The California Gaming Association has condemned new state regulations that prohibit long-approved blackjack-style and player-dealer games in card rooms.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office announced that two sets of Department of Justice regulations were sent to the Office of Administrative Law for review on Dec. 25, before being approved a little more than a month later on Feb. 6.

The new regulations clear the way for major changes.

California law prohibits card rooms from operating “banked” games such as traditional blackjack (players vs. the house), except at tribal casinos. Instead, California card rooms, such as the Turlock Poker Room, have utilized “player-dealers” employed by third parties, and played offshoots of the traditional casino game — California Blackjack or Blackjack 21.5 — to the dismay of tribal casinos.

Five of the Turlock Poker Room’s 14 total tables are dedicated to blackjack-type games.

The new regulations go into effect April 1, but card rooms have an additional 60 days to report how they’ll modify play.

Kyle Kirkland is president of the California Gaming Association and holds a degree in economics from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford. He said California card rooms are a $6 billion industry that generate more than half a billion dollars in local tax revenue each year and support more than 20,000 families.

“This is frustrating process for us as card room owners and potentially catastrophic if it doesn’t get resolved,” said Kirkland, who owns Club One Casino in Fresno. “But the law is definitely on our side.”

Under the new rules, card room players can’t “bust.” Instead, the winner of a hand is determined by which player has the most points toward the target point count when compared to the player-dealer. Also, receiving an ace card along with a 10, jack, queen or king no longer will be an automatic win.

The new rules also affect the position of player-dealer. A player-dealer is now someone seated at the table, and that position must be offered to other players at the start of every hand. The position must rotate to at least two other players every 40 minutes or the game ends.

“It’s like if I opened a restaurant that sold a really good hamburger and then you told me I couldn’t sell beef,” said Kirkland, who believes the industry could take a 50 percent hit under the new regulations. “I might be able to make a really good veggie burger, but that doesn’t make it a hamburger.”

Some cities will be able to absorb the potential losses better than others.

“I pay a million dollars a year in tax revenue,” said Kirkland. “That’s not a huge amount, but the mayor here knows my name. We shut down during COVID, and the city of Fresno didn’t go away. But in cities like Gardena, Commerce, Bell Gardens, Hawaiian Gardens … you’re talking about laying off the entire police force.”

Kirkland said the state Bureau of Gambling Control pushed the new regulations without outlining a legal need for them and without any public concern over a game that’s been featured in card rooms for decades. He also alleges the bureau failed to properly seek public feedback, as the law requires.

“The attorney general is duty-bound to follow the law,” said Kirkland. “This process is flawed, the content of the regulations is flawed, and we’re going to challenge all of that. We don’t have any choice at this point.”