Stanton to Vote on Card Parlor Too : Gambling: Council joins Cypress in granting tentative approval to a June special election to let residents decide whether a casino is worth the revenue.

Residents will vote June 8 on whether to allow card clubs to operate in the city, the City Council tentatively decided at a special meeting Thursday night.

The action was prompted by a proposal made Tuesday by operators of the Indoor Swap Meet on Beach Boulevard to convert that building into a card club. The operators say the club could generate $2 million to $3 million in tax revenue each year for a city with a budget of $8 million.

Councilman Sal Sapien, who voted to hold the special election, said a card club would bolster the city’s treasury, which he said was being raided by the state.

“We don’t want to jeopardize the safety of our citizens, but we don’t want to tax them to death,” Sapien said.

By a 4-1 vote, the council decided that the ballot measure should not specify the Indoor Swap Meet site, but would ask if residents wanted to allow gambling anywhere in the city. The City Council will take a final vote on the election at Tuesday’s regular meeting.

By law, March 1 is the last day the city could call a June election.

Only Mayor Don Martinez voted against the election, saying voters won’t have enough time to learn about the issues before June.

“Why does this have to happen in less than a week?

Hratch Derderian, co-owner of the Indoor Swap Meet of Stanton, said plans are not complete, but patrons of the proposed club would bet each other--not the house--in poker and other card games. The club would make its profit by charging seat-rental fees, a fee for each hand played, or both.

The council unanimously rejected a card club proposal five years ago, saying the gambling could bring prostitution and other crime to the city. That same potential is true today, Councilman Harry Dotson said.

Dotson, however, voted in favor of placing the measure before voters, although he said he will personally vote against it on the ballot. Martinez cast the only opposing vote against the election.

Derderian argued that the additional tax revenue could let the city increase its police force.

But Capt. Robert Eason, who heads Stanton’s branch of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, told the council that crime problems created by a card club cost as much to fight as the extra revenue raised.

Eason recalled the consideration of card clubs five years ago, when he said the city manager, attorney and police chief “collectively concluded that having card parlors within the city was not in the best financial and other interests.”

A similar proposal recently was approved for the June 8 ballot by the Cypress City Council. If approved by voters in that city, the club would open at the Los Alamitos Race Course.