Sacramento Considers New Regulations for Relocating Poker Rooms
The Sacramento City Council Law and Legislation Committee will discuss proposed regulations for poker clubs that plan to relocate to a hotel in North Sacramento. If the regulations are approved, these poker clubs will have to submit an application for conditional use permits. Poker club owners will also have to pay a permit fee of $8000 and appear for a public hearing before the planning commission of Sacramento.
According to the present laws, the city manager will have to decide whether a club can relocate and a public hearing is not required. However, these relaxed rules were questioned last year when John Shirley, the then city manager, approved Casino Royale’s application to move to Hotel Red Lion in Woodlake from Auburn Boulevard.
Poker clubs are not the only businesses that will be required to submit applications for conditional use permits. Businesses such as bars, mini-storage facilities, and drive-in restaurants will also be required to comply with the new regulations.
Lawmakers in Sacramento are also considering changes such as removal of betting limits, introduction of more poker tables, and so on. A buffer of 1000 feet between two poker clubs will also have to be maintained to prevent two poker rooms moving into the same club. Sacramento offers four licenses in the city, and an individual operator of poker clubs can own half of them.
The proposed rules are similar to rules imposed on card rooms in places such as Rancho Cordova, Folsom, and Citrus Heights. Kevin McCarty, who had proposed that card rooms will have to apply for special permits, said that the relocation of Casino Royale had “raised legitimate questions and issues.”
He said: “(Card rooms) make sense in some areas and maybe not so much in others. It’s a legitimate question of should there be a public process for the relocation of a card club, and I think there should be.”
According to Sacramento officials, the four operators of card rooms in the city are in favor of the proposed new regulations. Clark Rosa, the operator of Capitol Casino, expressed his support of the requirement to apply for special permits. A staunch opponent of the moving of Casino Royale, Rosa had joined residents of Woodlake to challenge the relocation. He said: “It shouldn’t be left up to one person to make a decision on things like that. Card rooms have impacts on residential areas and businesses because we’re open 24 hours a day.”
A Thunder Valley Casino spokesperson said that the proposed regulations are inadequate as officials of casinos want card rooms to pay fees towards effective oversight. He also said that the casino opposes the removal of betting limits. He said: “The state has done a horrible job of regulating card clubs, and the city of Sacramento has no idea what’s going on inside of these card rooms.”
Stating that his club is currently being scrutinized by gambling officials, Rosa said: “Indian casinos want to put card rooms out of business. We’re under such a rigid eyeglass. Nowhere else is it like it is here.”
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