LOCAL ELECTIONS / SOUTH EL MONTE : Voters Reject Card Club by Wide Margin : Gambling: Foes say the plan’s backers failed to put promised benefits for the city, including millions of dollars in revenue, in writing.

Voters in South El Monte on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to become the first San Gabriel Valley city to allow a card club, brushing aside promoters’ promises of millions in revenue for the cash-starved city.

Residents in this 2.8-square-mile community--like those last year in Bellflower, West Hollywood, Pico Rivera, Lynwood, Stanton and Cypress--defeated the proposal to allow a card club after a bitter campaign.

On Tuesday, “no” votes outnumbered “yes” votes in all of the city’s seven precincts. About 32% of the city’s registered voters turned out.

“I’m not surprised at the result,” said Elaine Trahan, leader of the anti-casino committee. “When a City Council tries to put something over on residents, they will only take so much. We said enough is enough.”

Jubilant opponents said the referendum lost partially because the card club failed to deliver a written proposal on how the club would benefit the community. “They promised a crock of gold without any proof,” Trahan said.

The fiery campaign pitted San Gabriel Enterprises, which hoped to construct a $16-million club, and its local supporters, including two former mayors, against the residents’ group and local Catholic priests, who said the club’s 150 gaming tables would spark crime, prostitution and drugs.

Opponents criticized the planned location of the club at Santa Anita Avenue just south of the Pomona Freeway and about 200 yards from South El Monte’s recently built high school.

San Gabriel Enterprises, which proposed a 22-acre, 60,000-square-foot card club, paid the city $34,000 to hold the election and invested about the same amount on a campaign committee only to see the proposition defeated by nearly a 3-to-1 margin.

Telephone calls to the campaign headquarters were not returned after Tuesday’s results.

The developer, backed by two former mayors--Raul Pardo and Jim Kelly--persuaded the City Council in May to put the issue on the ballot.

Much of the campaign literature opposing the club came from the Alliance for Safe Communities and Residents to Protect Our Neighborhoods, groups associated with existing card club owners that together spent $15,950 fighting the issue.

Two other San Gabriel Valley cities are considering card clubs. In Pomona, two regal Las Vegas-style clubs could be built if the City Council overcomes legal challenges from surrounding cities. In Irwindale, the issue will be decided sometime after November.

EDITION-TIME ELECTION RETURNS

7 of 7 Precincts Reporting: VOTE (%)Proposition A Shall card clubs be allowed in the City of South El Monte? (Approval requires 50% plus one) Yes: 447 (28%) No: 1,146 (72%)