Bill Text: CA AB341 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Gambling: local moratorium.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-3)
Status: (Passed) 2023-05-22 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 8, Statutes of 2023. [AB341 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB341-Chaptered.html
Assembly Bill
No. 341
CHAPTER 8
An act to add Section 19961.07 to, and to add and repeal Sections 19962 and 19963 of, the Business and Professions Code, relating to gambling.
[
Approved by
Governor
May 22, 2023.
Filed with
Secretary of State
May 22, 2023.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 341, Ramos.
Gambling: local moratorium.
Existing law, the Gambling Control Act, establishes the California Gambling Control Commission, which is responsible for licensing and regulating various gambling activities and establishments. Existing law requires the Department of Justice to investigate any violations of, and to enforce, the act. Under the act, a city, county, or city and county may authorize controlled gambling consistent with state law. Existing law, however, prohibits an ordinance that would result in an expansion of gambling in the city, county, or city and county from being valid unless the amendment is approved by a majority of the voters. Existing law requires an amendment to a city or county ordinance relating to a gambling establishment or the act to be submitted to the department for review and comment before the ordinance is adopted by the city or county.
Prior law,
until January 1, 2023, prohibited the commission from issuing a gambling license for a gambling establishment that was not licensed to operate on December 31, 1999, except as specified.
This bill would reenact that prohibition until January 1, 2043, and would prohibit the commission from issuing a gambling license for a gambling establishment that was not licensed to operate on December 31, 2022, and that is pending before the commission as of January 1, 2024. The bill would also invalidate a gambling license for a gambling establishment that was not licensed to operate on December 31, 2022, and that was issued between December 31, 2022, and January 1, 2024.
Prior law, until January 1, 2023, prohibited the governing body or board of electors of a city, county, or city and county that had not authorized legal gambling within its boundaries prior to January 1, 1996, from authorizing legal gambling, and prohibited an ordinance
in effect on January 1, 1996, that authorized legal gambling within a city, county, or city and county from being amended to expand gambling in that jurisdiction beyond that permitted on January 1, 1996.
This bill would reenact those prohibitions until January 1, 2043. The bill, notwithstanding those provisions, would authorize a city, county, or city and county to amend its ordinance to increase the number of gambling tables that may be operated in a gambling establishment that operates fewer than 20 tables, by up to 2 additional tables the first year, and up to 2 additional tables every 4 years thereafter, as provided. The bill would require an ordinance that was approved by a majority of the voters in a city, county, or city and county in an election that occurred after November 1, 2020, that authorized an increase in the number of gambling tables at a gambling establishment, and that became operative on January 1, 2023, as the result of the repealed provisions
above, to remain operative on and after January 1, 2024. The bill would invalidate an amendment or adoption of an ordinance that occurred on or after January 1, 2023, by a city, county, or city and county resulting in an expansion of gambling that was not authorized or permitted under the act as of December 31, 2022, or that is not authorized or permitted under these provisions.
This bill would state that its provisions are severable.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 19961.07 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read:19961.07.
(a) Notwithstanding Sections 19961 and 19962, and except as provided in subdivision (b), a city, county, or city and county may amend an ordinance to increase the number of gambling tables that may be operated in a gambling establishment as follows:(1) The ordinance shall apply only to a gambling establishment that operates fewer than 20 gambling tables.
(2) The ordinance shall allow a gambling establishment to increase the number of gambling tables operated at the gambling establishment by up to 2 additional tables within the first year after the ordinance takes effect, and up to 2 additional tables every four years thereafter, not to exceed 10 additional tables above the
number of tables operated at the gambling establishment on January 1, 2023. A gambling establishment shall have all permitted gambling tables in operation and remain current in payment on all taxes and other applicable fees before an increase in gambling tables is allowed pursuant to this subdivision.
(b) (1) The authority provided in subdivision (a) shall be in addition to any authorization under any other law in effect on December 31, 2022, for a city, county, or city and county to increase the number of gambling tables that may be operated in a gambling establishment in the city, county, or city and county.
(2) Subdivision (a) does not apply to a city, county, or city and county that increased the number of gambling tables that may be operated in a gambling establishment, as described in paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 19962.
(c) A city, county, or city and county’s jurisdictional limit may expand to accommodate the increase of gambling tables pursuant to this section.
SEC. 2.
Section 19962 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read:19962.
(a) The governing body or the electors of a city, county, or city and county that has not authorized legal gambling within its boundaries prior to January 1, 1996, shall not authorize legal gambling.(b) (1) An ordinance in effect on January 1, 1996, that authorizes legal gambling within a city, county, or city and county shall not be amended to expand gambling in that jurisdiction beyond that permitted on January 1, 1996.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), an ordinance that was approved by a majority of the voters in a city, county, or city and county in an election that occurred after November 1, 2020, that authorizes an increase in the number of gambling
tables at a gambling establishment, and that became operative on January 1, 2023, as the result of the repeal of former Section 19962, as amended by Chapter 1 of Section 744 of the Statutes of 2018, shall continue to be valid on and after January 1, 2024.
(3) Any amendment to an ordinance or adoption of an ordinance on or after January 1, 2023, by a city, county, or city and county resulting in an expansion of gambling that was not authorized or permitted under this chapter as of December 31, 2022, or that is not authorized or permitted under this section or Section 19961.07 shall be invalid and preempted.
(c) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2043, and as of that date is repealed.
SEC. 3.
Section 19963 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read:19963.
(a) In addition to any other limitation on the expansion of gambling imposed by Section 19962 or any provision in this chapter, the commission shall not issue a gambling license for a gambling establishment that was not licensed to operate on December 31, 1999, unless an application to operate that establishment was on file with the department prior to September 1, 2000.(b) An application for a gambling license for a gambling establishment that was not licensed to operate on December 31, 2022, that is pending before the commission as of January 1, 2024, shall not be approved by the commission.
(c) A gambling license for a gambling establishment that was not licensed to operate on
December 31, 2022, and that was issued between December 31, 2022, and January 1, 2024, shall be invalid.
(d) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2043, and as of that date is repealed.
