00:00When it comes to California and the, I don't know, I just just the growth opportunity to potentially open up some doors for other states that are a little more hesitant that are, you know, kind of sitting back and saying, you know, a little follow the leader, we'll do what you do, given that you are obviously, you know, such an enormous state when it comes to online casino in particular, and the, you know, the tribal gaming coalition, all things involved there, when it comes to California, what do you suppose next steps are?
00:27Yeah, so California, of course, is a just a humongous market when it comes to any US state, everybody wants in. And there's this major roadblock in the tribes, the tribes, their control everything, they have exclusivity and the Constitution for gambling. And this is where you're finding some loophole operators. First, a couple years ago, DFS 2.0, or you know, where you get to basically use your parlay bets in the underdogs and the prize picks.
00:54You know, New York Senator Joseph Adabo has recently said, you know, these sweepstakes operators, and we'll get to New York in a second, have found loopholes around kind of they're called gray market gaming that you get to kind of figure your way out around all the gaming regulations and still get to offer basically casino gaming.
01:13And these sweepstakes operators have been seen a wave of action, you know, more than 16 states have sent season desist letters, because they found them a ride of the gambling laws. And in California, now we've seen a bill introduced to prohibit these sweepstakes operators, which of course, are dual currency.
01:34So, you know, you've seen the ads around including with Ryan Seacrest and Paris Hilton, that they you can play them for free with free coins, or you can eventually buy these coins and then use those game coins to bet on sports or casino gaming.
01:50And then you can exchange that for real money. And that's the loopholes that they use to get around. This bill would ban them and various payment operators, payment processors, financial institutions, geolocation services, and the like, from working with these sweepstakes operators and carry penalties and whatnot.
02:10The tribes in California are behind this. They've long been vocal against these sweepstakes operators and their way in. And so we'll see what happens in the legislature, but it seems like it will get plenty of discussion because of the tribal backing and kind of the way California is a major market.
02:29And you're even seeing last year, we saw the sports betting alliance and the tribes come kind of together and call for action against these sweepstakes operators.
02:38And if you know anything about California gaming, you know those two parties don't get along. They went at it hardcore a couple years ago in an election that saw online sports betting get voted against at the poll hugely because of the funding from the tribes.
02:53So a very interesting market to your point and it potentially could set framework for states like Texas and Florida, Florida being a tribal sovereign, tribal exclusive state in Texas, just having nothing like California to kind of take that.
03:09And if you include those two states and New York, that's more than 50% of the population. And so the sweepstakes operators would dearly miss those as revenue opportunities.
