In California, a banking game is any wagering activity in which one party, the “bank,” takes on all other players at the table, pays every winner out of a central fund, and collects every losing bet into that same fund. Penal Code 330 makes operating or playing one a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of $100 to $1,000, up to six months in county jail, or both.1California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 330 That prohibition is the reason legal cardrooms in the state structure their games the unusual way they do.
What Makes a Game a Banking Game
The legal test turns on a single structural question: does one party sit opposite everyone else at the table? The California Court of Appeal put it plainly in Sullivan v. Fox (1987): the bank “is a participant in the game, taking on all comers, paying all winners, and collecting from all losers.”2Justia Law. Sullivan v Fox If you win, the banker pays you. If you lose, your wager goes to the banker. No other player at the table gains or loses from your bet.
That “one against many” dynamic separates a banking game from a round game like poker, where players compete against each other and the house simply charges a fee for providing the table. The Sullivan court made clear that the banking relationship exists regardless of whether the same person banks every hand or the role rotates. What matters is that during any given round, a single party bears the collective risk of the whole table.2Justia Law. Sullivan v Fox
The financial plumbing is just as distinctive. In a peer-to-peer card game, money moves horizontally between players. In a banking game, money moves vertically between each player and a central pool. The banker’s own money rises and falls with every hand, which creates the adversarial structure California law targets.
Courts and regulators look at this underlying structure, not the game’s name. Renaming a game or tweaking a minor rule does not change its classification. If one side pays all winners and collects from all losers, it is a banking game.
What Penal Code 330 Prohibits
Penal Code 330 bans several games by name: faro, monte, roulette, lansquenet, rouge et noire, rondo, tan, fan-tan, seven-and-a-half, twenty-one, and hokey-pokey.1California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 330 Most are historical games rarely seen today, but they remain on the books.
The statute does not stop at that list. It also prohibits “any banking or percentage game played with cards, dice, or any device, for money, checks, credit, or other representative of value.”3California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 330 That catchall is what gives the statute reach today. A game invented yesterday that runs on banking mechanics falls under Penal Code 330 just as squarely as roulette. A “percentage game,” where the house takes a calculated cut of each pot rather than a flat fee, is covered by the same clause.
California’s fee rules reinforce the line. Penal Code 337j, which codifies Sullivan v. Fox, requires that no fee charged at a licensed cardroom be calculated as a portion of wagers made or winnings earned. Fees must be set and collected before a hand begins, and no more than three collection rates may be set per table. The house earns revenue from flat fees for providing the game, never from a stake in the outcome.
How Cardrooms Legally Offer Blackjack-Style Games
If banking games are illegal, how do California cardrooms spread games that look a lot like blackjack and baccarat? Through a regulated workaround called the player-dealer model. Under Business and Professions Code 19805(c), a game avoids the “banking game” label if the player-dealer position rotates continuously and systematically among participants, the player-dealer can win or lose only a fixed and limited amount, and the house never occupies the dealer seat.4California Office of the Attorney General. Rotation of Player-Dealer Position – Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
In practice, cardrooms have relied on third-party proposition player services (TPPPs) to fill the player-dealer seat. These are independently licensed companies whose employees sit at cardroom tables and rotate into the dealer position. The Bureau of Gambling Control must approve every TPPP contract before proposition play can begin at an establishment, and TPPP operators and their employees need separate licensure and badges from the Gambling Control Commission.5California Department of Justice. Cardrooms
What Changes April 1, 2026
New regulations taking effect April 1, 2026 tighten the player-dealer position considerably. The seat must be offered to all seated players before every hand. If the position does not rotate to at least two non-TPPP players within a 40-minute window, the game must stop. Only one TPPP employee may be present at any table.
The 2026 rules also strip blackjack-style games of their familiar features. Games may no longer use a target point of 21, include a “bust” feature, award automatic wins for natural blackjacks, or use the terms “21” or “blackjack” in the title. Wins and losses must be determined by which hand is closer to a non-21 target point.
Penalties for Playing or Running One
Penal Code 330 applies equally to the person dealing, operating, or conducting a banking game and the person placing bets at it. The charge is a misdemeanor, carrying a fine between $100 and $1,000, up to six months in county jail, or both.1California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 330
For a licensed cardroom, the criminal fine is the smaller problem. Running an actual banking game puts the state gambling license at risk, a far more consequential outcome. TPPP licensees who provide services without an approved contract, offer prohibited player-dealer services, or fail to disclose financial arrangements face discipline up to and including license revocation.6Legal Information Institute (LII). California Code of Regulations Title 4 12560 – Disciplinary Guidelines for Third-Party Proposition Player Services Licensees
Unlicensed operations face a second layer of exposure. Under the Illegal Gambling Business Act (18 U.S.C. 1955), a gambling business that violates state law becomes a federal crime when it involves five or more people and either runs for more than 30 consecutive days or grosses at least $2,000 in a single day.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1955 – Prohibition of Illegal Gambling Businesses Federal penalties are substantially steeper than the state misdemeanor, and the thresholds are low enough that any serious operation crosses them quickly.
One boundary worth noting: Penal Code 330 governs cardrooms and other non-tribal venues. House-banked games are classified as Class III gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and can be offered on tribal land under a tribal-state compact, which is why tribal casinos in California can spread true blackjack and roulette while cardrooms a few miles away cannot.8eCFR. 25 CFR 502.4 – Class III Gaming