How Draftkings Daily Fantasy Sports avoids Californians ban on online sports betting
Ever since the United States Supreme Court repealed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 in 2018, it seemed like every state in the country was in a footrace to legitimize sports betting within their jurisdiction. While many territories did jump on the bandwagon nearly as soon as possible — with New York and Nevada having pre existing legislation and infrastructure already laid out, giving them a massive head start on the rest of the nation — many states still grappled with the idea of sports betting within their borders even after the dust settled.
Is sports betting legal in California?
As of today, 33 states have legalized sports betting in some manner, either through online sites and mobile apps, in person with retail locations, or both. Three other states have pending bills to join them, leaving 14 states where gambling on sports is still prohibited.
Unfortunately for residents of the state of California, they’re in the group where their government still has sports betting completely barred. That doesn’t mean that none of their elected officials have tried to bring legal sports betting to La La Land, though. The state’s sports teams are often bet on from countries and states where the practice is legal and many congressmen are starting to see the benefit of nationwide legalization.
Early efforts to legalize sports betting in California
For example, State Assemblyman Adam Gray was quick to the draw, introducing and then reintroducing a measure within a year of PASPA’s repeal in 2018 to try to bring sports betting to California. Unfortunately, ACA 18 never caught any momentum and was effectively dead on arrival.
Undeterred, however, Assemblyman Gray tried again in 2019, with the support of Senator Bill Dodd. The two officials both submitted their own bills to try to legalize sports betting, ACA 16 and SCA 6. Not only was there more movement among the legislative bodies of California, Gray and Dodd had the support of over 18 different Native American tribes, who had started a petition to try to sway the remaining opponents of sports gambling. The proposal would require that the petition garner nearly a million signatures by 2020.
Practically over as soon as it began, the tribes were unable to carry out their endeavor of collecting a million signatures in support of legalizing sports betting in California, as the COVID-19 pandemic ground operations to a halt and forced the entire state of California into lockdown.
Thankfully the state granted the tribes an extension due to the circumstances, and they were able to accumulate over 1.4 million advocates. While their efforts did put sports betting on the ballot in November 22, both propositions that would have legalized sports betting failed to garner enough votes. As such, Californians will have to wait until at least 2024 for another chance to legitimize sports gambling in their state.
That doesn’t mean that residents can’t wager on sports at all, however, as there are legal options for Californians to avoid their state’s ban on sports gambling, and Draftkings sportsbook in California remains as one of few ways to do so.
Draftkings and other DFS Operators give California sports betting
Daily Fantasy Sports has become the country’s most popular legal alternative to sports betting for those in states where gambling is still forbidden or even for those who just prefer the appeal of fantasy sports over traditional bets.
Daily Fantasy Sports offers patrons the ability to draft or build teams using real cash. Each game has a buy-in and assigns each contestant a salary cap with which to spend on different players who are given varying price tags based on their abilities. Then, these constructed teams compete with one another based on the players’ real-life performances for their designated time periods.
While California residents can’t bet their hard-earned money using sportsbooks yet, they’re legally in the clear to take advantage of fantasy games or any Daily Fantasy Sport operator available in the state. With plenty of sign-up bonuses available, more and more Californians are joining DFS by the day, an indicator of what’s to come in the future.
