Card Club Proposal Draws Full House of Players, Pro and Con : Hawthorne: Advocates of gambling initiative point to economic payoffs for the city. Opponents say the crime potental is too great to risk.

Proponents of a controversial initiative to legalize card club gambling in Hawthorne filed a petition this week bearing nearly twice the number of signatures needed to place the measure on the November ballot.

Supporters say a card club could generate as many as 2,000 jobs and as much as $10 million in annual tax revenue. But opponents say those projections are greatly exaggerated, especially since several card clubs in Gardena have closed in the past few years and nearby Inglewood is considering building a state-of-the-art card club at Hollywood Park. They also have expressed fears that a card club would attract crime and other problems to the city.

At a meeting this week, supporters of the gambling initiative asked the Hawthorne City Council to save the city as much as $8,000 in verification costs by placing the measure on the ballot without requiring an official validation of the signatures.

Council members, however, refused to consider that request. As a result, the petition was turned over to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office, which, under California Election Code, has 30 days to verify the signatures.

If the review finds that at least 15% of the city’s 21,983 voters signed the petition, the measure will qualify for placement on the November ballot. If at least 10% of the signatures are found to be valid, the proposal may be scheduled for next year’s municipal election.

Although similar proposals for card club gambling in Hawthorne have failed in the past, proponents believe that the time may now be right for such a proposal.

Security manager Mark Young, 39, who is spearheading the initiative effort, said that the recent riots pointed out the need for the city to have an adequately staffed police department. And while proposals to raise taxes to fund law enforcement have failed twice in the past couple of years, he believes Hawthorne residents would support card clubs as a way to generate money for more police officers.

“It was just one of those things,” Young said. “The timing is right. The city needs the money, we have the location and everything just came together.”

Young said potential investors are interested in building a club in Hawthorne’s Imperial Corridor area in the northern part of town, which is slated for redevelopment.

Since May, Young has garnered $40,000 in support from developers and others interested in investing in a Hawthorne card club. Part of the money he raised paid the salaries of professional canvassers who spent the past three weeks gathering signatures for the initiative.

But opposition to the proposal began to percolate almost immediately after he suggested the idea.

One Hawthorne couple complained that the signature-gatherers told them the initiative, dubbed the “Hawthorne Economic Improvement Act of 1992,” would prevent gambling in the city, rather than allow it. And some residents said they were told the initiative would allow the construction of “recreational facilities,” not card clubs, in the city.

Young denied he or any of his workers misrepresented the petition in any way. He said he spoke personally to the couple that complained and apologized to them for the misunderstanding. He also said he believed their complaint was a cynical attempt to derail his campaign.

The initiative is strongly opposed by ministers who work in the community. Earlier this month, council members Larry Guidi and Betty J. Ainsworth and a group of religious leaders led more than 300 people on a march against legalized gambling in Hawthorne.

Pastor Albert Wise of Del Aire Assembly of God Church in Hawthorne said he helped arrange the demonstration because he believes there is an important issue at stake.

“(Proponents) were talking about raising money and adding police officers, but they weren’t addressing the social ills that come with a gambling place such as a card club,” Wise said. “Card clubs are not family affairs. They are individual affairs where . . . someone has to lose. And they are going to lose their rent money, their food money. This is just going to add more problems in our community.”

Guidi, who said he believes there are better ways to raise money for the city, agreed. “I think a casino should be a city’s last stop and we’re not there yet,” he said. “I’m not ready to throw my hands up.”