Californians can gamble either at state-licensed tribal casinos or via international online gambling websites. Age restrictions are left up to individual casinos to decide. The majority of casinos require that patrons be at least 21 years old, but there are a handful that allow 18-year-olds to play. Players at these brick-and-mortar casinos can expect the usual variety of casino gaming options: slots, keno, table games, poker, blackjack, etc. California casinos cannot yet offer sports betting, but state lawmakers have made efforts to change that in recent years.

1. Legal Online Casino In California
2. California Online Slots
3. Internet Gambling In California

No law in California directly addresses the question of online gambling legality. California law hasn’t quite caught up to technology. This is a common condition in America, and it leads to a lot of confusion.

Online gaming websites are much more accessible; most accept players over the age of 18, requiring only proof of a valid, government-issued ID to play. Online gambling also boasts a more impressive variety of options for players, as unlike casinos, they aren’t restricted by the limitations of physical infrastructure and expensive gaming equipment. Online gamblers can expect the same variety of options as they would find at a casino, including live dealer games, sports betting, political betting, and even unconventional games like Sudoku and War.

What Is The Legal Gambling Age At Casinos In California?

Tribal casinos in California have the authority to set their own age minimums. Most will not admit players under 21 years old because that severely restricts alcohol licensing and zoning within a casino, but there are a handful throughout the state that accept 18-year-old players. The 21 casinos in California that admit 18-year-olds are:

• Barona Valley Ranch Casino
• Black Bart Casino
• Casino Pauma
• Cher-Ae-Heights Casino
• Chicken Ranch Bingo & Casino
• Chumash Casino Resort
• Coyote Valley Shodakai Casino
• Eagle Mountain Casino
• Elk Valley Casino
• Gold Country Casino
• Golden Acorn Casino
• Jackson Rancheria Casino
• Lucky Bear Casino
• Mono Wind Casino
• Morongo Casino Resort
• Pit River Casino
• Red Fox Casino
• Sycuan Resort & Casino
• Table Mountain Casino
• The Palace
• Viejas Casino

Legal Online Casinos For California Residents

California residents can legally gamble online using licensed international platforms like Bovada and BetOnline. The California Legislature has not yet succeeded in authorizing in-state operators to offer online gambling, so for the time being, these international platforms are the only option. Thankfully, these online platforms offer better and payouts, better customer service, and a wider variety of playing options. Additionally, online gambling is a very competitive market, so these websites all offer players unique and valuable promotions like free play credits and deposit matches.

Slots.lv - Best Online Casino for California Residents

Slots.lv is one of the most popular online gambling options in the world, and it accepts all U.S. players except those in Maryland, New Jersey and New York. It offers hundreds of the latest and most popular slots along with table games, video poker, baccarat, keno, and more. Players can also participate in daily tournaments for all these games, with bonuses of up to 100x the minimum bet for the winner. Slots.lv offers fast and easy deposits with either a traditional payment card or via cryptocurrency like Bitcoin and is currently working on implementing new e-wallet payment methods. New players can earn up to $5,000 in bonus money through the company’s generous welcome bonus.

Legal California Online Casinos

What Is The Legal Sports Betting Age In California?

All sports betting in California is currently restricted to online gambling websites, meaning that the legal betting age is up to individual online sportsbooks to determine. Most accept players 18 years of age or older. While it can be disappointing for some that there are no brick-and-mortar sportsbook options, online books offer better odds, faster payouts, and a wider variety of betting options, so betting online is still a net gain for players.

Legal Sports Betting Sites For California Residents

Online sports betting is easy. New players can set up an account in just a few minutes and deposit using either their credit-debit card or cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which offers superior security and convenience. These online sportsbooks can offer better odds because they boast a larger and more diverse player base. Additional benefits of online sports betting include superior live, in-play betting, fast payouts, mobile access, and a staggering number of sports and leagues to bet on.

Bovada - Sports Betting for California Bettors

California players must be at least 18 years old to register an account with Bovada and must provide proof of a government-issued ID before they are eligible to withdraw their winnings. Anyone with an account can access Bovada’s full range of sports betting options, including in-play betting, props, futures, and more. Bovada users can bet on all major California teams, both college and professional, along with a huge variety of other teams around the world.

Legal California Online Sportsbooks

What Is The Legal Poker Age In California?

As with casinos, card rooms in California can set their own age requirements. Some will admit 18-year-olds, while others require players be at least 21. Online poker is a lot simpler, with most websites accepting 18-year-old players. If you have any doubts about whether you meet the age requirement for your local card room, it probably makes sense to use an online poker platform instead until you turn 21.

Legal Poker Sites For California Residents

The state of California does not license any online poker websites, but residents are still free to use internationally-based online options like PokerStars and 5Dimes. Every operator will be different in the types of poker it offers to players, but most offer standard options like Texas Hold’Em and Omaha. If your online gambling platform does not offer traditional poker, it likely offers video poker.

Legal California Poker Sites

What Is The Legal Gambling Age To Bet On Horses In California?

The legal age for pari-mutuel wagering (horse betting) in California is 18. There are four full-time horse racing tracks in California: Santa Anita Park, Los Alamitos Track, Golden Gate Fields, and Del Mar Racetrack. Fans can also bet on horse racing events all over the world using online sportsbooks.

Horse Betting Sites For California Residents

Most major licensed online sportsbooks offer betting options for dozens or hundreds of horse racing events all around the world, including Belmont Stakes, the Kentucky Derby, and the Dubai World Cup. These online sportsbooks are open to all California players. Online horse racing is great for both the variety of events and for the number of prop betting options available, which allow knowledgeable fans to capitalize on their knowledge to maximize their returns.

Legal Online Casino In California

How Old Do I Have To Be To Play The Lottery In California?

Anyone who is at least 18 years old can buy tickets for the SuperLotto, California’s state-run lottery, as well as national lotteries like Mega Millions and the Powerball. While players can’t buy tickets online, the California State Lottery runs an intuitive website to walk players through the process of buying a ticket for all of the available lottery games in the state, as well as a database of past lottery draws.

What Is The Legal Gambling Age For DFS In California?

California law does not consider daily fantasy sports (DFS) to be sports betting, but it does restrict DFS to players who are at least 21 years old. All major DFS platforms accept players from California. The state adopted AB 1437 in 2015 to implement regulations and consumer protections for daily fantasy sports.

It’s no surprise that the golden state, being the most populous, as well as renowned for its liberal ways, is home to more licensed card rooms than any other state, including Nevada. These card rooms are not officially designated as casinos, and there are fewer of them than there were.

A number of years ago the state boasted over 150 card rooms, their number whittled down by 2013 to just eighty-eight. These rooms continue to play a vital role in a state where gambling is controlled but not suppressed.

There are also over fifty Indian casinos on reservation land, spread out across the state. These range in scale from small local operations, to full-blown Sin City style affairs with all the bells and whistles. Live poker has been legal here for over 100 years, and licensed since the mid-eighties.

Poker legend Antonio Esfandiari grew up in California, currently holder of the record for winner of the biggest prize in poker tournament history, beating 47 other players who each put up $1 million vying to win the $18 million first prize, in the Big One for One Drop back in 2012.

Is Online Gambling Legal in California

The only kind of licensed wagering one can partake in online within California at the present time is horse racing, with a number of sites such as TVG and Youbet offering options on this. But your options most likely won’t remain so limited for very much longer.

Things are changing pretty fast in California and there is widespread expectation that the state will move towards legislating online poker in the near future.

It’s not yet certain exactly how soon the state might move on this, or whether legislation will extend to online casinos as well as poker, but the word is that various parties within the state are following events in New Jersey with extremely close interest.

There have indeed been several failed attempts to legislate for online poker in the state. Competing interests from the card clubs and tribal casinos have been amongst the stumbling blocks to this legislation passing.

In the current climate, with changes afoot in New Jersey, Delaware and of course Nevada, there is fairly widespread expectation that the next effort may have better prospects. Some believe that within a little year, we could see state licensed online poker games in California. One noted lobbyist, David Quintana, has declared it as a coin flip, as to whether legislation passes this year.

The latest effort from State Senator Lou Correa [2] contains provision only for intrastate poker, and would only allow existing card rooms and Indian casinos to run online poker sites. This is the first proposal with backing from a large unified group of tribal casinos.

Anyone over 21 would be allowed to play within Californian borders under this proposal, while unlicensed play would qualify as a misdemeanor [3] , both for players and sites. This relatively minor punishment of a range of unlicensed online gaming would seem to open the doors to unlicensed operators of sports betting and casinos.

New licensed sites would also have to pay a $5 million licensing fee, which would be offset against later taxes taken on wagered monies.

There is no angle available for major sites such as Pokerstars in this proposed legislation, a bad actor clause similar to that enshrined in Nevadan law limits all new license holders to those who have never taken an illegal wager from a US citizen.

The question of whether gambling online in California is at the current time an illegal act is a somewhat complicated one, occupying a fuzzy area of the law. However, with a liberal approach governing gambling in the state, it appears unlikely that an individual caught wagering online would face prosecution. That does not equate to the activity being technically legal. In addition, such activity does of course contravene federal legislation such as the UIEGA of 2006.

Earlier initiatives to legislate have included proposals governing more widespread gambling, and this would likely occur in the fullness of time, in the wake of more limited legislation over poker play.

Read More State Laws

The Letter of the Law

First of all, anyone hoping to open a new physical venue for licensed gambling is likely to make slow progress; there is a moratorium on new card rooms until 2020.

For those keen legal minds amongst you who wish to scrutinize the fine print, the whole body of existing state law on gambling can be found here [4] .

Certain forms of gambling are illegal in the state, including craps, although as usual the Indian casinos have found workarounds. Greyhound racing is also not allowed in California, although pari-mutuel horse-racing is.

A state lottery exists, with over 20,000 retailers distributing tickets.

A state code revision from 2003 makes legal all home card games which are played, “in private homes or residences, in which no person makes money for operating the game, except as a player.” So provided you don’t take a rake or any other consideration, you should be fine on running a quiet little home poker game too.

Indian casinos have been allowed since a constitutional amendment was passed by popular vote in 2000. In the wake of this decision, individual tribes have applied for “compacts” with the state government. These govern the amount of tax payable, and determine a sharing of profits across tribes who do not possess casinos.

Some casinos have developed ingenious alternative forms of craps and roulette which fall within the letter of the law through utilizing cards for play, rather than the traditional dice and wheel associated with these two games.

Types of Legal and Regulated Card Clubs in Cali

While the card rooms specialize in poker, many of them do host other games such as California 21 (a player-as-bank version of blackjack), Pai Gow poker and others. Alterations such as California 21 are necessitated by a ruling outlawing games where the house pays and takes players’ bets. However, these games take a service fee per hand for running the game, and this novel form of rake can severely limit the profitability of such player banked games.

For a full list of licensed card rooms across California, look no further than this map-based guide [5] . One of the glitzier options, Casino M8trix in San Jose, certainly models itself after the Las Vegas casinos, and offers an impressive variety of Texas Hold’em, Omaha Hi/Lo and others including a version called “double hand” poker in which each player must form two “best hands”, one using five cards and one using just two, and must win both hands to rake the pot.

A twoplustwo thread from 2009 [6] debates the best options in Los Angeles, but far and away the best known and largest is the Commerce. This “card casino” can boast of being the biggest card room in the United States, as well as offering more Baccarat tables than any other venue in California. The Commerce offers an impressive variety of poker games, including Razz, Pot Limit Omaha and various forms of Stud Poker as well as Texas Hold’em.

For a venue outside of Sin City, the Commerce offers a great range of poker tournaments [7] , running the full gamut of buy-ins all the way up to a $10,000 buy-in with around a $6 million prize pool each year, the main event of the LA Poker Classic series.

Nowhere really lays it on as heavy as the Commerce for sheer action, with its 200 tables enough to keep every kind of player occupied. In case you do fancy a change of pace, or ambience, there are in fact another eight card rooms within a short drive. LA really is the place to be for poker.

The summer of 2013 has seen the card rooms close ranks in an effort to prepare for a significant shake up if and when legislation for online poker goes through. Austin Lee, spokesman for the newly formed “Communities for California Cardrooms” has allegedly already hired two notable LA lobbying firms, and commented in explanation that the anticipated legislation will bring with it “competitive issues” .

For a comprehensive list of the day’s poker tournaments, you have the people at cardplayer.com to thank for this helpful guide.

Regulated Tribal Casinos

As for the rich selection of full-blown casinos to choose from on tribal land, just take a look at the scattering of red dots on this map [9] . There is certainly an abundance of options for reservation gaming across the state.

One of the top options amongst these must be the Barona Casino Resort [10] , featuring a hotel, fine dining and golf as well as over 2,000 slots and video poker machines, and 80 table games running up to $2 – $5 No Limit cash games. Players may call in by phone up to 90 minutes before arrival to reserve a seat at a game.

Barona has actually already set up its own online poker service [11] , providing strictly free roll play at this time. This is clearly an effort to build a user base now, in the hope of converting with its existing traffic into a real money site once the legal framework is in place.

Busts and Arrests

California Online Slots

Venues masquerading as ordinary internet and copy shops periodically get shut down across California for functioning as online gambling havens, such as these three locations in Carson. These venues offer a form of sweepstake similar to online slots, and were first declared illegal by the Bureau of Gambling Control in 2012. There are thought to be over 300 such businesses running illicitly across the state.

A rather more serious spate of arrests took place in SoCal in 2013, related to an illegal gambling ring operated by Macho Sports [12] . It is said that fourteen of a total of eighteen arrests in relation to this operation were made within the state of California.

Officers had been wiretapping and working undercover in the group for over two years, and the owners are accused of illegally taking online bets from Californians via agents working out of Peru, of processing these payments using Californian bookies, and worst of all, of using violent methods to collect monies owed. The accused face charges of up to 20 years in jail, along with six figure fines.

Summary

California is a state with a long proud history of licensed gambling, and as such your options are many and varied. Principally, your choices are as follows.

You can partake in the state lottery, as well as various forms of bingo and raffle. You may wander down to a local horse track and place a wager, or even bet on races from the comfort of your home via state licensed online betting facilities. You may run a social card game of any sort you wish provided no rake or house consideration is taken.

For more serious action, take your pick from eighty-eight card rooms running across the state, and for the widest possible range of gaming options, head to one of over fifty Indian casinos dotted across the length and breadth of the golden state. If you feel like a detox after this venture, many of the reservations offer regular Powwows where alcohol and drug use is strictly prohibited.

If you’re looking for a bit of online gambling, while the only licensed option as of right now is horse racing, legislation for poker and other games shouldn’t be all that far away. If you want to keep to the letter of the law, just bide your time a little bit longer, and maybe lobby your local government to hurry things along.

Internet Gambling In California

Resourcs for This Article

1. DailyBreeze.com: Law enforcement cracking down on Internet gambling operations in Southern California