That deceptively simple rule lies at the center of California’s gambling laws, according to top gaming law scholar I. Nelson Rose. But enforcing it has proved far more complicated.
Rose, one of the world’s leading experts on gambling and gaming law, has spent years examining how cardrooms design games that resemble blackjack while attempting to stay within California’s legal framework. At one point, he said, he was even brought in to settle a dispute over a game’s legality.
“I was once hired by both the DA and a cardclub to evaluate a game,” Rose told ReadWrite. “In fact, I concluded it was too much like blackjack to be offered in California cardclubs.”
That long-running legal tension is now coming to a head. California’s newly finalized gaming regulations will reshape how cardrooms operate beginning April 1, restricting blackjack-style games and tightening rules on how player-banked tables function.
A centuries-old definition of blackjack at the center of California’s cardroom dispute
The regulatory debate traces back to a core principle embedded in California gambling law i.e. cardrooms cannot operate “banking games.”
“California outlaws banking games for cardclubs, not tribes,” Rose said. “A banking game has an historical and legal definition going back centuries. It means that one player continuously takes on all others.”
For years, many cardrooms relied on third-party proposition player providers, outside companies that supply players who act as the bank, to keep games running continuously. The new rules aim to limit that model and require the player-dealer position to rotate more frequently.
Why California’s blackjack-style games are under scrutiny
The other major focus of the regulations is games that closely resemble blackjack.
California law prohibits specific gambling games dating back to the 19th century, including “twenty-one,” the predecessor to modern blackjack. Rose said understanding what lawmakers meant when they outlawed that game is key to interpreting the law today.
“I have done a tremendous amount of research of what ‘twenty-one’ meant when it was added to statutes in 1885,” he said.
His research includes examining historical rulebooks and early gambling literature to understand how the game was played when the statute was enacted.
“For example, at the same time ‘twenty-one’ was added to the prohibited list, the Legislature also outlawed ‘seven and one-half,’ which was the popular Italian casino version of ‘twenty-one’ at the time,” Rose explained.
These historical details matter when regulators try to determine whether modern cardroom games differ enough from blackjack to remain legal.
But, as I mentioned, I have also determined that some games shared too many characteristics of ‘twenty-one’ to be legal.”
Drawing the line between blackjack and legal alternatives
Many California cardrooms have offered games often referred to as “California 22,” which modify traditional blackjack rules in ways designed to comply with state law.
Rose said regulators are now attempting to draw clearer boundaries between games that are legal and those that are not.
One element of the regulatory guidance that Rose disputes involves the use of jokers in the deck. Some cardroom games include them as a way to differentiate the game from traditional blackjack.
