1997: Stacking the Deck

In 1997 Bill Lockyer, then a state senator, authored a piece of legislation that radically altered the regulation of gambling in California. His Senate Bill 8 repealed the Gaming Regulation Act, which had defined gambling law in California since 1984, and instead enacted the Gambling Control Act of 1998. This act created the Division of Gambling Control within the Department of Justice, and empowered it to act as the regulator of the state's $14 billion legal gambling industry. The passage of this bill restructured the way the California state government deals with the various facets of the gambling industry, and indicated that the legislature intended to take more of a role in the regulation of the industry.

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