Coalition Girds to Fight Against Gambling Club : Card Casinos: A developer is considering plans to build a gaming center off the Long Beach Freeway, but two council members and other residents hope to kill the proposal before it gets off the ground.

Even though a Los Angeles development company has not submitted plans for a card club in Monterey Park, a coalition of local leaders is already lobbying hard to nip the idea in the bud, saying a gambling place will lead to nothing but problems.

BCTC Development is considering plans to build a $30-million card club on four acres at the northeast corner of the Long Beach Freeway (710) and Floral Drive. The company is surveying residents on the idea and will decide within a month whether to pursue the project, said BCTC Vice President Richard Myers.

But before the company even gets to that point, several community leaders and two City Council members want to send a clear message that a card club would not be welcome in Monterey Park.

Card casinos are illegal in Monterey Park. In order to build one, BCTC would have to launch an initiative petition drive to put its proposal before voters. If voters approved the proposal, the casino’s design plans and operation still would require council approval.

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Card club opponents include the Rev. Jack G. Preston of First United Methodist Church, who used to live in Gardena. Preston said he used to get stopped in grocery stores or on the streets by desperate gamblers who had run up daunting debts at card clubs in the city.

They would wave the pink slips to their cars in front of his face and ask for $100 or would offer the deed to their houses at a ridiculously low price.

“There will be no question on who owns the city if they come in,” Preston warned at a press conference held by club opponents this week.

City Council members Samuel Kiang and Judy Chu will propose a resolution at Monday’s meeting to discourage BCTC’s efforts. Card casino opponents are distributing flyers and putting up posters, asking residents to voice their opposition to card casinos at the council meeting.

Kiang and Chu said they believe a card club would “attract organized crime elements, lead to constant turf fights by gang members, harbor prostitution, money laundering, loan-sharking and other illegal activities.”

Meanwhile, BCTC is making its own preliminary moves. Company officials are putting on marketing presentations for residents and distributing flyers asking for support.

“There are many other cities that have these (clubs) in California,” BCTC Vice President Richard Myers said. “They don’t seem to have all those problems.”

The flyer asks residents to sign a form endorsing “the building of an entertainment center with retail, restaurant, card room and entertainment.”

Kiang called the flyer misleading.

Myers countered that BCTC was being upfront about the possibility of a card casino.

“The intention was never to bury anything,” he said.

Besides Kiang and Chu, no other council members have publicly stated their stand on the card club proposal.