The California Secretary of State announced Friday that an online sports betting measure backed by Indian tribes did not qualify for the 2024 election by random sample.
Now the initiative moves to a full count of valid signatures, where the sample results also project it will fail.
Based on the random sample verification results from the 58 counties, the California sports betting initiative backed by the San Manuel, Rincon, Graton Rancheria and Wilton Rancheria tribes fell well short.
Qualifying on random count requires showing 110% of the 997,139 valid signatures required to make the ballot. That’s 1,096,853 signatures.
Initiatives need to show 95% of the required signatures even to make it to a full count. It barely did so. Counties projected the San Manuel proposal to have 955,807 valid signatures. That’s more than 40,000 less than needed to qualify.
San Manuel initiative originally intended for 2022
Two sports betting initiatives are fighting it out on the November ballot. Proposition 26 includes in-person sports betting at California tribal casinos and California horse racing venues. Proposition 27 has online sports betting in partnership with Indian tribes.
The San Manuel proposal combines both options. But it doesn’t include the clause attacking California cardrooms that may sink Prop 26. And it limits online operators partnering with tribes to use only tribal brands on California sports betting apps, while also requiring in-person registration at tribal properties.
Originally, this measure was introduced as a third alternative. But the San Manuel group opted to focus on opposing Prop 27 this election cycle.
The campaign waited until after the 2022 deadline to submit its initiative. And then it only submitted 1,315,651 raw signatures, putting qualifying for 2024 in doubt.
Failure is an option for tribal online sports betting measure
If the initiative fails on a full count, that’s still not the end of the line for a San Manuel-backed online sports betting initiative in 2024.
The tribe and its partners could introduce another initiative next year and qualify it for the 2024 ballot.
That means the money spent collecting signatures on this initiative, likely in excess of $10 million, goes to waste. The tribes will have to spend again to collect signatures on the new initiative.
But that might be necessary anyway. A decision next year in the case involving the Seminole Tribe’s online sports betting model in its compact with the State of Florida could also invalidate the method for offering sports wagering off tribal lands proposed in this initiative.
If that happens, San Manuel would want to file a new initiative with a different model for tribes to offer online sports betting.