Gaming tribes make clear they’ll lead the way on sports betting in California

It might be a bit of an understatement to say the November 5 election is clouded by uncertainty.

But there is one thing we know for sure: two years after the most expensive ballot campaign in U.S. history, California voters will not be considering another sports betting measure in 2024.

Two more proposed sports wagering initiatives were submitted to the Attorney General’s office last fall. But the effort was abandoned, ensuring that the issue will not come before voters this year, according to tribal leaders.

The soonest now that Californians may revisit the issue is 2026 – but even that’s no guarantee. Tensions remain high from 2022 election, as evidenced by discussions this month at the Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention in Anaheim.

The annual convention, hosted by the Indian Gaming Association, provided a peak not only into the mentality of California’s gaming tribes but also offered hints as to how sports wagering giants like FanDuel are responding to their still-raw emotions.

Two panels held on April 9 explicitly addressed the status of sports gaming in the Golden State. And in both, tribal leaders were blunt in their assessment of the situation.

“If online sports wagering is going to come, tribes need to be in control of their own destiny,” said Johnny Hernandez, Jr., vice chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, the owners of both the Yaamava’ Resort & Casino at San Manuel in San Bernardino County and Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

“We better be in the diver seat and control our destiny,” he said in an afternoon session entitled “The Future of Sports Betting in California: Timelines and Tribes.”

In a morning panel called “Balancing Act: Tribal Sovereignty in the New Frontier of Sports Wagering,” James Siva, the vice chairman of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the owner of the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa near Palm Springs, and the chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, an organization of California gaming tribes, was even more direct: “When it happens, the tribes will remain in control.”

“Tribes are the operators in California,” he added. “Period.”

The tribal leaders’ bold words are well-earned, of course, as the tribes beat back an attempt by sports wagering companies like FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM to legalize sports betting in California.

The annual convention, hosted by the Indian Gaming Association, provided a peak not only into the mentality of California’s gaming tribes but also offered hints as to how sports wagering giants like FanDuel are responding to their still-raw emotions.

Proposition 26, supported by gaming tribes, would have legalized in-person sports betting at tribal casinos and horse racing tracks. Proposition 27, backed by the large online gambling companies, would have legalized online sports betting.

About $460 million was raised for and against the measures, which were pitted against each other in a bare-knuckle fight of a campaign that seemed to confuse voters and ultimately led to the downfall of both initiatives. Which, in the end, just showed the tribes’ political power, as they were able to maintain the status quo in California, where they dominate the gaming industry.

Time and again, speakers at the conference said the showing at the ballot box in 2022 was proof that tribal casinos will dictate how much online gaming operators are able to function in California, or whether they’ll be welcome at all.

“We’ll let them know what terms we’ll be willing to accept,” Siva said in the afternoon panel.

Later in the panel, he said FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM will likely be like slot machine vendors, not operators. “They will not be operators in this state, 100 percent,” he said. “It will be what we decide.”

Hernandez also warned that the California gaming tribes might not let them participate at all “depending on how they act.”

The gaming operators, for their part, seem to understand they’ve been beaten. Joining Siva in the morning session was Amy Howe, the CEO of FanDuel, who acknowledged that the 2022 election was a “spectacular failure” and that her side “learned a lot.”

“It will be up to the tribes when it (sports gaming legalization) happens, how it happens and what role” businesses like FanDuel get to play in it, said a visibly humbled Howe.

“We hope and believe we can be an important ally” to the tribes in sports betting, she said of companies like hers. But she also acknowledged building those bridges after 2022 “will take a long time.”

FanDuel, however, seems to be doing all it can to build those bridges quickly. In addition to Howe speaking at the tribal gaming conference – which Siva acknowledged as brave – the company has been aggressive in hiring tribal members in the last several months.

In October, it hired San Manuel Chief Operating Officer Rikki Tanenbaum as a senior vice president for strategic partnerships. Then in January, FanDuel hired Frank Sizemore, a former San Manuel vice president of operations, as a vice president of strategic partnerships.

And in February, it got E. Sequoyah Simermeyer, the chairman of the federal National Indian Gaming Commission, to resign his office to also take a job as a vice president for strategic partnerships with the company.

Both FanDuel and DraftKings were “industry sponsors” of Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention at the Anaheim Convention Center.

“They will not be operators in this state, 100 percent,” he said. “It will be what we decide.”

Still, even with industry giants clearly trying to curry their favor, tribal leaders showed that they continue to have a chip on their shoulders. During the afternoon panel, for example, Victor Rocha, founder of Pechanga.net and conference chair for the Indian Gaming Association, mentioned several things that he viewed as slights to tribal gaming operations.

At one point in the panel, he said a subtext of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani sports gaming scandal in the media has been that if only the tribes had legalized sports betting “this would have never happened.”

At another point, he complained that state government in Sacramento refuses to treat tribes as equals and instead acts like they’re the equivalent to cities or counties. He also remarked that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a political ally of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, owners of Hard Rock chain, has been more accommodating to tribal gaming interests than Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Siva told the crowd that tribal interests are taking a “deep dive” into fantasy sports operators and said, “We’ll hammer them when we need to. When we’re ready.”

Indeed, Siva said several times that the tribes will be acting at their own pace as they consider how to implement sports betting in California. He acknowledged that not all the tribes will agree on everything, but they are united in purpose and will defend their territory at all costs.

Gaming operators chomping at the bit to get into California will just have to wait until California gaming tribes have worked out what they want to do, he said.

Jacob Mejia, vice president of public and external affairs for the Pechanga Development Corporation and a member of the Open California board that publishes Capitol Weekly, moderated the morning panel with Siva and Howe.

As the session wrapped up, he asked Siva what message California tribes have for companies like Howe’s.

“Get out of our way,” Siva said. “We know what we’re doing. This is our industry. We know the path.”

The attendees erupted into applause at that line.

“Well said, chairman,” Mejia replied.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story said FanDuel hired Frank Sizemore in January and Rikki Tannenbaum in October. The order was actually the other way around, which we have corrected. We regret the error.