Federal judge says rule preventing casino owners from operating out-of-state should be revisited.
LOS ANGELES—Hustler magnate Larry Flynt took home a partial victory last week is his nearly four-year fight to overturn a California state regulation that prohibits casino owners from owning or investing in gambling establishments in other states. In June of 2020, United States District Judge John Mendez blocked the state’s attempt to throw out Flynt’s ongoing lawsuit. But on January 14, Mendez granted Flynt an even more significant win.
The 1986 law was designed to keep organized crime elements out of California’s then-two-year-old gambling industry. But Flynt has contended in his lawsuit that the rule is “archaic” due to strict regulations in California and other states designed to banish the criminal syndicates, such as the Mafia, who once held a tight grip on the gambling business nationwide.