LOS ANGELES — Hundreds of city workers, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union members and cardroom employees gathered outside state Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Los Angeles office Oct. 20 to protest his proposed regulations that would ban blackjack-style games and severely limit player-dealer games in California cardrooms.
Organizers of the protest said the move projected by Bonta’s own economic analysis could wipe out up to 50% of jobs and revenue at California cardrooms. The proposed regulations are unnecessary and punitive, as the games are lawful under California law and have been operating for decades, according to organizers.
For Los Angeles County, it could mean the loss of more than 5,000 living-wage jobs and millions in city funding for essential public services, including police, fire, parks, libraries and senior programs, in cities like Commerce, Compton, Bell Gardens, Hawaiian Gardens, Gardena and Inglewood that have their own licensed cardrooms.
“We’ve seen this before. During COVID, when cardrooms were forced to close, cities like ours, Hawaiian Gardens, laid off staff, cut community programs, and barely made it through,” said Shavon Moore-Cage, the political advocate and past vice president of AFSCME Local 36. “We can’t survive another hit like that, and this time, it’s not a pandemic; it’s an attack by policy that can be avoided.”
Cardroom employees and local leaders also criticized the attorney general’s proposal for effectively creating a gaming monopoly for the state’s largest tribal casino operators, while leaving small cities behind.
Cardrooms are often lifelines for working families and local budgets in several area cities, where they generate nearly half of all city operating funds. Eliminating the games would devastate local economies, threaten public safety funding and hand a de facto gaming monopoly to the state’s largest tribal casino operators.
Cities are officially warning that eliminating legal cardroom operations would also increase illegal gambling and organized crime, citing a Los Angeles Times investigation that documented a surge in unregulated pop-up casinos across Los Angeles County.
Even the standard regulatory impact assessment issued by the Bonta’s own office admits that half of all players could stop visiting cardrooms under the new rules. Yet, it fails to account for the devastating ripple effects on nearby restaurants, hotels and small businesses.
The coalition of cities, labor unions, and community members are urging the attorney general to withdraw the proposed regulations and conduct a comprehensive, transparent review that considers their true economic and social impacts.
“Our message is simple,” Moore-Cage said. “Protect our jobs. Protect our communities. Don’t take away our city’s lifeline.”