Gambling in California first started in the mid 1850's when the professional gambler moved to the new frontier. A large encourager of gambling in historic California was the gold rush. San Francisco replaced New Orleans as the gambling capital of the United States.

In fact, the gold rush brought many different types of gambling and increased the gambling immensely. The neat thing about California's early gambling is that it included people of all different types, races, and cultures. Even minorities like women, blacks, and Asians especially Chinese - were among the first to gamble in California.

Mountain towns such as Mariposa were very popular gambling centers because of all the mining. As the search for iron, gold, and coal multiplied, so did the gambling. By 1851, the city and state were already licensing gambling centers in order to raise more money.

Ever since the 19th century, the gambling and casino industry has played a very large role in the economy of California. In fact, the third large wave of gambling hit California right after the huge stock market crash of 1929. While the United States was in the midst of the great depression due to World War I, legalized gambling was instituted in order to help stimulate the economy. Most people who opposed gambling before the mid 1920s quickly changed their views during the depression and especially when the stock market crashed. Gambling provided a good way to get money quickly.

Shortly thereafter, the Horse Racing act was passed by the California Legislature which allowed racetracks and legalized gambling on horse races. Another initiative to allow private firms to initialize lotteries was turned down by Californian voters in 1964. Finally in 1984, only twenty years later, five commissioners were appointed by the governor under strict qualifiers and a $2 million lottery was grossed that year. Although widespread gambling was shot down multiple times by the state legislature, today gambling is very prominent in California. Today, lottery sales have reached a plateau as a result of state laws which prevent the lotteries from increasing the prize payouts. Approximately $3 billion is grossed each year in annual revenues for the lottery originally started in 1984.

The basis of California gambling has been enacted by the people though their amendments to the constitution as opposed to being enacted by the Legislature. For example, both the state lottery and horse racing gambling were instituted through a constitutional amendment by the people. Even though the lottery is one of the large gambling associations in California, there are other opportunities of gambling especially in casinos. However, the State Constitution specifically and strictly prohibits New Jersey and Nevada style casino gambling.

A majority of the casinos in California are targeted towards the Indian community. In fact, during the late 1990?s a good portion of the Indian casinos were opened to people ages 18 and over. But many have restricted the teenagers and changed their age limit to twenty one or older. Although a majority of the casinos are only open to adults, many allow minors to enter into certain parts of the casino. It varies for each casino.

The Card Casinos located in California are restrictive of all gambling except card games. Card games are the only gambling allowed and participants MUST be 21 years old or older.

Alcohol is often a beverage associated with gambling. In order to drink any kind of alcoholic beverage in the state of California, one must be at least 21 years of age or older. In fact, most lounges are very strict on the age limit and only allow those of drinkable age.

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