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A decades-long battle between California cardrooms and tribal gaming entities took an unexpected turn last week.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that the California Office of Administrative Law had approved new cardroom regulations specifically targeting “blackjack-style and “player-dealer” games in cardrooms, which have been legally offered since the 1980s.
The California Gaming Association estimates the rules will jeopardize 50% of cardroom jobs, affect tens of thousands of families, and drastically reduce tax revenue for cities that rely on cardrooms to fund essential services, including parks, police, and fire departments.
The new rules will take effect on April 1, and cardrooms have 60 days after that to submit compliance plans.
Can’t call it ‘blackjack’
Rather than explicitly banning blackjack-style games, the new regulations represent a new interpretation of them.
Since tribal casinos have explicit rights to traditional casino-style gaming, California cardrooms have offered modified “California Games,” most of which have functioned using third parties that acted as bankers in lieu of the house. The new rules prohibit that system, meaning cardrooms must facilitate a player rotation to function as the bank against the remaining players at the table.
It might be impossible for cardrooms to find players willing to put up their own money against everyone at the table.
Other rules include:
- No busting: Players and dealers cannot “bust” (automatically lose by exceeding a count).
- Win conditions: Winners are determined solely by having a point total closer to a specified target (not 21) than the player-dealer.
- No Natural 21: An ace and a 10-value card no longer result in an automatic win.
- Tie rules: In the event of a tie, the player wins, rather than a “push” or no-action.
- Dealer rotation: The player-dealer position must be rotated at least every 40 minutes to a new player.
- Naming restrictions: Game names cannot include “21” or “blackjack.”
A big win for tribes
Cardrooms and tribes have been at odds with one another since the 1980s when the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) gave tribal casinos exclusive gaming rights in the Golden State.
The tribes have long argued that player-banked games functioned the same as casino games, and therefore, were only legal at tribal casinos.
In October 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 549, which gave tribes the ability to sue cardrooms. Three months later, the tribes sued cardrooms, but the case was ultimately dismissed in October 2025, with the state claiming it lacked jurisdiction to rule on the matter.
‘Legal pushback’
California Gaming Association President Kyle Kirkland issued a statement condemning the new rules.
“With other stakeholders, we documented serious legal and economic concerns in these flawed regulations, yet AG Bonta refused to identify a single threat to public safety, refused to engage with the communities, working families and long-standing businesses that the regulations would devastate and advanced the regulations without good faith discussion or lawful disclosure.”
In an interview with CBS News Sacramento, Kirkland added:
“Candidly, we’re not ready to just give up and fold up shop by April 1. We’ve had our lawyers working on this. There’s going to be some legal pushback.”
