Davis vetoes bill over banked games

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Friday, July 30, 1999 | 12:03 p.m.

SACRAMENTO -- California Gov. Gray Davis has vetoed legislation that would have allowed licensed card clubs in California to continue to offer "banked games" like Pai Gow poker as long as all players at the table were offered the opportunity to act as the bank.

The legislation, AB1417, stemmed from a recent court ruling that the author, Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Culver City, said had made the regulations governing banked games in California confusing.

The case is on appeal, but if upheld could prohibit player-banked games in California card rooms, which constitute a substantial number of the games now played, according to supporters of the bill.

The bill would have specifically authorized banked games in California card rooms as long as all players in the game were offered the opportunity to act as the bank every five hands. It did not change the state's existing ban on house-banked games, such as those played in Nevada casinos.