Blackjack, the popular game played at many casinos, could get banned at state-licensed card rooms throughout California under a new proposal to restrict “banked card” gambling under the state’s Department of Justice.
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The fight to keep blackjack games at licensed cardrooms across California intensified this week when the California Gaming Association filed a couple of lawsuits that challenge new, looming regulations.
Come April 1, California card rooms, such as Fresno’s Club One Casino and Clovis’ 500 Club Casino, will be banned from offering games like blackjack and other “banked games” under new gambling restrictions that aim to eliminate loopholes. Banked games are considered games in which a player goes against the dealer, as is the case in games such as blackjack and baccarat.
But the California Gaming Association’s lawsuits, which were filed in San Francisco and are supported by the California Cardroom Alliance (CCA) and the Communities for California Cardrooms (CCC), seek to block the regulations and ask the court to invalidate the rules as unlawful.
“We are asking the court to stop these unlawful regulations,” said Kyle Kirkland, President of the California Gaming Association, “before they wipe out thousands of jobs and put many local economies into fiscal distress across California.”
Critics of the new regulations have said eliminating blackjack from cardrooms would reduce at least 50% of cardroom jobs and revenue, and ultimately could force many cardrooms to close.
Critics also described the new regulations as a “competitive overreach by the tribal owners,” and “unprecedented power grab” by Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The new California law would not impact Native American casinos, which since 2000 have had the exclusive right to offer blackjack games.
“Attorney General Bonta’s regulations threaten to eliminate more than half of California’s cardroom jobs and wipe out a critical source of revenue for dozens of cities,” Kirkland said. “These games have operated legally for decades under multiple Attorneys General, yet one public official is now moving to shut them down without identifying a single public safety concern. …
“Our industry repeatedly raised legal and economic concerns throughout the rulemaking process, but the Attorney General refused to engage with the communities and working families who will be harmed.”
Tribal casinos, meanwhile, have argued for years that cardrooms were skirting the law by offering modified styles of blackjack.
In a 2025 story by the nonprofit, Sacramento-based organization Capitol Weekly, Adam Lauridsen, a tribal attorney with the San Francisco law firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters, argued that: “California’s prohibition on banked games in cardrooms can’t be just another broken promise to California’s Indian tribes.
“The California Constitution grants tribes the exclusive right to offer blackjack, baccarat, and other banked games in tribal casinos. As part of exercising their rights, tribes have collectively contributed hundreds of millions to the California state budget through gaming-compact payments and provided crucial services to broad communities.
“Cardrooms have brazenly rejected this voter-approved framework and instead forged ahead with offering illegal Vegas-style games,” Lauridsen added. “The fact that cardrooms are making lots of money from breaking the law is no defense.”
The looming rule changes received 1,764 public comments, including opposition from Fresno-area elected officials and support from the tribal gaming community, but were approved without “any substantive changes to the proposed regulations,” according to a news release from Bonta’s office.
Though the blackjack ban takes effect at the start of next month, California cardrooms have until May 31 to submit plans for compliance.
If the new gambling regulations do take effect, cities that have received taxes from cardrooms could be impacted.
Club One Casino, for example, said it pays more than $1 million into the City of Fresno General Fund each year.
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Bryant-Jon Anteola is a multimedia reporter for The Fresno Bee, writing stories and producing videos about sports, news and random topics relatable to those in the Fresno area. He’s won a McClatchy President’s Award and received honorable mention by the Associated Press Sports Editors. He enjoys sports because of the competition, camaraderie and energy, and views sports as a microcosm of society.