From Sacramento Business Journal
A bill that sought to legalize sports betting in California failed to move by the deadline Friday.
Odd are that without a clear national policy in play, no effort will be made on the issue next year in California.
Senate Bill 190 was introduced in February by state Sen. Roderick Wright, an Inglewood Democrat. It sought to legalize sports betting at the venues in California that allow legal gambling, which are Indian casinos, card rooms and horse racing tracks.
The measure required bets to be made in person, with the idea that the new traffic would help the state’s struggling horse racing tracks.
The home district of Sen. Wright includes Hollywood Park, a major horse-racing track in Los Angeles County. Locally, the places currently licensed for gambling include three Indian casinos, the horse-racing track at Cal Expo and about a dozen card rooms.
Even if the bill had passed in the state of California, it would have required action in Washington, D.C., before anyone could legally bet on a sport in the Golden State. That’s because federal law, under the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, made sports gambling illegal in all states except for Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana.
