Jackson McFetridge, dressed as Mr. Monopoly, joins card room employees and union members protesting outside Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Sacramento office on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, against proposed regulations that would effectively ban blackjack-style games and severely limit player-dealer games in California card rooms.
RENÉE C. BYER
rbyer@sacbee.com
New regulations are coming to California card rooms, game rooms that allow gambling, like Limelight Bar, Cafe & Cardroom and Capitol Casino in Sacramento.
California law forbids businesses from operating “banked” games, like traditional blackjack and baccarat, where the house is pit against players, except on tribal land.
For years, card rooms have instead used “player-dealers,” who are employed by third parties, and played “California Blackjack” or “Blackjack 21.5” — versions virtually indistinguishable from the original game. Operators of tribal casinos have complained consistently that the games are workarounds and should be outlawed.
The new regulations would do just that: rolling back allowed games and putting stricter limits on the player-dealer game style. The rule proposals were submitted by Attorney General Rob Bonta and the Bureau of Gambling Control and were approved by the Office of Administrative Law Friday evening.
Heather Guerena, chief counsel for Stones Gambling Hall in Citrus Heights, said she was disappointed by the new regulations, and that getting rid of blackjack variations will cut out 40% of Stones’ revenue.
“We provided (the Bureau) with over 150 pages of legal authority explaining why these were inappropriate, and they did not take or provide, from our perspective, an adequate response to any of the legal arguments presented,” Guerena said.
The battle between card rooms and tribal casinos has been going on for close to two decades. A 2024 analysis of the issue by the Senate Rules Committee found there had been a “long historical feud.”
“Going back to 2007, opinion letters or other actions on the matter by regulators have been issued, reversed, and further issued with no definitive clarity or action. In some cases, California’s Cardrooms claimed the action went too far while the tribes said they did not go far enough,” the analysis reads.
Card rooms will be expected to report how they’ll modify their game play by May 31st, 2026.
Kyle Kirkland, President of the California Gaming Association, characterized the changes as “extreme.” Kirkland also alleges the office didn’t correctly follow the process for public disclosure or input.
“Given the Bureau’s failure to follow the laws they are bound to follow, our industry intends to pursue legal remedies to preserve our lawful, legitimate businesses and defend the livelihood of the working families and the communities who depend on us but have been dismissed as politically irrelevant by Attorney General Bonta,” he said in an emailed statement.
In an emailed response, Bonta’s office said it did comply with all requirements.
“This lengthy process, over multiple years, involved public hearings where DOJ heard from hundreds of stakeholders and numerous additional meetings and discussions with stakeholders about these proposed regulations,” said a press office spokesperson.
A news release announcing the regulations said the DOJ had responded to 1,764 public comments about the changes.
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Kate Wolffe covers the California Legislature for The Sacramento Bee. Previously, she reported on health care for Capital Public Radio in Sacramento and daily news for KQED-FM in San Francisco. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley.