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California and Minnesota tribal gaming leaders spoke optimistically Tuesday about the future of legalized sports betting in their respective states.

During a panel discussion at the Global Gaming Expo, James Siva, chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA) said that tribes have re-engaged talks after taking an election cycle off following a bitter and expensive lobbying battle that saw two sports-betting initiatives fail at the ballot box in November 2022.

“There was a lot of exhaustion after that, I know I was exhausted, I know a lot of the California leaders in this room were exhausted, but we never stopped talking about sports betting,” Siva said. “Every CNIGA meeting we were talking about it and we would lay out a game plan, and everyone’s like, maybe just take pause, let’s take an election cycle, we’ll keep working on it.”

That plan held true, other than a brief detour in 2023 where a group of entrepreneurs pursued a sports-betting initiative for the 2024 election and tried to rally tribes to support it, but tribes were not swayed and the plan quickly fell apart.

“In the meantime, we had a group of grifters show up really out of nowhere, they’re just a blip now on the story of sports betting in California,” Siva said of the effort.

The new talks include a work group comprised by CNIGA of tribal leaders only, Siva said, and he emphasized that as talks begin once again, tribes will be in the driver’s seat when it comes to the state’s sports betting future.

“We are going to get together, lay out the narrative, and lay out the framework for what sports betting will look like in California,” he said. “The future of sports betting in California belongs to tribes, period.”

“It’s going to come from the top down from tribal leadership, and we’ll set the framework,” he continued. “We’ve learned our lessons, we know exactly what to do, we have to have communication, we have to make sure that every tribe from California benefits from this.”

Siva said that while an effort was possible for the 2026 election, it would “most likely” be pursued for the 2028 election, but promised more action in the next few months from the tribes on the issue.

He added that one of the reasons for the tribe’s hard line on sports betting is in preparation for a future conversation that could have even bigger ramifications for tribal gaming in the state.

“What we’ve learned is this whole discussion for California about sports betting isn’t really about sports betting,” Siva said “This whole conversation is about how that new form of gaming into the market is going to affect the entry of iGaming into the California market down the road.”

Another state that features similar levels of tribal control over the state’s gaming market is Minnesota, where a legislative effort failed earlier this year to legalize land-based and mobile sports betting that would be controlled by tribes.

Andy Platto, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, said that the latter days of the legislative session featured “a pretty major breakthrough” that saw legislators and all major stakeholders, including tribes, racetracks, charitable gaming operators and Minnesota sports teams, among others, come to an agreement on a compromise.

He added, however, that such agreement may no longer be in place as all sides prepare for another effort next year.

“With the election coming up in the House in a few weeks, moving into a budget year, this framework could fall apart,” Platto said. “But without a doubt, this as close as we’ve ever come to ending this issue.”

“Optimistically, a year from now, I hope and believe it’s quite possible that we will have ended the sports betting prohibition in Minnesota with a bill that’s tribally exclusive, that represents tribal sovereignty, and ensures that every tribe gets a benefit, regardless of their ability to garner market share.”

Tribes did score significant legislative victories in Minnesota, including a limitation on electronic pull-tab games to more closely mimic paper tabs rather than an expanded suite of online games, as well as legislation in May that overturned a decision by the Minnesota Racing Commission to permit historical horseracing (HHR) machines at racetracks.

“Legislators were furious,” Platto said of the decision. “We long argued that only the Minnesota legislature can expand gambling in the state and thousands of pseudo-slot machines is not something the racing commission has the authority to approve.��

“Thankfully, our legislature went to work and clarified the state law and made sure that everyone very clearly knows their historic horse racing is illegal in Minnesota until the legislature says otherwise.”

The racing commission’s move also drew a negative response from Minnesota Governor��Tim Walz, who has supported tribal interests in the state, and a month after the legislature barred the HHR machines, Walz appointed two leaders of Indian gaming tribes to the nine-member commission.

In an almost-certainly unrelated development, six weeks later, Walz accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for Vice President in the 2024 presidential election.
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