Businessman Proposes Opening Card Club in Moorpark

A Calabasas businessman wants to open a large card club in downtown Moorpark that he says could generate more than $2 million in revenue for city coffers.

Some city leaders on Tuesday, however, said a card club would attract “the wrong element.” If eventually approved, the club would be by far the largest card club in Ventura County. The City Council is scheduled to review the proposal in January.

Everett Crawford, a retired real estate investor from Calabasas who made the proposal in a Nov. 30 letter to city officials, said he and his partner are “squeaky-clean” and the club would be too.

Crawford said he and partner Donald MacKay, a real estate developer from San Diego, have no experience in building gaming casinos or card clubs and no connections to other card clubs in Southern California--both of which he sees as advantages.

“We are what we are,” he said. “All our cards are on the table, so to speak. There’s no one hiding behind us. We’re going to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t.’ We will hold ourselves to the highest standard. We won’t allow a bad element to enter into this, that could only hurt us.”

The club would host only bridge and panguingue or pan--a fast-paced version of gin rummy where dealers use eight decks with the eights, nines, and 10s removed.

Under Crawford’s proposal, the club would have about 30 tables, which he estimates could bring in as much as $20 million a year from the fees charged for each hand played. Patrons would gamble against each other and not the house. The club’s earnings would be solely from those fees, and the city would take a cut from the proceeds, he said.

“We would gladly pay the city almost whatever they wanted,” he said. “We are starting with 10% of the gross receipts as an opener for discussion.”

Backers of a 50-table card club that failed to get approval in Oxnard a year ago projected that their business would generate from $500,000 to $2 million for that city. Crawford said his revenue projections are not firm and that he would consider reducing the size of the operation if the city requested.

The backers of the Oxnard proposal were dogged by an investigation of political corruption and money laundering by the district attorney’s office. Ventura County District Atty. Michael D. Bradbury also helped give the death knell to the proposal when he went before the council and condemned card clubs as magnets for crime.

Moorpark City Councilman Scott Montgomery is taking a similar tack.

“This just isn’t the type of business we’re looking for in Moorpark,” Montgomery said. “And I personally don’t believe that it brings the economic benefit that other businesses create.”

But Mayor Paul Lawrason has not ruled out supporting the proposal.

“There are a number of advantages and disadvantages to the proposal,” he said. “Before I make up my mind I would like to get some of my constituents’ opinions on this.”

If approved, the card club would not be the first in the city. For 26 years, a small low-ball poker club operated across the street from City Hall. Because the club opened long before the city was incorporated, it was exempt from a city ordinance passed in 1983 that prohibited gambling. That exemption was only in effect as long as the club’s original owner--Robert Bonta--lived.

The club was closed in 1984 when Bonta died. Family members tried to reopen the club in 1985, but were denied permission by the City Council.

Bonta’s club had just two tables, room for eight people and was open only three days a week. Crawford wants his club to be open 14 hours a day, six days a week.

“We don’t want to go forward unless we know that we have a fighting chance,” Crawford said. “This is a trial balloon. If they say no, that’s fine. We’ll try and go somewhere else.”