Commerce : Anaheim Rejects Casino, Entertainment Complex

In a public rebuke, the Anaheim City Council this week refused to consider a proposal from a group of investors seeking to build a 200-table card club in the city. The club would have been operated by the City of Commerce casino.

“A majority of the council spoke loud and clear that this proposal is not acceptable,” Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly said.

The card club bid failed Tuesday when the council declined to put the issue on the agenda for its next meeting. To emphasize the council’s stand, the mayor also asked the city attorney to draft a letter to the investors telling them the council “will not take up this request.”

Representatives of the card club investment group, known as Southland Entertainment Properties, could not be reached for comment. On Nov. 3, the group unveiled a plan to build a $60-million entertainment center in the northeast end of the city that would include a theater, an upscale restaurant, a conference room and the largest card club in Southern California.

But the proposal angered many residents. They said they were concerned that a casino would attract crime and prostitution. It came under more criticism last week when the investors began a telephone campaign to win support by seizing on the city’s concern about crime. Several residents and city officials complained that the solicitors were misleading and neglected to mention there would be a card club in the entertainment center.