SB 1409 California Senate · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Horse racing: charity days.

Summary

Existing law requires each licensed racing association that conducts 14 weeks or less of racing to designate 3 racing days, and each licensed racing association that conducts more than 14 weeks of racing to designate 5 racing days during any one meeting, to be conducted as charity days for the purpose of distributing the net proceeds to beneficiaries. This bill would instead require each licensed racing association that conducts 12 weeks or less of racing to designate 3 racing days, and each licensed racing association that conducts more than 12 weeks of racing to designate 5 racing days during any one meeting, to be conducted as charity days for the purpose of distributing the net proceeds to beneficiaries.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 20, 2026 Last action Apr 9, 2026

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What changed between versions

02/20/26 - Introduced → 04/09/26 - Amended Senate · 4 edits · Apr 9, 2026

MODERATE

SB 1409 was substantially amended in the Senate to add an entirely new topic: horse racing charity days. The bill now amends Section 19550 of the Business and Professions Code to lower the threshold for mandatory charity days from 14 weeks of racing to 12 weeks, meaning more racing associations will be required to designate charity days. The original bill numbering provisions were renumbered as Section 2.

SCOPE

A new Section 1 was added amending Business and Professions Code Section 19550 to require racing associations conducting 12 weeks or less of racing to designate 3 charity days, and those conducting more than 12 weeks to designate 5 charity days. This is a completely new subject matter (horse racing) added to a bill that was originally only about legislative bill numbering.

The original bill numbering provisions (formerly Section 1) were renumbered as Section 2. The bill title was expanded to cover both 'the Legislature' and 'horse racing.'

ELIGIBILITY

The threshold for mandatory charity days was lowered from 14 weeks to 12 weeks of racing. Associations conducting between 12 and 14 weeks of racing are now newly subject to the 3-charity-day requirement, whereas previously they would have been exempt.

REQUIREMENT

Subdivision (b) of the new Section 19550 caps the amount a racing association must pay to a distributing agent at two-tenths of 1 percent of total on-track handle on live races. Subdivision (c) exempts fairs and associations conducting three weeks or less of racing.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Apr 9, 2026

Upper · Passed

From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Apr 8, 2026

Committee

Referred to Com. on RLS.

upper

Feb 20, 2026

Introduced

Introduced. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors