Background on Props 26 & 27

Propositions 26 and 27 are related. They both involve various forms of gambling. California Council of Churches IMPACT has long opposed gambling at all. We think it’s a lure the outcomes of which are about the same as standing in your front room tearing up $10 bills in the hope you will find a $100 bill among them. Gambling can be an addiction as many things are. That said, it exists around us. Our challenge is not to resort to pietism and forbid it but to find ways to live with it so as to do some good and reduce the harm. 

We also support indigenous Californians in the choices they make about how to best finance their economic, social, and cultural lives. As descendants of those colonized by predominantly white settlers, indigenous people have taken what opportunities they have been permitted and have built strengthened economic opportunities through them. Gambling is one such route to economic strength. It is not ours to criticize or condemn. 
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Legal gambling in California has mostly been confined to reservations and rancherias belonging to indigenous people. There are exceptions in horse tracks, card rooms, and a few others. In 2018 the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a ban prohibiting sports betting — wagering the outcome of sporting events — and now it exists everywhere. With the rise of the internet, it has become easy if not legal to bet on any team, anywhere, at any time. The question is how to deal with gambling in ways that minimize harm and especially to protect underage youth from this activity. Propositions 26 and 27 address those issues.