction markets plays a role in the decision making for the ballot measure. It isn’t known how much business those operators are taking out of the state, but CNIGA will conduct a feasibility study to understand how much revenue has been removed out of California, Siva said. “We believe it’s significant, but we don’t want to put it out there before we have the numbers.”
Not only are tribes hurt by lost revenue, but employees are hurt because none of the prediction market employees work in California, Siva said. “They aren’t adding any value to the market. They’re taking value out of the market.”
Siva is hopeful a ballot measure in 2028 will pass this time. DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, Polymarket, and others are offering prediction markets and Siva said he hoped they wouldn’t oppose any ballot measure.
“They’re focused on California, but they won’t have an easy journey here. The tribes are massing in number and unified in purpose,” Siva said. “They won’t have the access and the ease of this market they think they will. We’re not going to sit by on the sidelines and we are now primed with everyone in this room and all the work that has been done. We have the information. We have the path. We have a plan. We just need everyone on board to do this.”
