City Split Over Card Club Plan : Gambling: Developers say it would generate at least $3 million a year in tax revenue. Opponents worry about crime.

A development partnership proposal to build the San Gabriel Valley’s first card club already is dividing Irwindale’s council and public.

“It’s a very touchy subject, it splits families in Irwindale,” said Mayor Pro Tem Frederick Barbosa.

Council members say they already are hearing from constituents on all sides of the issue: those who like it for the money it would generate, those who hate it for the crime they fear it would spawn and those who are concerned about it but willing to listen.

The would-be developers, two longtime card club and gambling industry specialists, say they would spend about $15 million to open the club, which they estimate would bring in at least $3 million a year in tax revenue, and possibly up to $9 million. They have only introduced the idea, and have submitted no formal plans because first they must win voter approval of the idea.

As envisioned by the developers, the card club would be 40,000 to 60,000 square feet and include tables for poker and Asian card games and Chinese and Mexican restaurants. And because the developers say they want their club and restaurants to appeal to families, they are considering an adjoining arcade and a hair and nail salon.

The developers say the club would draw 2,000 to 3,000 players a day and create 500 jobs, mostly full-time.

With the proposal, Irwindale becomes another in a growing list of cities that have been approached recently by card club promoters. Earlier this year, a card club proposal in Monterey Park never got off the ground in the face of strong opposition from city officials and residents.

In Irwindale, the Chamber of Commerce is taking a neutral stance on the card club idea, executive director Joe Di Shanni said.

Mayor Robert Diaz, Councilwoman Jacquelyn Breceda and Councilman Barbosa said last week they haven’t taken a position on the issue.

Diaz, Barbosa and Breceda voted at the council’s July 19 meeting to ask the card club developers to provide the council with more information at its Aug. 26 meeting.

“I’m not endorsing (the card club) at this point, but I’m open to considering anything that will financially benefit the city,” said Breceda. “I’m also interested in the safety of the city.”

Councilman Julian A. Miranda and his uncle, Councilman Patricio Miranda, voted against the motion to ask the developers for more information. The two failed to get a third vote on their own motion: to drop the card club idea immediately.

Julian Miranda said he doesn’t want a card club in the city because he fears that it would tarnish the town’s reputation by fostering immoral activity. Patricio Miranda was on vacation and could not be reached for comment.

“The way I see it, this is a small, tight-knit community and a card club would bring along a lot of bad factors,” Miranda said.

Technically, the casino promoters don’t even need the council’s blessing, but must get voter approval--although they would still have to come back to the council for permits.

Julian Miranda’s father is Irwindale’s police chief, Julian S. Miranda, who was on vacation last week, and could not be reached for comment. However, Irwindale police Commander Charles Crawford, who has worked with the chief for 23 years, said that, “Historically, the chief has not been in favor of the card parlors.”

He said several clubs have attempted to win council approval during the last 20 years. None has been successful.

“Something like a card club would have a big impact on a small department like this,” Crawford said. “I don’t think I would want them here despite the revenue they may bring. There would be a lot of traffic and you always hear about the narcotics, prostitution, and organized crime--unfortunately sometimes it really happens.”

If approved, Irwindale’s card club would join just five others in Southern California: The Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens, the Commerce Casino in the City of Commerce, the Normandie Club and the El Dorado Club in Gardena, and the Huntington Park Casino in Los Angeles.

That number could increase significantly if several other card club proposals succeed.

Votes on card clubs are scheduled later this year in Bellflower and Lynwood, and Oxnard and Anaheim are considering proposals. Inglewood and Compton approved clubs last year.

Four card clubs proposed in cities in Los Angeles and Orange counties were defeated at the polls last month.

The Irwindale council could call for the special election, or simply let promoters try to get the roughly 100 signatures necessary to force a ballot referendum.

State law adopted in 1984 requires the matter to be put to a vote of the people unless the city has an existing gaming ordinance approved prior to 1984, which Irwindale officials said they don’t have.

The promoters say they plan to set up an information office in the city within a couple of weeks and begin to gather the signatures--not just 100, but as many as possible in order to measure the level of support for the venture.

“We want the people to want us as much as we want to be here,” said Frank Santin, who together with Michael Meczka is proposing to develop the card club.

Santin runs F. Santin & Co., a Scottsdale, Ariz., gaming consulting business that helps developers promote their plans for casinos. Meczka owns Los Angeles-based Meczka Marketing, which specializes in local and international gambling.

Both say they have more than two decades of experience in local, national and international gaming, but have never operated or owned casinos. The financial backing for construction of the card club, they say, would come from several investors, whose names will not be released until they apply for a state gaming license.

The promoters say they have chosen to locate in Irwindale because of its proximity to several major freeways. Observers in the gaming industry say the town is ideal because, with its tiny population (1,050) and industrial character, opposition will probably be less fierce than in more residential communities.

But opposition has been hard for card club proposals to avoid.

While casino revenue may pay for much-needed pothole repairs, critics throughout Southern California have said the clubs tarnish a city’s reputation by luring prostitution, gangs, and street violence.

Security is usually good in the card clubs, and crime at the clubs is not a serious problem, some critics concede. The real problem, they assert, is that criminals follow others out of the club and then do their dirty work.

But the developers of the proposed Irwindale casino dismiss such criticism as completely unfounded.

“It is the only argument that hits a false moral issue and hits the voting public,” said Meczka. “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”

The promoters are not alone in repudiating the claims of card club critics.

For example, Sandra Sutphen, chairwoman of the division of political science and criminal justice at Cal State Fullerton, recently studied 12 years of FBI crime statistics for several Southern California towns with card clubs. Her conclusion: “Card clubs don’t cause crime.”

At least, not the kind voters are most worried about.

“Card clubs do cause problems in some communities on one level: In every city where they have been successful, they have also been associated with political corruption.”

As for robbery, gangs, prostitution and other crimes that critics often associate with gaming houses, she said, the crime statistics from towns with card clubs, and their neighboring communities, don’t support those fears.

She said she spent her own time and money on the study.

“Not only do residents not have much to worry about in the way of crime, but the community will benefit from stable and reliable income, and the cities are desperate for money,” said Sutphen, who advised a political consultant working with the backers of a proposed casino in the Orange County city of Cypress. Voters rejected the proposal in June.

In card clubs, players gamble against each either, not the house as they would in Las Vegas. The club makes its money via the hourly charge players pay for a seat in the house, as well as food and beverage sales.