SACRAMENTO - The most expensive ballot proposition gamble in U.S. history went bust Tuesday as California voters overwhelmingly rejected sports betting, shooting down initiatives by Native American tribes and the gaming industry.

The two groups raised nearly $600 million in competing efforts to expand gambling and try to capture a piece of a potential billion dollar market in the nation’s most populous state.

But voters did not want a piece of that action.
Within an hour of polls closing on Tuesday, projections showed that California voters overwhelmingly backed Proposition 1, a ballot measure that enshrines reproductive rights in the state constitution.

The final tally on Prop. 1 won't be known for quite some time — possibly weeks — but first returns made it abundantly clear that the electorate supported a "yes" vote by a wide margin.

Both ABC News and NBC News quickly made a projection on the measure, which, according to California's nonpartisan legislative office, "changes the California Constitution to say that the state cannot deny or interfere with a person’s reproductive freedom," and reaffirms that "people have the fundamental right to choose ... whether or not to have an abortion [and] whether or not to use contraceptives."

Story Date: November 16, 2022