California can’t keep sitting out while the game moves on

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OPINION – When California hosted the Super Bowl earlier this year, one uncomfortable reality stood out. While fans across the country placed legal, regulated bets in their home states, Californians were left on the sidelines once again without a legal sports wagering option of our own.

That void didn’t mean betting didn’t happen. It meant it happened elsewhere.

In the absence of a legal, regulated marketplace, Californians were pushed toward unregulated alternatives – offshore sportsbooks, illegal operators and, increasingly, so-called “prediction markets” offering contracts on the outcome of sporting events. These platforms now boast unprecedented trading volumes tied to marquee events like the Super Bowl while operating outside the clear consumer safeguards Californians rightly expect.

Next year, Super Bowl 61 will be played right here in Los Angeles. And if nothing changes, we will replay the same mistake: ceding oversight, consumer protection and economic opportunity to platforms that were never designed to protect our communities.

Prediction markets are not a substitute for sports betting regulation. They allow participation by 18- to 21-year-olds who are prohibited from wagering in nearly all regulated sports betting states. They lack the robust identity and age verification, responsible gaming tools and betting-integrity monitoring that define legal sportsbooks. And because they operate in regulatory gray areas, they raise serious concerns about insider trading and market manipulation especially when contracts are tied to sports events involving non-public information.

This is not a theoretical problem. It is happening now, at scale, in California.

Meanwhile, more than three-quarters of the country has chosen a different path. States with legal sports betting have built regulatory systems that reflect their values: strict age verification, responsible gaming tools, funding for problem-gambling services, transparency requirements, and real enforcement authority. They have reduced reliance on illegal operators while generating billions in new revenue for education, public safety, and other shared priorities.

California, by contrast, continues to enforce an indefensible status quo that protects no one and benefits no one.

To be clear: legal sports wagering should not be rushed, and it should not be imposed.

Californians deserve to decide what it looks like. That means thoughtful engagement with tribal governments, labor, public-health experts, community leaders and voters. It means designing consumer protections that are among the strongest in the nation. It means dedicating funding to prevention, education, and treatment for those who need help.

And it means setting tax rates deliberately to support public priorities while reasonable ensuring the legal market can compete with illegal alternatives.

What we cannot afford is continued paralysis.

Every year we delay, illegal operators and unregulated platforms grow stronger. They advertise aggressively, target young adults, and operate without accountability. They do not contribute a dollar to California schools or infrastructure. They do not fund problem gambling services. And when something goes wrong, Californians have nowhere to turn.

California stands to lose more revenue, more consumer trust, and more regulatory control while gaining nothing in return.

We are capable of better. The question is whether we are willing to come together, end the impasse, and do the hard work of building a legal, regulated sports wagering framework that reflects California’s values.

The game is already being played here. It’s time California finally stepped onto the field.

John Cruikshank is a board member of the Los Angeles County Taxpayers Association (LA-Tax) and the former mayor of Rancho Palos Verdes.