{"id":342,"date":"2026-03-12T12:42:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T13:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/?p=342"},"modified":"2026-03-25T13:23:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T13:23:39","slug":"california-cardrooms-sue-over-blackjack-ban-threatening-jobs-and-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/12\/california-cardrooms-sue-over-blackjack-ban-threatening-jobs-and-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"California Cardrooms Sue Over Blackjack Ban Threatening Jobs and Cities"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Cardrooms sue California attorney general over sweeping new blackjack restrictions<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Rules could cut half of cardroom jobs and force closures<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Cities risk losing millions used for police, fire, and services<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>California\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-moves-to-eliminate-blackjack-style-games-from-cardrooms\/\">looming restrictions<\/a> on blackjack in cardrooms are an \u201cunprecedented power grab\u201d by state Attorney General Rob Bonta that will have disastrous economic consequences, according to new lawsuits filed by the cardroom industry.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_379344\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-379344\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO wp-image-379344 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"California blackjack rules, California cardrooms lawsuit, Rob Bonta blackjack regulations, California gambling industry, tribal casinos vs cardrooms\" width=\"858\" height=\"572\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Bay101-858x572-1.jpg\"><figcaption>Cardrooms like Bay 101, above, generate $30 million a year for San Jose, revenues that could be jeopardized by the new blackjack rules, according to the lawsuits. (Image: Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The California Gaming Association, backed by the California Cardroom Alliance and Communities for California Cardrooms, filed two suits in the San Francisco Superior Court Monday this week seek to block the new rules from taking effect.<\/p>\n<p>Those regulations effectively ban cardrooms from offering blackjack and other player-dealer games in their current forms. From April, cardrooms will be prohibited from branding any of their games to include the number 21 or the word \u201cblackjack.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Don\u2019t Call it Blackjack<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Players will no longer be able to \u201cbust\u201d \u2013 instead, hands will be resolved through a comparison with the player-dealer. That also means an ace with a 10-value card will no longer trigger an automatic win.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the player-dealer will have to be a seated person, and the position will have to be offered at the start of every hand and must rotate to at least two other players every 40 minutes or the game ends.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>Cardrooms argue the rules will hurt profitability by slowing down gameplay, causing tables to pause when dealer rotations break down, and eliminating blackjack-style mechanics that typically boost game volume and player losses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>For years, California\u2019s powerful tribal casino operators have challenged cardrooms over so-called \u201cCalifornia games\u201d \u2014 modified versions of table staples like blackjack and pai gow poker \u2014 arguing that they encroach on tribes\u2019 exclusive rights to run house-banked casino games. Now, the tribes appear to be getting their way.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Budgets in Trouble?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>According to the Attorney General\u2019s own impact assessment, the new rules <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-blackjack-ban-sparks-alarm-for-cities\/\">could eliminate<\/a> at least 50% of cardroom jobs and revenue, leading to closures.<\/p>\n<p>In cities like San Jose, Hawaiian Gardens, Commerce, and Gardena, gambling revenue helps fund police and fire services, road upkeep, and other general municipal expenses. In San Jose alone, city officials say cardroom operations generate roughly $30 million in annual revenue for the city.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\">\n<p>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 or addressing the 1,764 public comments about these regulations,\u201d Kyle Kirkland, president of the California Gaming Association, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cOur 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,\u201d he added. \u201cWe are asking the court to stop these unlawful regulations before they wipe out thousands of jobs and put many local economies into fiscal distress across California.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/california-cardrooms-sue-over-blackjack-ban-threatening-jobs-and-cities\/\">California Cardrooms Sue Over Blackjack Ban Threatening Jobs and Cities<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cardrooms sue California attorney general over sweeping new blackjack restrictions Rules could cut half of cardroom jobs and force closures Cities risk losing millions used for police, fire, and services California\u2019s looming restrictions on blackjack in cardrooms are an \u201cunprecedented power grab\u201d by state Attorney General Rob Bonta that will have disastrous economic consequences, according&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}