California sports betting in 2026: what Lakers fans can use

Is sports betting legal in California? No. As of Nov. 6 there is no licensed sportsbook in the state, online or in person, and nothing on a ballot that would change that before 2028. What Lakers fans can use are federally regulated prediction markets, and those are the subject of a court fight that produced a new order this week. Here is where things stand.

Why California has no sportsbooks

Legalizing sports betting in California takes a vote to amend the state constitution. In 2000 voters approved Proposition 1A, which gave the state's tribes the exclusive right to run casino gaming. Bookmaking is a crime under Penal Code section 337a, and there is no state agency that licenses sportsbooks.

The last attempt was 2022, when two competing measures were on the November ballot. Proposition 26, backed by tribes, would have allowed in-person sports betting at tribal casinos and racetracks. Proposition 27, backed by the national sportsbook companies, would have allowed online betting. Voters rejected both by wide margins.

Nothing is on the ballot this year. The California Nations Indian Gaming Association is preparing a tribal-led measure for 2028, Capitol Weekly reported in October, and in June it asked commercial operators for proposals on how an online market might be run.

Who is licensed

No one. None of the sportsbooks on our board (DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, bet365, BetRivers, Hard Rock Bet, theScore Bet, Fanatics) can take a customer located in California. Their prices still appear on the board because they show where the market is, but for a fan in Los Angeles they are reference prices only.

DraftKings and FanDuel have found another way in. Both now run prediction-market products that operate in California under federal rules, and FanDuel's site tells Californians it is "live in California," according to the same Capitol Weekly report. Tribal leaders have objected, and the sportsbook companies wrote to CNIGA in September promising to close those products once legal sports betting arrives.

Prediction markets: open, and in court

Prediction markets are overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not by states, and the main ones are open to Californians: Novig, Kalshi and Polymarket US. Novig is an exchange where you take a position on a game at a price set by other traders. It is open to adults 21 and over in 47 states, every state except Arizona, Michigan and Nevada. That matters on the road: the Lakers play at Detroit on Sunday and at Phoenix on Nov. 15, and Novig does not work in either state.

The legal fight in California has come from tribes, not the state. A group of tribes led by Blue Lake Rancheria sued Kalshi, and on Sept. 16 the Ninth Circuit held in Blue Lake Rancheria v. Kalshi that Blue Lake and Chicken Ranch Rancheria are likely to show Kalshi's sports contracts are unauthorized Class III gaming when traded from their land. It sent the case back to the district court. This week, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction ordering Kalshi to stop offering sports contracts on the plaintiff tribes' land, RG.org and SportsBettingDime reported. The tribes are to give Kalshi maps of their boundaries by Nov. 13 so it can block those areas. The order does not touch the rest of the state.

Attorney General Rob Bonta has sided with the tribes and the states in court, including a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up New Jersey's dispute with Kalshi, but California has not ordered any exchange out of the state or sued one. Meanwhile, three other California tribes have signed partnerships with Kalshi, Capitol Weekly reported.

What a Lakers fan in California can use

Every Lakers game is priced on the board, Novig first, next to the sportsbooks and the other exchanges. The California page prices this week's games at the venues a fan in the state can open and shows the date we last checked the law. Prediction markets vs sportsbooks explains how each kind of venue reaches its price, and how to read the Lakers board works through the numbers.

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