California Casino Laws

Top Rated California Online Gambling

1. California Gambling Laws And Regulations
2. Is Casino Legal In California

California - The Commerce Casino Los Angeles. California casino directory and gambling laws. Learn about the casino industry, its games and career opportunities.

Available in California

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• Best online casino for California players
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Chumba Review

Available in California

Pros

• $20 Gold Coin Package post verification + $40 Gold coin package for $20
• Best online poker for California players
• Real Cash Prizes

Poker Rating
Global Review

CALIFORNIA LAND BASED GAMBLING

California Indian Casinos

California is home to the largest Indian casinos in the United States. They offer most popular casino games including slots and blackjack.

California Card Rooms

California card rooms are found throughout the state. They offer poker along with Cal games which are variations of Blackjack, Pai Gow, Baccarat and more.

California Race Tracks

There are 4 Race Tracks in California, 3 in Southern California and 1 in Northern Calfornia along with access to online horse racing across the United States.

CALIFORNIA GAMBLING INFO

California is a state of contradictions, at least where gambling is concerned. The state offers multiple types of gambling through legal technicalities. Generally, you can find most types of gambling somewhere within California’s borders.

Below we will break down the specifics so you know how to partake in different gambling activities within the Golden State.

California Sweepstakes Gambling

Online gambling is illegal in California with a few minor exceptions (i.e. horse racing and daily fantasy sports). However, sweepstakes gambling is legal because of a loophole.

Legality Of California Sweepstakes Gambling

Sweepstakes gambling technically does not have you play for real money. Instead, players compete for Sweeps Coins or other digital currencies. You can place money into sweepstakes gambling apps or sites to purchase Gold Coins or other premium currencies, which can be exchanged for other real prizes. But this just isn’t the same as actually playing for real money.

Where To Play

The best sweepstakes sites in California are Chumba Casino, Luckyland Slots, Funzpoints and Global Poker. Chumba is a phenomenal digital casino featuring hundreds of slot machines and lots of other online games, like electronic blackjack.

Global Poker is an ideal online poker resource that provides two main poker variants: Texas and Omaha Hold’Em. In Global Poker’s case, finding people to play with never takes too long since the site operates almost everywhere in the US. Global Poker’s player pool is quite full.

Until online gambling becomes legal in California, these types of sites are your only choice for online poker and slots games. Since online gambling is becoming legal in other states, California may yet change its stance over the next few years.

California Indian Casino Gambling

In California, tribal gambling enterprises are legal and provide the state government with significant revenue in return, either directly or through ancillary income streams. For instance, someone traveling a great distance to visit a famous casino may also stay at a local hotel, resulting in taxable spending for the state government.

At the time of this writing, there are 63 casinos currently running. These are largely concentrated in both the Riverside and San Diego Counties, which between them include 17 casinos.

Legality Of California Indian Casinos And Gambling Revenue

Tribal casinos are legal in California because of long-standing government pacts between the state government and Indian tribes. Basically, tribal casinos are legal because the casinos are technically not built on state-owned land.

The Indian tribal casinos in California collectively generate over $8 million in annual revenue every year. Casino themes, attractions, and offerings can vary dramatically from place to place. The largest casinos are near 200,000 ft.² and may feature thousands of slot machines in addition to dozens of restaurants and bars. Many of the best casinos also feature hotels with hundreds or thousands of rooms, plus expansive spas.

Games Available

Tribal casinos in California offer three types of games ranging from Class I to Class III. These include but are not limited to:

• Bingo
• Poker
• Lottery games
• Blackjack
• Electronic games
• Roulette

There’s almost always something new to try at these resorts. Most of the Indian casinos in California feature poker tournaments or private games. For example, the Morongo Casino Resort Spa offers private poker tables for high-stakes games or work retreats, which can be reserved ahead of time.

You need to be 21-years-old to enter many (but not all) California Indian casinos since most of them serve alcohol on their premises, even though the legal gambling age is 18.

Where To Play

Some of the best California Indian casinos include:

• Pechanga Resort Casino, with 4,500 slot machines, 20 restaurants/bars, and an expansive hotel with over 1,000 rooms
• Thunder Valley Casino Resort, which features 2,800 slot machines, 114 gaming tables, live poker games, and a 145,000 ft.² space.
• Table Mountain Casino, 20 miles north of Fresno, which features 2,000 gaming machines plus 40 table games
• San Manuel Casino, a former bingo-only casino that now has tons of games, a new hotel, and a spa under construction that is set to be fully completed by 2021.

California Card Rooms

California is home to some of the best card rooms in the entire country. As of 2019, there are 66 card rooms active in the state. An additional 21 have licenses, but not for poker, which is one of the biggest draws for card rooms. All California card rooms are well-regulated to ensure fair play.

You can find most major types of poker within these card rooms, including Texas and Omaha Hold’Em and Seven-Card Stud.

Tournaments

Another big advantage of going to California card rooms is the ability to participate in a wide range of tournaments. For example, The Bicycle Hotel and Casino offers tournaments attached to the World Series of Poker, which normally run from November to December. Other card rooms like California’s Commerce Casino host the LA Poker Classic, which is held from January to March.

Regardless of your skill level, it’s easy to find tons of poker tournaments for beginners and experts and with plenty of prize pools.

Special Games Available

Additionally, most California card rooms include special “Cal Games”, which are variations of regular casino card games that feature rules that are modified to fit within existing California gambling laws. Most California card rooms offer special variants of blackjack, Chinese Poker, Pai Gow, and more.

Where To Play

Some of the best California card rooms include the aforementioned Bicycle Hotel and Casino, the Commerce Casino, Hollywood Park Casino, and Hawaiian Gardens Casino. Most California card rooms are attached to casinos or include hostel. These hotels can be a fantastic base of operations for touring the local area and attractions.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to be 18-years-old or older to play in any California card room. Both Southern California and Northern California have tons of card rooms available. Overall, there are more in the state’s southern counties.

California Race Tracks

California is actually one of the best states for horse racing, especially because it has some of the oldest tracks in the country. The first track was built in 1858. However, these days, there are four main race tracks that host the majority of racing events across the territory.

Where To Go

• Santa Anita Park, built in 1907, later found a new and permanent home at the border of the San Gabriel Mountains. Famous horses like Seabiscuit and Zenyatta have raced at this track before. Santa Anita Park has a long history of hosting famous World Cups or other tourneys.
• Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, built in 1936, recently hosted the Breeders’ Cup in 2017. Beyond horse racing, it’s a big part of the local community since it hosts summer concerts, county fairs, and other local events all the time.
• Golden Gate Fields, built in 1941, features a new tapeta racing surface and an abundance of entertaining and fine dining options. All-American tournaments and breathtaking views of the Bay Area make it a wonderful track to visit at least once.
• Los Alamitos Race Course, an old race track that recently underwent renovation in 2014, is another landmark site. Nighttime Quarter Horse racing and thoroughbred daytime racing are both offered throughout select months of the year, and notable events like local derbies and high-stakes tournaments are commonplace

Legality Of California Horse Race Betting

Horse race betting has been legal in California ever since 1933, though low attendance has caused most tracks, except for the above four, to either collapse or significantly reduce their offerings. Online horse betting is also legal, which is notable since most other online gambling activities are illegal in California.

Horse racing enthusiasts can bet with both straight and exotic-type bets, either on-track or by using online apps. Off-track horse betting is also pretty commonplace throughout the state. You can find casinos, businesses, or even gas stations that allow off-track horse race betting, allowing you to place wagers on horse races that are occurring elsewhere. It’s an ideal solution if you don’t want to use an app, but still want to bet on a race you can’t personally attend. There are 27 satellite locations in total that offer off-track betting to some extent.

You have to be 21-years-old to place any horse racing bet, including if you want to use one of the mobile apps. Of the apps, TVG and Twin Spires are particularly good choices, as they feature easy-to-navigate interfaces and 24/7 horserace streaming for both California races and races around the world.

Sign-Up Bonuses For New Players

Both apps feature excellent welcome bonuses. TVG provides a risk-free bet up to $300, while Twin Spires offers its new players $100 in site credit if you wager $500 within the first 30 days of creating your account.

California Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS)

The daily fantasy sports situation in California is a bit complex. In a nutshell, daily fantasy sports legislation has been in the works since around 2015. However, no bill has been passed, either fully legalizing or outlawing daily fantasy sports operation within the state.

Legality Of California DFS

As a result of the lack of legislation, there isn’t any daily fantasy sports regulation. Also, in the absence of any legislation that explicitly declares DFS illegal, major DFS operators like DraftKings and FanDuel continue to operate within California borders. They do this by referencing a clause in the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Act. In brief, this allows both operators to provide DFS gambling since DFS can technically be seen as a game of skill instead of a game of chance.

California Gambling Laws And Regulations

Since both DraftKings and FanDuel have offered DFS in California, there have been no major attempts to shut them down or prevent them from operating. Both of these operators have the majority of DFS players shared between them, and the DFS market in California is actually the largest in the US overall.

California has easily over 130,000 DFS players at this time. This number may even grow since there aren’t any taxes, fees, or legal frameworks to regulate DFS operation at this time. Until the California state legislature firmly decides one way or the other whether DFS operation should be legal or illegal, things are likely to remain this way.

Sign-Up Bonuses For New Players

Both DraftKings and FanDuel are excellent DFS operators to go with, but you can actually use both apps. This is recommended since you can try both apps to figure out which interface you like best or which lineups are more to your liking.

Opening bonuses are:

• $500 deposit match for DraftKings and $20 free credit with your first deposit
• $5 and $5 more with your first deposit on FanDuel

The DraftKings bonus is a lot better at first glance. When you dig into both apps, you’ll find that the interfaces for both are pretty similar, with rosters on the right and different selectable sports on the left-hand side of the screen. You’ll be able to choose from all the staple sports like NFL, NBA, MLB, and so on without trouble.

However, FanDuel has a few more sports lines available, like international and championship soccer leagues and European league sports. On the other hand, DraftKings offers WNBA betting.

Both apps are also pretty similar in terms of the bets you can place. All in all, DraftKings and FanDuel are likely to stay legal in California for quite some time, even if legislation trends toward making them illegal over the next few years. Now’s a great time to try both apps out and see which one you like best.

CALIFORNIA GAMBLING FAQ

No. This is largely because of disagreements between the tribal casinos and state government. At this time, tribal casinos are looking to monopolize sports betting by limiting it at their brick-and-mortar casinos. Online sports betting is, thus, unlikely to appear in the near future.

The National Indian Gaming Commission regulates most of the tribal casino games, while daily fantasy sports operators aren’t really regulated at all. The California Horse Racing Board takes care of regulating all horse racing activities within the state.

It’s because of anti-gambling legislation that swept across the United States decades ago. In a nutshell, gambling that takes place within games of pure chance is illegal if money is involved. This ostensibly prevents people from being taken advantage of.

Card rooms are legal since players wager against one another instead of the house. Card rooms make a profit by charging players fees to use their facilities.

Through pari-mutuel betting, which means that the tracks take a cut of the winnings from each wager. Again, this keeps this type of wagering legal since players bet against each other.

On this page, we’ve compiled an in-depth summary of the current state of online gambling in CA, touching on various topics from the legality of gambling in the state to current regulatory debates. We’ve also compiled a list of safe and secure online casinos for California residents that you can view below, which have all been in business for 10+ years with no issues. If you’re looking for a legal, safe, and trusted California online casinos, you’re in luck!

What Are the Top Real Money Online Casinos in California?

California is known for being a trendsetter when it comes to most industries in the United States. It’s no surprise that legalized online gambling in California has grown far ahead of many other locations in the United States.

Why These CA Online Casinos Are The Best

They Offer Legal, Trusted Gambling Games to Residents and Visitors

The entire reason you’re probably here is to figure out which online casinos offer services to California residents. You’ve probably heard mixed answers about the legality of online gambling in California and, therefore, are not sure where you can and cannot play.

Because of that, the number one trait that makes California online casinos great is simply the fact that they offer services to California residents and visitors!

They Offer Games Californians Love to Play

What good is an online casino if it doesn’t have the games that Californians love to play? We’ll answer that question for you—it’s no good at all. The California online casinos that we’ve recommended offer an extremely wide variety of games, including favorites like blackjack, craps, roulette, three card poker, keno, slot machines, pai gow, sic bo, and more! If you’re looking for an easy way to play your favorite gambling games for real money in California, check out one of the recommended online casinos from the up-to-date list at the top of the page.

They Have Banking Options That Work Fast

Not every banking option works everywhere in the world. There are specific banking options that work better and faster for California residents. When we’re analyzing the quality of California online casinos, we ensure that they have several high-quality online casino banking options that work great for Californians.

While we don’t need tons of options, we do want to see at least a couple of great deposit options and a couple of great withdrawal options. You’re only going to need one, but we want options just so you have a better chance of seeing an option that is a great fit for you.

The Ultimate in Convenience

The entire point of using online casino sites is to provide convenience. California is an extremely spread out state in some areas, which means you may be hundreds of miles from the closest land-based casino. Additionally, that land-based casino might not offer the games you want to play. This is where online casinos come in. The idea of an online casino is to solve these problems and bring convenience to players across the state.

But this convenience goes away if the online gambling site doesn’t set things up properly. It should be super simple for you to create an account, make a deposit, find the games you like, play, and withdraw your winnings. If any of these things aren’t super simple, we’re not interested in the site and you won’t see those California online casinos recommended on this page.

Is Online Gambling Legal in California?

These days, the United States is one of the more confusing countries in the world when it comes to online gambling laws, with dozens of states having different rules and nuances of how they treat the topic. When it comes to California, it is perhaps the unique exception. There are currently no specific regulations that explicitly prohibit online gambling for residents of the state.

Because of this, Californians have little worry when it comes to playing online casino games, and currently, there are a number of trustworthy sites offering online casino games, sports betting, and poker across the state.

Unlike the state lottery, casinos that operate online are not subject to any sort of government scrutiny and, in many ways, can operate without fear of legal ramifications. For this reason, many bills have been proposed with the end goal of legalizing and regulating the online casino industry in the state.

Up to this point, however, any and all legislation aimed at legalizing and regulating online casinos has either stalled or has been flat-out rejected.

What Does This Mean for You?

There are two important takeaways you should get from this. One, it is not illegal for you to gamble online in California. You are free to play the games you want for real money without fear of negative repercussions. Two, the market is unregulated, which means that you will not have some of the added protections and oversight you would get in a regulated market.

This makes it that much more important that you choose to gamble online in California. The good news for you is that casinos make a lot of money. For them to continue making money, they have to continue having happy customers that are getting the entertainment value they desire. If they are not operating reputably and taking care of their customers, word will get out, and their cash cow is going to dry up. This places a huge incentive for online casinos in California to do things the right way as if they were being regulated.

Still, not every online casino follows that mindset. There are some California online casinos that only look at the short term and don’t care about their long-term sustainability. Because of this, it is also important that you take advantage of resources like this site to help you determine where the best casinos online are. If you want to ensure you’re betting with one of these reputable sites, stick to the recommended list we’ve provided at the top of the page.

The Future of Online Gambling in California

Despite what has been a mostly fruitless endeavor up to this point, experts believe that California is one of the next states that will establish legalized intrastate online casinos. Each year, it seems as though a larger number of bills for the complete and total legalization and regulation of online casinos gets put into circulation.

It is only a matter of time until one of them is signed into law. With that being said, online gambling sites are what many would consider to be the least of California’s governmental problems. With almost constant drought, severe debt, and many other issues on hand, it becomes difficult for activists to convince politicians and voters alike that establishing an online casino network is something that should be done soon. Many efforts have been made, and only few have succeeded.

The fact that the California government does not oversee them does not mean that the California online casinos which offer their games are not trustworthy. These casinos are regulated abroad and most are very reliable; you just have to sign up with time-tested ones with stellar reputations. To help you with choosing a legal CA online casino to play at, we have reviewed and researched dozens and recommend the best online casinos for California residents at the top of the page.

Legal Status of Brick and Mortar Casinos — California

In California, there are plenty of brick-and-mortar locations all over the state. One thing that all of these casinos have in common, however, is that they are all Native American-run and almost always located on Native American land. This sounds like a rather conservative policy for an otherwise liberal state, but the wider scope of gambling and casinos in California is not as restrictive as it may first appear. Of course, this all depends on where you reside in the United States.

The land-based casinos in California usually offer all the classic favorites such as slots, roulette, keno, baccarat, blackjack and the like.

Card rooms—as they are known in California—number in the tens of dozens and seem to be growing in number all the time. Poker is the dominant offering of California’s card rooms, however, blackjack variants and other more obscure games can be found being played as well. Basically, so long as the game is centered around playing cards, the rule of thumb is that it can likely be found at a card room. Naturally, some card rooms are better than others, and thus, the offering of one card room is never equal to that of another.

Is Casino Legal In California

Additionally, if you play non-poker, gambling-type games in one of these card rooms, you’ll notice that the “bank” or who you are playing against will actually be another player at the table who is being paid to be there. It’s a confusing system and clearly a workaround for the state laws, but the outcome is the same. You are able to play your favorite games without fear of negative repercussions.

There are brick and mortar, Native American-run casinos all over the state, however, online gambling is still the easiest way to play any and all casino games at any time of day. When it comes down to it, someone who is looking to play casino games in California will either have to do so at CA online casinos or on Native American land. As you might have guessed, this predicament means that online casino play in California is quite widespread. It’s this common knowledge that is driving the push to legalize and regulate real money online casinos.

In recent years, pro-casino activists have lobbied politicians to promote and/or vote for bills to expand the way in which Californians can gamble at brick-and-mortar sites, but most of those efforts have so far been for naught. This is interesting, too, because California is historically one of the more liberal states in the country. Some of the largest land-based casinos currently operating in California include the following:

Local California Land Based Casinos

California Online Casinos and Gambling FAQ

• Abbreviation: CA
• State Motto: Eureka
• Capital City: Sacramento
• Population Estimate: 39.5 million (1st)
• Website: https://www.ca.gov/

Most notably, the online casinos we recommend for California residents have all been operating for many years and have strong reputations to defend. In case of issues, they will resolve them immediately so that their stellar reputations are not sullied. These online casinos also use time-tested technology and reputable casino games, therefore, you can be sure that if you decide to make a deposit in one of these casinos, your depositing process will be safe and secure and the games you will play will be fair and give you an honest chance to win money!