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California ban Blackjack from cardrooms May 2026 (1 Viewer)

Surprising it took so long. I was reading a case recently where a California court found the newjack game (or whatever they were calling it, something like that) as an illegally-banked game, despite the whole game being a blackjack variant created solely in an effort to get around that exact hurdle.
 
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Given how the industry has been allowed to abuse the original laws' intent for so long, they deserve it IMO.
 
acezag said:
Given how the industry has been allowed to abuse the original laws' intent for so long, they deserve it IMO.
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Fair point, likely downside though is places where they had those games, it’d help cover some of the fixed costs of the business.

So assume we’ll see some higher rake in the poker games unless they come up with something else to cover the revenue gap from Blackjack.
 
Kam said:
Fair point, likely downside though is places where they had those games, it’d help cover some of the fixed costs of the business.

So assume we’ll see some higher rake in the poker games unless they come up with something else to cover the revenue gap from Blackjack.
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If this holds, a lot of places will lose a ton of revenue and may inevitably end up closing.
 
TheChipVault said:
Casinos closing.. what a shame. What will happen to all those chips!
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This seems to affect baccarat as well. Matrix and Bay101 here are probably 80% house games.

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9 tables of poker max on a Friday night. Probably 30-40 tables of house games all full.

Ban will probably get delayed. May feels too abrupt.
 
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I read an article about it yesterday and lost patience because I didn’t understand what they were actually playing. It sounded like the players were the players AND the bank? How does that work?
 
upNdown said:
I read an article about it yesterday and lost patience because I didn’t understand what they were actually playing. It sounded like the players were the players AND the bank? How does that work?
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That was how these games were originally legalized - California's laws enshrined the right of players to opt in to being the bank in games, as an answer to the charge that gambling was predatory.

In practice, casinos quickly realized that this mandate had no funding for enforcement. They started contracting with companies that would provide an employee to play in the games, who became the shadow bank. If recreational players attempted to exercise their right to bank, they often find themselves banned for some arbitrary reason, with little avenue to fight back. Establishments have very broad rights to refuse service, after all.

I get that these games fund poker. But the whole thing is just built on dirtbaggery and violating the rights of their customers in a lot cases.
 
acezag said:
If recreational players attempted to exercise their right to bank, they often find themselves banned for some arbitrary reason, with little avenue to fight back. Establishments have very broad rights to refuse service, after all.
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I've never heard of this. Most of the card rooms around here welcome "players" to be the "bank". It only requires a big enough bankroll to cover all of the action, which is usually the hold back for most people.
 

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