Panel to Take Casino Applications Urged : Oxnard: A top official acknowledges crime concerns, but advises the city to consider construction of a large card club.

Top Oxnard administrators, impressed by potential new tax revenue, recommended Thursday that the City Council take an important step toward bringing big-time gambling to Ventura County.

In a report on Tuesday’s council agenda, economic development chief Steven Kinney acknowledged concerns about casino-related crime, but urged the council to pursue possible construction of a large card casino.

The council should create a gambling task force to begin accepting detailed casino applications, which would be submitted by mid-August with a $25,000 deposit to pay for city review, Kinney said.

“Although numerous concerns are evident about the propriety of a card club in Oxnard, and these concerns deserve the closest attention . . . staff believes that they should not rule out card clubs per se as an allowed use in Oxnard,” Kinney concluded.

After a study session Tuesday, the City Council is expected to decide whether the financial rewards of casino gambling could outweigh the crime sometimes associated with it.

Two casino promoters have estimated that the city would get $500,000 to $2 million a year in gambling taxes from a large casino along the Ventura Freeway, while city charities would reap another $500,000 annually.

Kinney, chairman of a committee that has considered the gambling issue since March, said the group “reached the conclusion that crime, and the perception of its attraction to Oxnard through a card club, is the essential community issue.”

But Kinney said concern about crime may work as a safeguard, since gaming applicants would have to prove that they are squeaky clean and that they know how to operate a card club beyond the reach of organized criminals.

“If the council is not persuaded that the criminal risk is sufficiently controlled, it should go no further in considering any applications,” Kinney said.

Of the five City Council members, two have stated positions: Mayor Manuel Lopez flatly opposes gambling, while Councilman Michael Plisky favors it if the city can limit approval to a single casino.

Councilmen Thomas Holden, Andres Herrera and Bedford Pinkard have said they are considering a casino because it would help replace $4 million in budget cuts next fiscal year.

Kinney, whose report was reviewed by the city manager and city attorney before release, said the city should restrict approval to one casino, at least for now, so officials can monitor the club’s success and its impact on Oxnard.

Under the recommended process, each application--which would include background information on all casino owners and operators--would be evaluated by city officials.

Then the council could reject all applicants or select one, based on the experience and stability of the operators, and the design and location of the card club.

The winning applicant, if any, would be selected by about February, 1994, he said.

So far, three promoters have said they want to build casinos in Oxnard.

And gambling sources say card club bosses in Los Angeles County--where the take per table can reach $600,000 an hour, exceeding even that of Las Vegas--are poised to enter the untapped Ventura County market. The closest large casino to Oxnard is 70 miles away in eastern Los Angeles County.

The 50,000-square-foot Oxnard casino envisioned by the two promoters who have filed preliminary applications would rank as the sixth or seven largest in California, and would produce between 400 and 600 jobs, applicants say.

While intrigued by potential jobs and taxes, council members have said their greatest concern is that a casino might become a haven for criminals.

In early May, Oxnard officials learned that one casino promoter--political consultant Timothy M. Carey of Torrance--was convicted last year of felony lewd conduct with a 12-year-old girl. In addition, a second Los Angeles County businessman who was involved in Carey’s proposal also had participated in an early 1980s hidden-ownership scheme in the city of Bell.

City officials say they have not heard from Carey since then. But he said Thursday that his proposal is still alive, and he hopes to hand it off to a group of investors soon.

“It’s getting close,” Carey said. “I’ll send out a press release when it happens.”

Another promoter--Keith Wintermute of Oxnard--received backing last month from directors of the California Commerce Club, the second largest card casino in the state.

That club had its own corruption problem when it opened in 1983 and was fined at least $3 million last year by the IRS for failing to report large cash transactions, according to gambling and law enforcement sources.

A third casino group, which includes Ventura developers Michael Wooten and Frank Marasco, is headed by former federal prosecutor and Las Vegas casino owner Richard P. Crane Jr.

Even if favored by Oxnard, Crane would still have to overcome a hurdle resulting from his ownership of five casinos in Nevada and Colorado. State gaming authorities say California generally forbids owners of such clubs from holding licenses here, because some of the casino games allowed in those states are not legal here.

Ventura is the only local jurisdiction in Ventura County with operating card clubs. But the Ventura clubs have just four tables, not the 50 planned in Oxnard.

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