Southeast : Council to Put Card Club Measure to Vote

Help for financially strapped Hawaiian Gardens could come from the wallets of gamblers playing poker and bingo in a card casino under a plan approved by City Council members this week as a remedy for the gaping $1.5-million hole in the city’s budget.

The council approved a special election Nov. 21 to let residents decide whether to legalize card clubs.

One of the things for which the city is seeking financial support is help to pay for its new 20-member Police Department.

“It’s the only thing that’s going to help us,” said Councilman Lupe Cabrera.

It is estimated that the city could reap from $3 million to $6 million a year from the card club. It would sit on the northeast corner of Pioneer Boulevard and Carson Avenue, a site now occupied in part by a bingo parlor. The card club would be owned in part by Dr. Irving Moskowitz, a local physician whose Irving Moskowitz Foundation owns the bingo parlor.

Hawaiian Gardens is among a handful of Southern California cities rushing to decide whether to allow card casinos before Jan. 1, when a statewide three-year moratorium on new card casinos goes into effect.