Wright sports betting bill makes it through California Senate

Legalised sports betting in California moved a step closer Tuesday when the state Senate approved Sen. Rod Wright’s Bill SB1390 by 32 to 2, sending it to the House for further consideration.

Wright told the Los Angeles Times that he expects the federal government to eventually change the federal Professional Amateur Sports Protection Act that prohibits all but four states from allowing sports betting.

Wright’s legislation would allow operators already holding gambling licenses in California, including casinos and horse-racing tracks, to get a state permit to provide sports betting.

The measure, the Senator said, “…will get California in a forward motion on something going on in other parts of the country.”

Many Californians bet on professional and college sports contests, but do so illegally in the state or through sports betting operations in Nevada, where $2.6 billion is legally bet annually on sports, according to a legislative analysis of the measure.

“We receive absolutely no money from it,” Wright said, arguing that the state’s cut of sports betting could involve “a great deal of money.”

The bill is being opposed by the California Coalition Against Gambling Expansion, the California Police Chiefs Assn. and USC.