Bill Text: CA AB2218 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Enrolled
Bill Title: Gambling: licenses.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2016-09-30 - Vetoed by Governor. [AB2218 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB2218-Enrolled.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 2218 ENROLLED
BILL TEXT
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 25, 2016
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 31, 2016
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 19, 2016
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 11, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Burke
FEBRUARY 18, 2016
An act to amend Sections 19855 and 19858 of the Business and
Professions Code, relating to gambling.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2218, Burke. Gambling: licenses.
Existing law, the Gambling Control Act, provides for the licensure
and regulation of various legalized gambling activities and
establishments by the California Gambling Control Commission and the
investigation and enforcement of those activities and establishments
by the Department of Justice. A willful violation of the act is a
misdemeanor. Existing law requires every person who is required to
hold a state license to obtain the license prior to engaging in the
activity or occupying the position with respect to which the license
is required, except as specified. Existing law also requires every
person who, by order of the commission, is required to apply for a
gambling license or a finding of suitability to file an application
within 45 calendar days after receipt of the order.
This bill would instead require the application described above to
be filed within 60 calendar days after receipt of an order of the
commission.
Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for a person who deals, plays,
or carries on, opens, or causes to be opened, or who conducts,
either as owner or employer, whether for hire or not, any of a list
of specified gambling games, or any banking or percentage game played
with cards, dice, or any device, for money, checks, credit, or any
representative of value.
Existing law generally requires a person to be deemed unsuitable
to hold a state gambling license under the California Gambling
Control Act to own a gambling establishment if the person, or any
partner, officer, director, or shareholder of that person, has any
financial interest in any business or organization that is engaged in
any form of gambling prohibited under the provision described above,
whether within or without this state. Existing law exempts from
these provisions a person who meets specified criteria, including a
person who is licensed or had an application to be licensed on file
with the commission on or before February 1, 2013. Existing law
requires a person exempt under this provision, within 3 years of the
date the closed business or organization reopens or becomes engaged
in any form of gambling prohibited under the provision described
above, to either divest that person's interest in the business or
organization or divest that person's interest in the gambling
enterprise or gambling establishment for which the person is licensed
or has applied to be licensed by the commission.
During this 3-year divestment period, existing law makes it
unlawful for any cross-promotion or marketing, as defined, to occur
between the business or organization that is engaged in any form of
gambling prohibited under the provision described above, and a
gambling enterprise or gambling establishment.
This bill would instead require an exempt person, within 6 years
of the date the closed business or organization reopens or becomes
engaged in any form of gambling prohibited under the provision
described above, to either divest that person's interest in the
business or organization or divest that person's interest in the
gambling enterprise or gambling establishment for which the person is
licensed or has applied to be licensed by the commission. The bill
would also make conforming changes. By expanding the scope of an
existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The bill would require the City of Inglewood, by July 1, 2018, to
prepare and submit a report to the Legislature and appropriate policy
committees of the Legislature on the progress of the construction of
the City of Champions Revitalization Project and its impact on the
divestment requirement described above. By imposing a reporting
requirement on the City of Inglewood, this bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to
the necessity of a special statute for the City of Inglewood.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no
reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that,
if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains
costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall
be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 19855 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
19855. Except as otherwise provided by statute or regulation,
every person who, by statute or regulation, is required to hold a
state license shall obtain the license prior to engaging in the
activity or occupying the position with respect to which the license
is required. Every person who, by order of the commission, is
required to apply for a gambling license or a finding of suitability
shall file the application within 60 calendar days after receipt of
the order.
SEC. 2. Section 19858 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
19858. (a) Except as provided in subdivisions (b) and (c), a
person shall be deemed to be unsuitable to hold a state gambling
license to own a gambling establishment if the person, or any
partner, officer, director, or shareholder of the person, has any
financial interest in any business or organization that is engaged in
any form of gambling prohibited by Section 330 of the Penal Code,
whether within or without this state.
(b) Subdivision (a) shall not apply to a publicly traded racing
association, a qualified racing association, or any person who is
licensed pursuant to subdivision (b) or (c) of Section 19852.
(c) Subdivision (a) shall not apply to a person who meets all of
the following criteria:
(1) The person is licensed or had an application to be licensed on
file with the commission on or before February 1, 2013.
(2) The person has a financial interest in a business or
organization engaged in gambling prohibited by Section 330 of the
Penal Code that was closed and was not engaged in prohibited gambling
at the time the person was either licensed or had filed an
application to be licensed with the commission.
(3) The person has a financial interest in a gambling
establishment that is located on any portion of, or contiguous to,
the grounds on which a racetrack is or had been previously located
and horserace meetings were authorized to be conducted by the
California Horse Racing Board on or before January 1, 2012.
(4) The grounds upon which the gambling establishment described in
paragraph (3) is located are directly or indirectly owned by a
racetrack limited partnership owner. For purposes of this paragraph,
a "racetrack limited partnership owner" means a limited partnership,
or a number of related limited partnerships, that is or are at least
80 percent capitalized by limited partners that are an "institutional
investor" as defined in subdivision (w) of Section 19805, an
"employee benefit plan" as defined in Section 1002(3) of Title 29 of
the United States Code, or an investment company that manages a state
university endowment.
(d) Within six years of the date the closed business or
organization reopens or becomes engaged in any form of gambling
prohibited by Section 330 of the Penal Code, a person described in
subdivision (c) shall either divest that person's interest in the
business or organization, or divest that person's interest in the
gambling enterprise or gambling establishment for which the person is
licensed or has applied to be licensed by the commission.
(e) A person described in subdivision (c) shall inform the
commission within 30 days of the date on which a business or
organization in which the person has a financial interest begins to
engage in any form of gambling prohibited by Section 330 of the Penal
Code.
(f) During the six-year divestment period described in subdivision
(d), it is unlawful for any cross-promotion or marketing to occur
between the business or organization that is engaged in any form of
gambling prohibited by Section 330 of the Penal Code and the gambling
enterprise or gambling establishment described in paragraph (3) of
subdivision (c). For purposes of this subdivision, "cross-promotion
or marketing" means the offering to any customers of the gambling
enterprise or gambling establishment anything of value related to
visiting or gambling at the business or organization engaged in any
form of gambling prohibited by Section 330 of the Penal Code.
(g) During the six-year divestment period described in subdivision
(d), any funds used in connection with the capital improvement of
the gambling enterprise or gambling establishment described in
paragraph (3) of subdivision (c) shall not be provided from the
gaming revenues of either the business or organization engaged in
gaming prohibited under Section 330 of the Penal Code.
(h) If, at the end of the six-year divestment period described in
subdivision (d), any person described in subdivision (c) has not
divested his or her interest in either the gambling enterprise or
gambling establishment or the business or organization engaged in any
form of gaming prohibited under Section 330 of the Penal Code, the
prohibitions of Section 19858 as it read on January 1, 2013, apply.
SEC. 3. (a) By July 1, 2018, the City of Inglewood shall prepare
and submit a report to the Legislature and appropriate policy
committees of the Legislature on the progress of the construction of
the City of Champions Revitalization Project and the project's impact
on the divestment requirement described in subdivision (d) of
Section 19858 of the Business and Professions Code.
(b) (1) A report submitted pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be
submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(2) Pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code, this
section is repealed on July 1, 2022.
SEC. 4. The Legislature finds and declares that a special law is
necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable within the
meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution
because of the unique circumstances surrounding the City of Inglewood
with respect to the construction of the City of Champions
Revitalization Project and the project's impact on the divestment
requirement described in the Gambling Control Act, which governs the
statewide regulation and enforcement of certain legalized gambling
activities in the State.
SEC. 5. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution for
certain costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district because, in that regard, this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.
However, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that this
act contains other costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to
local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made
pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of
Title 2 of the Government Code.
