California cardrooms have hit out at tribal casino operators and accused the state of allowing “wealthy tribes to expand gaming exclusivity without sharing the revenue.”
Commercial cardrooms in California must pay a combination of flat federal and state corporate taxes on top of municipal levies in the cities where they operate.
The cardrooms’ industry body, the California Gaming Association, told CasinoBeats that tribal operators are “a $12 billion business that pays essentially no taxes.”
“With multiple new taxes imposed on cash-strapped California residents, Sacramento cannot and should not allow wealthy tribes to expand gaming exclusivity without sharing the revenue,” Kyle Kirkland, President of the CGA, told CasinoBeats.
Kirkland was speaking in the wake of a key verdict from the San Francisco Superior Court. The court overruled the California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s attempt to ban blackjack at non-tribal venues.
A judge ruled that Bonta lacked the legal authority to issue statewide bans of this sort.
Bonta has appealed the verdict.
California Cardrooms: ‘We’re Paying Our Fair Share; Tribes Aren’t’
California is home to over 65 tribes with gambling facilities. While tribal operators do not pay taxes like cardrooms, they are obliged to pay into a revenue-sharing trust for tribes without betting businesses.
Last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom agreed to a 25-year compact with the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe.
The deal will let the tribe operate two casinos with up to 1,200 slot machines and table games. But Newsom’s deal will also see California forgo any claim on the tribe’s revenues.
The tribe will instead donate 0.5% of its net winnings to an impact mitigation fund and pay California’s regulatory costs.
The CGA has expressed its dismay at the decision.
“California taxpayers deserve better than sweetheart deals that allow tribal casinos to generate billions of untaxed revenue at the expense of businesses and taxpayers who pay their fair share,” Kirkland said.
Speaking to the New York Post, Kirkland called Newsom’s deal a “scam.”
“With their unhinged opposition to other gaming businesses in the state, California’s tribal casinos have made clear their intention to inhibit taxpaying competition and expand their monopoly on slot machines without sharing any revenue with California residents,” Kirkland told CasinoBeats.
‘Californians Didn’t Vote for This,’ Says CGA
In March 2000, California voters backed a constitutional amendment that allowed federally recognized tribes to operate gambling facilities on tribal lands.
But the CGA says the state has since overstepped its public mandate.
“This is not what was pitched to California voters in 2000,” Kirkland said. “[The matter] deserves immediate public debate on how to rectify this broken bargain.”
Most California-based tribal operators are not legally required to disclose their financial data. This makes the CGA’s $12 billion claim difficult to confirm or disprove.
San Jose is home to two cardrooms, the Casino M8trix and Bay 101. Officials recently told a Bay Area local news outlet that the cardrooms pay a combined $30 million in taxes per year, indicating revenues of up to $200 million.
If all of California’s tribal casinos were San Jose-based, if the CGA’s math is correct, and if tribal casinos had to pay the same taxes as cardrooms, the Golden State would receive an annual windfall of around $1.8 billion.
The CGA also bemoaned that tribes have publicly committed to eliminating prediction markets.
The body complained that while tribes oppose prediction markets, they are “pursuing legalized and untaxed sports gaming for themselves.”
A Record-Breaking Year for Tribal Casinos
Nationwide tribal casino earnings have recently risen to record levels. Per National Indian Gaming Commission data, gross gaming revenues rose over 5.3% year-on-year to hit $2.3 billion in Financial Year 2025.
It hasn’t all been clear sailing for California-based tribes, however. The Department of the Interior recently ordered the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians to halt operations at its temporary casino off Columbus Parkway after just one week.
The department has also told the band to scrap its plans to build a $700 million permanent casino in Vallejo.
Earlier this year, the media outlet KRCR calculated that big-earning tribal casinos’ revenues outstrip those of many major hotel and restaurant chain branches.
The outlet said that, per its reckoning, the Corning Rolling Hills Casino and Resort’s receipts total “about $126 million a year.”
The Oroville-based Feather Falls Casino and Lodge reportedly earns its operators about $75 million per year, KRCR said. The rival Oroville casino Gold Country allegedly makes around $60 million a year.
