Oakland Sportsbooks
The largest city in one of the busiest sections of one of the nation’s most populous and sports crazy states seems like a pretty good place to be if what you are looking for is some Oakland sportsbooks, but sadly there are not any to be found. Current California state law does not allow, much less legalize or regulate sports betting and it hasn’t for years – and this situation persists even following the US Supreme Court’s landmark May 2018 decision to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA). That federal law prohibited 46 of 50 states – California included – from passing laws to legalize sports wagering, a fact that gave rise to the overwhelmingly successful legal overseas sportsbook market that operates exclusively online and serves the US sports betting market without any problems. Thus, for now, all the best sportsbooks in Oakland, CA, and elsewhere in the Golden State are not actually based in the US at all.
However, our comprehensive guide to Oakland’s best sportsbooks would not be 100 percent complete if we did not at least mention the leading Class III casino in the area and do our best to enlighten you as to why we think that it could make an easy transition into becoming one of the first Oakland sportsbooks when and if the laws change in California. Furthermore, we will take a closer look at several aspects related to the topic of wagering on sports in the Golden State and provide a few hot takes on the expected outcome for legalized sportsbooks in Oakland elsewhere in CA as well. There is a lot of reason to have high hopes about a wide selection of legal outlets offering the sports betting California residents are clamoring for in the near future, and we have all the details in our guide.
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Is Sports Betting Currently Legal In Oakland?
Before we delve too deeply into the subject of the best sportsbooks in Oakland, CA, we really ought to answer this one question first: “is sports betting currently legal in Oakland?” We can say, definitively, that sports wagering of any kind is not currently legal in the state of California when carried out at physical locations within the state lines. The only means of legally betting on sports in the Golden State is to utilize a regulated offshore sportsbook website. Of the many various operators in that segment, the options we think are the best based on our extensive research and years of personal experience as serious bettors ourselves are Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, BetDSI, and 5Dimes, all of which are fully licensed gaming operators based in foreign countries throughout Europe and the Caribbean region.
Many states around the country have decided to pass new laws or amend their old laws in order to make sports betting legal in the wake of the decision by the highest court in the land to overturn PASPA, but so far California has not elected to take similar action. A sports betting bill has been introduced, but it has been unable to make any real progress. Nevertheless, with its thriving casino and gambling industries to attest to the activity’s popularity, we imagine sports betting in California will be legal before 2023. That being said, California’s exclusive gaming compacts with its several federally recognized Native American Indian tribal bodies should be able to “grease the wheels” toward eventually making sports betting legal, as the fierce competition between tribal operations has everyone looking for that decisive edge over the other casino properties in the state, a factor that drives much of the success experienced by California in this regard.
Minimum Legal Age To Bet At Oakland Sportsbooks
Even if there are no legal sportsbooks in Oakland at this time, we can still make a fairly accurate prediction as to what the minimum legal age to bet at Oakland sportsbooks would be if the laws were to be altered in the Golden State to allow sports betting to finally become a regulated, legal industry. Because all of California’s many thriving casinos and other gambling centers already require their players to be at least 21 years of age before they can legally place wagers of any kind, we do not think that Oakland sportsbooks would be too different in that sense, as they would likely stick to the time tested “21 and up rule.”
However, it should also be pointed out that legal offshore sportsbook sites such as Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, BetDSI, and 5Dimes also allow players as young as 18 years old to place wagers on sporting events. Nevertheless, if you decide to do so, you will be knowingly violating the minimum legal betting age in your home state, which could possibly put you under closer scrutiny by law enforcement officials. At any rate, nobody has ever been arrested in the state of California solely for placing wagers on sports using the internet.
Do The Online Betting Sites Offer Benefits For California Residents?
Players here know that the online betting sites are the top option and have a lot to offer. The sports here will vary in how many different betting options there are. The sites are great to have and the major benefits of online betting sites starts with the fact that players can sit at home and use their laptop or their phone to access their betting site account. Another benefit of having an betting site account is the bonuses that will be offered to those who are always coming back and place wagers. These are just a few things that players can take advantage of when they have an account betting sites like Bovada, BetOnline, and others. Live betting option added is another benefit that betting sites have over land-based sportsbooks.
Other Cities With Sportsbooks In California
Best Sportsbooks In Oakland, CA
In case we have not already made it abundantly clear to you, all the best sportsbooks in Oakland, CA, are going to be found online at legal offshore sports betting websites such as Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, BetDSI, and 5Dimes, and there are several good reasons why that is the case. First of all, these sites are effectively the only Oakland sportsbooks entirely by default: there are quite simply no legal sportsbooks based at any of California’s many casinos, and more is the shame too because some of these Class III gaming centers are truly spectacular representatives of the breed. However, serious bettors will nevertheless be hard pressed to find sportsbooks with a better track record for consistency, reliability, security and – of course – great selection of betting odds, than our most highly recommended picks in the segment. You simply cannot go wrong if you stick to these sites we have identified, even if sportsbooks in Oakland were to be open for business tomorrow.
All that being said, we do not want to fail to mention the Graton Resort & Casino, the only Class III gaming property in the Oakland area in our assessment of the top sportsbooks in Oakland. Indeed, the Graton is one of the biggest and best casinos to be found anywhere the casino heavy Golden State with a sterling reputation all its own as one of the favorite places to bet on everything under the California sun…except sports, that is. If the California legislature would get its act together and legalize sports wagering, this property could easily become one of the best sportsbooks in Oakland, CA, with a swiftness almost unheard of in the industry.
- Graton Resort & Casino
- https://www.gratonresortcasino.com/
- Type: Native American tribal land based casino and hotel
- Location:Highland, CA
- Address: 288 Golf Course Drive West, Rohnert Park, CA 94928
- First Opened: November 5, 2013
- Number of Rooms: 200
- Total Gaming Space: 340,000 (3,000 slot machines, 144 table games and video poker machines, baccarat and mini baccarat, blackjack, craps, roulette, pai gow, high limit poker room access available, etc.)
- Gaming Age: 21
- Top Attractions: Live entertainment seven days of the week, the biggest nationally prominent music and entertainment act scheduled regularly, day spa for guests
- Best Restaurants: 630 Park Steakhouse – modern white table cloth fine dining experience, Daily Grill – American classics, burgers, salads, etc., Tony’s of North Beach – pizzeria, Boathouse Asian Eatery – Asian fusion and sushi, G Bar – sports bar, Sky – center bar, 8 – VIP lounge located in the high limit area
- Owner: Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria / Station Casinos
- Phone Number: (707) 588-7100
If you are looking for the casino that could become one of the first Oakland sportsbooks, then you are probably going to be looking closely into what goes on at the Graton Resort & Casino in the next few years, or possibly even the next several months. This sprawling hotel and casino complex has one of California’s biggest gaming floors – seriously, check out that square footage number, it’s 340,000 square feet of literally thousands of slots and table games, plus some of the highest limit poker action that you can handle – and what are without a doubt the nicest hotel accommodations of any such property in northern Central California.
However, it’s not just about betting at the Graton, as the live entertainment scheduled every night of the week and its ability to attract some of the biggest names in country, pop and rock ‘n roll throughout the year means this elite casino focuses just as much as on attracting concert goers as it does a serious gambling-oriented crowd. The restaurant selection here is also something worth noting: there are plenty of options ranging from a high-class white table cloth fine dining experience to more casual fare as the mode strikes you, and there are even several different flavors of bars, from more intimate VIP rooms to sports bars with dozens of high definition TVs so you don’t miss a minute of the action either way.
All that being said, we think the last and possibly only missing ingredient that could make this one of the best overall casinos in the western US is a sports betting option for its hundreds of thousands of guests that visit every year. If the laws in the Golden State change anytime soon, look for the Graton Resort & Casino to become one of the best and first Oakland sportsbooks in the game.