The Political Economy of Legalized Sports Gaming: Evidence from California’s Proposition 26

We analyze economic and social factors influencing voter behavior on California’s Proposition 26: The Legalize Sports Betting on American Indian Lands Initiative. Proposition 26 was rejected at the ballot box in 2022. We use county-level vote data to understand why Proposition 26 lost to better inform future sports gaming referenda. Our results indicate that more college-educated citizens are positively associated with voting yes, while median age is negatively correlated with voting yes. Surprisingly, counties with casinos or those that border states with legalized sports gaming were not associated with county-level vote outcomes at all.