May 7, 2025 By Brian Hews Earlier this year, seven of California’s wealthiest gaming Tribes filed the “Agua Caliente Lawsuit” against nearly every cardroom in the state, including The Gardens Casino in Hawaiian Gardens and the Commerce Casino in Commerce. The greedy tribes even included cardrooms that had not been operational for years. The lawsuit was a result of the enactment of State Senator Josh Newman’s (D-Fullerton) Senate Bill 549, a special interest bill that was sponsored by the state’s wealthiest gaming Tribes, who pumped hundreds of millions into getting the bill passed, aiming to shut down taxpaying cardrooms by terminating their ability to offer Department of Justice approved player-dealer games.

By Brian Hews Publisher | Follow X October 21, 2025 For nearly a decade, California’s top law enforcement office has quietly worked both sides of the gambling table—taking millions from tribal casinos while punishing the legal cardrooms that sustain local cities. First, it was Xavier Becerra. Now, it’s Rob Bonta. Both attorneys general accepted major tribal campaign donations and then issued Bureau of Gambling Control regulations that could cripple cardrooms—destroying jobs, choking off city revenue, and protecting tribal casino monopolies in the process.

May 30, 2025 By Brian Hews • [email protected] The only thing this policy really accomplishes is destroying good-paying jobs, crucial city services, and local businesses while transferring the profits elsewhere. BH. Employees, local politicians, and concerned business leaders attended a community meeting yesterday at the Gardens Casino in Hawaiian Gardens to voice their frustration and anger at the regulations proposed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta that target the cardroom industry, which could eliminate more than 5,000 living wage jobs, cripple local businesses, and slash local tax revenues by up to 50%.

By Brian Hews Publisher | Follow X October 10, 2025 A Sacramento County Superior Court judge has dismissed the Agua Caliente–led lawsuit against California cardrooms, dealing a major setback to efforts to curb banked-style games through state court. The court found that SB 549, the so-called Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act, is preempted by federal law that governs Indian gaming and therefore cannot be used to shut down cardroom games that state regulators have long allowed.