STANTON : Council to Consider Card Club Measure

A ballot measure authorizing card clubs in the city will be considered at a special meeting of the City Council tonight.

Owners of the Indoor Swap Meet of Stanton approached the council Tuesday with a proposal to turn their swap meet, on Beach Boulevard, into a club where people could play poker and other card games.

Taxes on the club could generate up to $5 million a year for the city, according to Hratch Derderian, one of the swap meet owners.

The council rejected a proposal for a card club in 1987, citing potential crime problems.

Derderian and his partner, Ard Keuilian, asked the council to place the issue on the city’s June 8 ballot.

The council will discuss the wording of the proposed ballot measure and whether to make it an advisory measure when it meets at 7:30 p.m., Councilman William C. Estrada said.

Mayor Don Martinez cast the sole vote against holding tonight’s meeting to consider the request.

Keuilian offered to pay any costs the city would incur in the election, Councilman Harry M. Dotson said.

Dotson said he does not want to see card clubs in Stanton.

“Card clubs are gambling,” he said. “A card parlor itself doesn’t bring in prostitution, but the lengthy hours and the clientele do bring in prostitution.”

Derderian said he and his partner want to be the first to open a card club in the county. “Whoever starts in the beginning will be known more than the other one,” he said.

The Cypress City Council last month decided to put a card club proposal on the June ballot. The Garden Grove City Council is debating the card club issue.