Elks Trying to Force Card Club to Fold ‘Em : Ventura: Players Poker Club is scheduled to close its doors when its 85-year-old owner dies, but is seeking an extension. Rival wants it shut down for good.

The Ventura Elks Lodge is trying to get a 52-year-old poker club to fold. And the Elks say they aren’t bluffing.

The Players Poker Club is requesting an extension on its business license, and the Elks Lodge--which has a rival gambling operation--is lobbying to get it closed.

Under a 1958 morals code that prohibits such gambling houses, the Players Poker Club on Ventura Avenue must shut down when 85-year-old owner Pinky Donohoo dies.

Monica Donohoo, his 31-year-old wife, has requested that the Ventura City Council allow her to assume ownership after her husband dies. He is bedridden with throat cancer, she said.

About a month ago, a subcommittee of the City Council recommended that the license be transferred to Monica Donohoo after her husband dies, and then expire in 10 years, closing down the club.

Since then, some members of the Elks Lodge have been pushing city council members to deny the request.

“I don’t want them open at all,” said Art Gonzales, who is in charge of the Elks’ gambling operations. “I want us to get all the business.”

Gonzales argues that because the profit from the fraternal organization’s card room is donated to charities, the city should allow the commercial poker club to fold when Donohoo dies.

The two card rooms have been in competition since the Elks Lodge began its gambling operation about four years ago. The American Legion operates a card room that is open to members only, and Veterans of Foreign Wars opens its card room only on Saturday afternoons.

“We’re in competition for customers,” Gonzales said. “But it’s different with us, because we give back to the community.”

The Elks’ card room grosses about $175,000 a year, Gonzales said, and it costs about $75,000 annually to operate it. Most of the profits are given to local charities, he said.

Owen Cornett, manager of the Players Poker Club, declined to say how much the club makes in a year, but he said the club also donates to charitable causes.

The Players Poker Club caters to poker players, while the Elks Lodge attracts gamblers who play the card game pan. Gonzales said that the Elks’ operation would probably change to lure poker players if its rival shuts down. The Elks’ card room is at the lodge on South Ash Street.

Gonzales has been writing and calling council members to plead his case. The council is expected to take up the issue today.

Some council members said they would like to see card clubs pay more than the annual business license tax, generating additional revenue for the city. The Players Poker Club pays $40 a year in business tax, city officials said.

“Other cities have turned to gambling as a source of revenue,” Councilman Jim Monahan said. “The city is in dire straits for money, and we’re looking at all angles for money.”

Monahan, an Elks member, said he favors giving Donohoo a permanent license, one that could be sold or transferred. However, he said he is sympathetic to Gonzales’ arguments.

“I’m torn between both,” he said.

Councilman Gary Tuttle, who chairs the committee that recommended extending the license, said he would not support making card clubs a key revenue source.

“I don’t want card clubs all over town,” Tuttle said. “I think we should let the Players Poker Club continue in business. It’s been there for a long time, and we haven’t had any problems with it.”

Cornett said he had previously offered to pay extra taxes in order to keep the club open, but “the council members said no, that it would sound like a bribe.”

Customers who regularly play at the Players Poker Club are upset at the idea of the popular club closing, but they said they would play at the Elks’ card room if they had to.

“Most people would end up going to the Elks, or some would go down south” to other card clubs, said Dana Hall, who has been coming to Players for six months. “But some people wouldn’t go at all, because this place is like home to a lot of people.”

Rob Mason, a dealer at the club, said, “The bottom line is that poker players don’t have real strong allegiances, and they’re always going to go where the action is.”