California sports-betting initiatives continue to trail in polling

Support continues to lag for a pair of sports-betting initiatives on California’s November ballot that would impact horse racing in the state.

Proposition 26 would allow in-person sports wagering at the state’s four major racetracks and on tribal lands. According to a survey released Tuesday by the University of California Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, 31 percent of likely voters support the proposal and 42 percent oppose. The remainder are undecided.

Proposition 27, which would allow sports wagering online, faces an even steeper hill to climb between now and election day on Nov. 8. That measure, which is backed by major gambling companies including FanDuel and DraftKings, trails by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. Only 27 percent of voters are in favor and 53 percent oppose.

California’s horse-racing industry has thrown its support behind Proposition 26. An official for the owner of both Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields told Horse Racing Nation last month the measure “would not be a game changer” fiscally for the state’s Thoroughbred industry. However, in addition to being a new revenue stream, it could help expose horse racing to a new audience.

“That in and of itself is a big upside,” said Scott Daruty, president of Monarch Content Management, which distributes the simulcast signal for tracks owned by 1/ST. 

Campaign spending on the two ballot measures has totaled more than $410 million, which is the most in U.S. history. The survey found that a voter’s exposure to advertising has been a negative factor for either initiative. Voters who say they have seen lots of ads about Props. 26 and 27 vote no by a wide margin, “while those who have seen little or no ads are about evenly divided,” the report said.

Eric Schickler, co-director of UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, noted of the poll: “These results suggest the sport wagering initiatives foundering in the face of the opposition advertising campaigns. The lack of support among key demographic groups make passage of each an uphill battle, at best.”