Big bet a bust in bid to allow sports gambling in California

By BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Competing measures to allow sports gambling in California have lost big despite the most expensive ballot question races in U.S. history. Nearly $600 million was raised to sway voters in competing efforts by Native American tribes and the gaming industry to try to capture a potential billion dollar market in the nation’s most populous state. The dueling measures would have allowed either sports betting at tribal casinos and horse tracks or on mobile devices and online. But California voters did not want a piece of that action. The amount raised more than double what Uber, Lyft and other app-based ride and delivery services spent in 2020 to prevent drivers from becoming employees.