Judge halts California cardroom crackdown in latest ‘player-bankers’ games battle
A California judge halted Attorney General Rob Bonta’s proposed regulations on cardrooms.
Bonta proposed a statewide ban on blackjack and significant rule revisions to the operation of player-dealer games in February. San Francisco State Superior Court Judge Richard Darwin, in response to the California Gaming Association’s legal challenge, issued a preliminary injunction Thursday which paused the enforcement of Bonta’s regulations.
“Today’s ruling validates what we have said all along: Attorney General Bonta and the Bureau of Gambling Control exceeded their authority by attempting to rewrite California gaming law,” said Kyle Kirkland, California Gambling Association president, in a Thursday statement.
The Department of Justice’s economic analysis of the proposed gaming rules projected “significant and adverse” effects to the cardroom industry and a regulatory impact of at least $600 million in the decade following enactment. The California Gaming Association argued the regulations would eliminate more than 50% of statewide cardroom revenues and thousands of jobs, according to Janet Fernandez, a spokesperson for the California Gaming Association.
Kirkland, who also owns and operates the Club One Casino in Fresno, said 60% of his cardroom’s revenue is generated by player-dealer games and 20% by blackjack. The outright ban on blackjack cuts 20% of the establishment’s business and leaves 40% at risk with new player-deal rotation rules.
Tax revenue gathered from cardrooms contributes to public safety funding, fire protection, youth programs, essential city services and non-profits, Kirkland added.
“These are easily the most disruptive set of regulations that I have seen in my tenure in the cardroom industry, which is two decades now,” Kirkland said in a Thursday afternoon phone interview. “I’m not sure most cardrooms would survive because this is such a drastic change.”
Dozens of workers gathered to protest outside a downtown Sacramento hotel where Bonta was scheduled to speak. The ruling came down shortly before the protest started.
Though cardroom workers celebrated the halt to the proposed regulations, they carried on with the protest, holding signs that read “Protect our jobs now” and “Save our jobs” as they clamored for passing drivers to honk in support.
California Gaming Association Executive Director Tej Baath said it was important to do so.
“We want to make sure that our voice—that our presence is felt, and to let him know that we’re still concerned about these regulations,” Baath said.
California cardrooms and tribal casinos have been locked in a bitter back-and-forth for nearly two decades on the operation of “banked games”, including traditional blackjack and baccarat, which are only permitted to be played on tribal land per state law.
Tribal casinos have argued that cardroom workarounds to the existing legislation, including the innovation of “California Blackjack” or “Blackjack 21.5” played by third-party player-dealers, should be outlawed, as Bonta and the Bureau of Gambling Control’s new regulations aim to do.
“It means either closing our doors or mass layoffs,” Lo Saechao, the casino manager of Stones Gambling Hall, said at Thursday’s protest. “I mean, I’m the primary income for my family, I have two kids, I have a college-age son.”
“I potentially could lose my job,” Saechao added.
In the economic and fiscal impact statements submitted along with Bonta’s proposed regulations, the Bureau alleged that the new measures would preserve the substantial contributions of gaming to local and state economies, while improving “gaming fairness” and reducing “problem gambling” despite the regulatory impact to the cardroom industry.
The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment. The next scheduled hearing in the case is set for June 30.
This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 5:18 PM.
