Kyle Kirkland, president of Club One Casino, speaks to the media during a card room regulation protest in Downtown Fresno on Thursday, Oct. 23. Photo by Frank Lopez
published on May 21, 2026 – 3:12 PM
Written by Frank Lopez
California cardrooms will continue to legally offer blackjack-style games after a San Francisco Superior Court judge blocked enforcement of state regulations that would have effectively banned them.
Judge Richard Darwin on Thursday issued a preliminary injunction pausing the regulations while a legal challenge from the California Gaming Association proceeds through the courts.
At issue is how cardrooms offer games such as blackjack, baccarat and pai gow poker. Unlike tribal casinos, which are permitted to offer “banked games” where players compete against the house, state-licensed cardrooms use a different model: players compete against each other, with third-party proposition player services filling seats and bankrolling the games. The regulations proposed by Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Bureau of Gambling Control would have closed the legal framework that allows this model, amounting to a statewide ban on those games.
In early 2026, California cardrooms filed two lawsuits seeking to invalidate the regulations. The court ruled that the Bureau of Gambling Control exceeded its authority by adopting rules that effectively acted as a ban.
According to a news release from the California Gaming Association, the court found “clear and convincing evidence” that enforcing the regulations would irreparably harm cardrooms and their communities.
Kyle Kirkland, owner of Club One Casino in Fresno and president of the CGA, said the court’s ruling validates the group’s contention that the bureau exceeded its authority by trying to rewrite the state’s gaming laws.
He said the regulations were driven by pressure from “powerful tribal gaming interests” that have long sought to eliminate competition from California cardrooms.
“Cardrooms have lawfully operated the games targeted by these regulations for decades. Our games support thousands of middle-class jobs and generate critical revenue for communities across California. Instead of protecting those communities, Attorney General Bonta chose to advance regulations that threaten local economies, public safety funding, and the livelihoods of thousands of Californians,” Kirkland said.
Kirkland added that the ruling is a step toward preventing unnecessary harm to cities, workers and small businesses. He said Club One contributes $1 million annually to Fresno’s tax revenue.
The regulations drew significant public opposition: the bureau received more than 1,700 public comments opposing them and still finalized the rules without meaningful changes, according to the CGA’s news release.
Tribal-owned casinos, including Table Mountain Casino Resort and Chuckchansi Gold Resort & Casino in the Central Valley, are permitted under state law to offer banked games. A coalition of Native American tribes has argued that cardrooms’ use of third-party proposition players is an illegal workaround that has allowed privately owned gambling halls to compete unlawfully, siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars from tribal communities.
According to Bonta’s own economic analysis, the regulations could eliminate more than 50% of cardroom revenues statewide, threatening thousands of jobs and cutting off tax revenue that local governments use to fund police, fire protection, parks, youth programs and other city services.