California Tribes Lay Groundwork For Sports Betting Push

Speaking exclusively to iGamingFuture at ICE Barcelona 2026, Indian Tribal gambling leader Victor Rocha has revealed that California’s powerful Native American operators are laying the groundwork to bring legal online sports betting to the Golden State in 2028.

And responding to top online gamesters DraftKings and FanDuel launching prediction market apps of their own, as a way of bypassing tough online gambling laws in California, Rocha, Conference Chair of the Indian Gaming Association, warned:

“You take one penny out of California and we’ve got a problem.” 

“Right now, the groundwork is moving towards sports betting; that’s happening as we speak.”

“They [DraftKings and FanDuel] are going to be on the wrong side of this issue and the Tribes are ready. This just makes it easier to box them out of the industry, to box them out of California.”

Timeline

Both Rocha and–in a separate conversation–the Chair of California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA), James Siva, confirmed that the state’s Tribes were activating for a 2028 legal sports betting push.

“The Tribes have been working on what the future of sports betting looks like in California. We basically never stopped since Prop 26 and 27 failed (in 2022). The conversations have only increased,” Siva told iGamingFuture.

“I know a lot of work will happen this year, but I continue to look at 2028 as the year for the actual introduction of language.

“When you look at a ballot initiative in California, there’s a lengthy process before you even get that in place.”

2026 is an election year in California, and with the current Governor, Gavin Newsom (D), term-limited, his replacement will take office in early January 2027.

According to Siva, this is a key development as it will “set the foundation for what the next political situation is around sports betting”.

Monopoly

Under current California law, as in many other U.S. states, local Tribes have exclusive compacts, effectively monopolies, to provide legal gambling on sites on Indian reservations.

The Pechanga and San Manuel Tribes, for example, operate California’s two largest gaming enterprises: Yaamava’ Resort & Casino and Pechanga Resort Casino; both bigger in size than most Vegas venues.

Tribal gaming in California supports over 180,000 jobs statewide and generates over US$35 billion (£26bn) in economic impact annually — much of which directly funds Native governance and social, welfare and education programmes.

But under current law, online sports betting remains illegal in the Golden State. 

And, amid the explosive growth of digital sports wagering across the U.S., this impasse has triggered a fierce battle over who should control the vertical if and when it comes to California, population 40 million.

For example, should the Tribes’ effective monopoly of retail casino-based gambling be extended to dominance, too, of online sports betting?

Should iGaming heavy-hitters, such as DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and Fanatics, be allowed to also launch sports betting products in the state?

Or should there be a mix of both, similar to the Seminole Tribe’s association with Hard Rock International in Florida? 

Plebiscite

A plebiscite of the people, requiring a simple majority (51 percent), is required before a proposal to change the gaming laws can be put to the state government.

The last time this was attempted was in 2022, when Propositions 26 and 27 pitted Tribal gambling operators against DraftKings and FanDuel. 

Both propositions, clashing and complicated, failed to pass muster.

But recent polling data suggests that over 60 percent of the California electorate now approve sports betting.

And this is a situation that the Tribes are increasingly ready to capitalise on.