Hundreds of employees who work at cardrooms throughout Southern California picketed outside the State Office Building on Monday to protest upcoming regulations set by Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The workers say they’re upset that Bonta’s proposed ruling prohibits blackjack games at their facilities.
“Abolishing blackjack in our card rooms in our state and also of changing the banking dynamic that happens within our card rooms, those two regulations would essentially devastate our card rooms and by extension, our local cities to depend on those card room revenues,” Juan Garza, the executive director for the California Cities for Self-Reliance, told KNX News’ Pete Demetriou.
While Tribal Casinos would not be impacted by the rule change, cities like Commerce, Compton, Bell Gardens, Hawaiian Gardens, Gardena, and Inglewood could take a significant hit. Garza estimated that 8,000 workers locally could lose their jobs at card clubs that will close because they cannot stay afloat without blackjack revenue.
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“We're looking at devastating local inner cities for the benefit of a few rich tribal casinos,” he said.
The group is considering a lawsuit against the state before the rule changes go into effect next year.
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