The statute you are referring to is a provision of the California Penal Code that generally prohibits people from operating commercial gambling enterprises. The statute in its entirety prevents businesses from operating any dice-based gambling games for money, regardless of the number of sides on the die.
Essentially, California forbids games where a ball or dice alone determines the outcome. With these restrictions in mind, Tribal casinos got clever and invented new games that simulated the same or similar odds to craps and roulette, but retained the legal definition of house-banked card games.
