Bill to Create Card Club Panel Appears Doomed

Legislation to set up a strong commission to police California’s loosely regulated card clubs appeared doomed for the year Friday when Senate Leader Bill Lockyer said the bills were unnecessary and were aimed at the wrong form of gambling.

Lockyer (D-Hayward) heads the Senate Rules Committee, where the legislation is stalled and where he said he will try to see that it dies.

Lockyer addressed a news conference at the side of a UC Davis professor, Marilyn Whitney, who presented the results of a $25,000 study ordered by Lockyer that showed, among other things, slot machine action at Native American casinos far outstripped card club gambling in the state.

“It appears that the press release claims of the extraordinary explosion of the card room industry in California are just simply not true,” Lockyer said. The slot machine area of the market “is growing 10 times faster than card rooms.”

If Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren “wanted to do something about the burgeoning gaming in California,” Lockyer said, he should do so at the tribal casinos where about 8,200 slot machines are located.

Lockyer’s announcement triggered a strong rebuke from Lungren. “For those of us concerned about the catastrophe about to take over the card room industry, the catastrophe of crime, [Lockyer’s] report is absolutely silent,” Lungren said.

This year’s lead card club control bill (AB 11) by Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg (D-Sacramento) called for creation of a five-member California Gaming Control Commission to screen applications.