Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed a bill into law to allow drinking in California until 4 a.m.
However, there is a catch: the law is only for the new VIP section at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
The purchase of alcohol is banned from 2am to 6am everywhere else in the state. This privilege to drink until 4am comes at a hefty price, demanding $10000 for the suite.
One of the bills sponsors is Murphy’s Bowl, a company owned by Steve Ballmer who is the owner of the Clippers and the Intuit dome itself. This has raised questions of bias, and favoritism towards the rich.
Jack Abrams, a USC freshman student from Tennessee, shared his thoughts on why this law could appear biased.
“I don’t really have any stake in this personally... it seems a little bit unethical”
A group of Graduate students at the USC village bar Rock and Reilly’s shared their thoughts on the California Senate passing the law. Charlize, a graduate in student in Marshall echoes Abrams on how the law is unfair.
“Well, I don’t like the California Senate, and they make bad laws, so it goes intact with that. I think that if they make a law that’s only for the Intuit dome, that’s not fair.”
Steve, another graduate student from the group, thinks it will benefit the state for the upcoming 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“Yeah, I think that’s interesting, just because LA is a global city, especially with the Olympics coming and compared to the European games, I think it would be a really big opportunity, I guess, for the city of LA in terms of, like, a tax and jobs perspective, by having 4am drinking”
When asked about a potential curfew at 4am, Steve replied, “I mean, I think that kind of testing it out and just seeing like how the responses from the public is, is a good idea.”
Is this the last call for the last call problem?