(a) Except as provided in subdivisions (b) and (c), a person shall be deemed to be unsuitable to hold a state gambling license to own a gambling establishment if the person, or any partner, officer, director, or shareholder of the person, has any financial interest in any business or organization that is engaged in any form of gambling prohibited by Section 330 of the Penal Code, whether within or without this state.
(b) Subdivision (a) shall not apply to a publicly traded racing association, a qualified racing association, or any person who is licensed pursuant to subdivision (b) or (c) of Section 19852.
(c) Subdivision (a) shall not apply to a person who meets all of the following criteria:
(1) The person is licensed or had an application to be licensed on file with the commission on or before February 1, 2013.
(2) The person has a financial interest in a business or organization engaged in gambling prohibited by Section 330 of the Penal Code that was closed and was not engaged in prohibited gambling at the time the person was either licensed or had filed an application to be licensed with the commission.
(3) The person has a financial interest in a gambling establishment that is located on any portion of, or contiguous to, the grounds on which a racetrack is or had been previously located and horserace meetings were authorized to be conducted by the California Horse Racing Board on or before January 1, 2012.
(4) The grounds upon which the gambling establishment described in paragraph (3) is located are directly or indirectly owned by a racetrack limited partnership owner. For purposes of this paragraph, a “racetrack limited partnership owner” is defined as a limited partnership, or a number of related limited partnerships, that is or are at least 80 percent capitalized by limited partners that are an “institutional investor” as defined in subdivision (w) of Section 19805, an “employee benefit plan” as defined in Section 1002(3) of Title 29 of the United States Code, or an investment company that manages a state university endowment.
(d) Within three years of the date the closed business or organization reopens or becomes engaged in any form of gambling prohibited by Section 330 of the Penal Code, a person described in subdivision (c) shall either divest that person’s interest in the business or organization, or divest that person’s interest in the gambling enterprise or gambling establishment for which the person is licensed or has applied to be licensed by the commission.
(e) A person described in subdivision (c) shall inform the commission within 30 days of the date on which a business or organization in which the person has a financial interest begins to engage in any form of gambling prohibited by Section 330 of the Penal Code.
(f) During the three-year divestment period described in subdivision (d), it is unlawful for any cross-promotion or marketing to occur between the business or organization that is engaged in any form of gambling prohibited by Section 330 of the Penal Code and the gambling enterprise or gambling establishment described in paragraph (3) of subdivision (c). For purposes of this subdivision, “cross-promotion or marketing” means the offering to any customers of the gambling enterprise or gambling establishment anything of value related to visiting or gambling at the business or organization engaged in any form of gambling prohibited by Section 330 of the Penal Code.
(g) During the three-year divestment period described in subdivision (d), any funds used in connection with the capital improvement of the gambling enterprise or gambling establishment described in paragraph (3) of subdivision (c) shall not be provided from the gaming revenues of either the business or organization engaged in gaming prohibited under Section 330 of the Penal Code.
(h) If, at the end of the three-year divestment period described in subdivision (d), any person described in subdivision (c) has not divested his or her interest in either the gambling enterprise or gambling establishment or the business or organization engaged in any form of gaming prohibited under Section 330 of the Penal Code, the prohibitions of Section 19858 as it read on January 1, 2013, apply.
(Amended by Stats. 2013, Ch. 760, Sec. 3. (SB 472) Effective January 1, 2014.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018