(FOX40.COM) — New regulations will bar cardrooms from offering blackjack and other player-dealer games — a move opponents say will devastate the industry in California.

Under one of the two new rules, cardrooms cannot offer blackjack, the world’s most popular casino card game. Players would no longer “bust” by exceeding 21 points, and cardrooms may not use the name “blackjack” or include the number 21.

“Whether a player wins or loses shall be determined solely by whether the total points of a player’s hand is closer to the target point count when compared with the total points of the player-dealer’s hand,” the regulations state.

Those rules, approved last Friday by the Office of Administrative Law, were officially proposed by the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Gambling Control last year. Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office announced the approval Monday but did not comment on the change.

In 1999, voters approved Proposition 1A, which gives California’s Native American tribes the exclusive right to offer blackjack and other table games where gamblers play against the casino, or the “house.”

But in cardrooms, gamblers don’t play against a casino — they use player-dealers. Those players, employed by third-party providers of proposition players services (TPPPPS), volunteer in cardrooms to serve as the “house.”

The second major change would put a wrench in that complicated system, including requiring the deal to “rotate to at least two players other than the TPPPPS every 40 minutes.”

Heather Guerena, general counsel for Stones Gambling Hall in Citrus Heights, said the new rules would “completely obliterate” the cardroom’s ability to offer blackjack and other player-dealer games.

Five of Stones’ 17 tables offer blackjack, Guerena told FOX40. Each of those tables supports about 10 employees.

“If we can’t play those games and we don’t have people to play different games on those tables, that would be 50 jobs that would evaporate,” she said.

Jobs loss and revenue transfer

The industry has been around since the early days of California, Guerena said, and Citrus Heights has been home to cardrooms since at least the 1950s.

Last year, hundreds of cardroom workers rallied in Sacramento outside Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office to oppose the regulations.

More than 10,000 jobs statewide will be eliminated because of the regulations, the California Gaming Association warned — about half of all cardroom jobs in California.

In regulatory filings, the Department of Justice wrote that the two rules will bring more business to tribal casinos and out-of-state locations. In total, the department estimates the regulations will reduce cardroom revenue by $464 million annually and increase tribal casino revenue by $232 million each year.

“The primary beneficiaries of the proposed regulations would be tribal casinos,” the department wrote in one document. “Gaming at tribal casinos would not be covered by the proposed regulations.”

Previous attorneys general have approved the player-dealer games offered by California cardrooms, and no legal changes preceded the push for stricter rules.

“The only reason these regs are coming out … is politics,” Guerena said.

The California Nations Indian Gaming Association, a group that fights to protect tribal gaming rights, did not respond to FOX40’s request for comment.

Years-long power struggle

The new rules are a major milestone in a power struggle between cardrooms and tribal casinos.

In 2024, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 549, which gave Native American tribes standing to sue cardrooms in state court. In a lawsuit filed soon after, seven tribal casinos argued that cardrooms “brazenly profit from illegal gambling.”

But last year, a judge dismissed a challenge by tribal casinos that argued cardrooms infringe on their Prop 1A rights regarding blackjack and player-dealer games.

Now, cardrooms feel that Bonta’s office is favoring those tribes by pushing through the new rules. Kyle Kirkland, president of the California Gaming Association, said the attorney general’s office did not properly inform cardrooms during the regulatory approval process.

“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,” Kirkland said in a statement.

The Department of Justice said it received 1,764 public comments between the two rules.

Those regulations will take effect April 1, the Department of Justice said in a news release, and the deadline for cardrooms to “submit plans for compliance” is May 31.

The cardroom industry is expected to pursue legal action to block the new rules.

“Our only avenue now is to go to court,” Guerena said. “We’re reviewing every option we have available to us.”

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