San Francisco Police Target Gambling Cabbies

Jay, a 21-year-old Vietnamese immigrant, slapped down card after card on the trunk of his cab while fellow taxi drivers gathered in a parking lot at San Francisco International Airport.

The onslaught of passengers returning home from Thanksgiving vacations had not yet begun and business was slow. About 200 cabbies parked in long lines in three lots in the underground garage.

Small groups of drivers gathered around taxis, using the trunks as playing surfaces for card games such as gin rummy, tonk, monte and fan. They were divided along ethnic lines: clusters of card-playing Russians, Indians, Vietnamese and Palestinians.

Mostly recent immigrants, these drivers know that gambling is against the law and can result in $220 fines, citations or arrests if they’re caught by San Francisco police.

Gambling has become such a pastime among airport cabbies that police say they cite 10 to 20 drivers a month. These cabbies typically are sent to a four-hour refresher course, offered each week by the Police Department, on the rules of conduct, including the ban on gambling.

Kevin Tobin, a taxi dispatcher for the city and county of San Francisco for 25 years, said that although gambling by drivers isn’t as bad as it used to be, “it’s there and we try to control it.”

It had grown so prevalent, he said, wives of cabbies complained that their husbands were gambling away house payments. And there were sometimes fights among drivers.

Cabbies stacked big piles of cash on their cars while others crowded around to watch the action. But, Tobin recalled, after a few police busts in which the money was confiscated, big sums were no longer as visible.

But drivers still gamble, he said, and, when business is slow, they try to use their winnings to defray the cost of renting the cabs, which runs as high as $120 on a Saturday night.

And though cabbies know it’s against the law to gamble -- warning signs are posted -- they sometimes get caught up in the intensity of the game and don’t even notice when police approach.

That was the case last week when an officer peered over a railing on an upper level and saw a game in progress at one of the picnic tables below, Tobin said. The officer made no secret of his presence and still the game went on.

The officer drove his cruiser slowly around the ramp, lights flashing, and then parked behind Tobin’s booth. When the officer got out of his car and walked over to the picnic table, one of the startled players said: “Where’d you come from?”

San Francisco Police Officer Stuart Molver, who is among eight officers and a sergeant with the ground transportation enforcement unit, said he had been watching the taxi drivers for 10 to 15 minutes before he broke up the game in which players were betting less than $5 a hand. And although he was unable to name the game or state its object -- both requirements before the district attorney will press charges -- he issued citations to all four players.

In addition, he took one of the cabbies out of service on the spot when he said the man failed to produce his badge, photo identification and log listing passenger destinations.

“People here know the rules and regulations and they still gamble with money,” Molver said. “They try to make the gate [cab rental fee] or extra money for food for their families. They always say times are tough.”

Molver said neither he nor the other officers mind if the drivers truly are playing for fun, but when money changes hands, he is obliged to step in.

He said gambling in the underground parking garage was much more prevalent between 1995 and 1998, but a handful of cases prosecuted by the district attorney that brought $220 fines got the drivers’ attention and the number of card games dwindled.

Molver said officers keep a close watch on gambling, in addition to their other duties. They conduct surveillance with binoculars to pinpoint which cabbies are playing for money, vary their hours and work in plainclothes on foot or in marked and unmarked patrol cars.

Jay, the Vietnamese immigrant, who declined to provide his full name, has been driving a taxi for three years. If his weekend’s winning streak continued, he said he was looking forward to being treated to dinner in the coming days by his opponent.

Sometimes players cross ethnic lines, said Kiki Elassali, 37, a cabbie originally from Morocco.

“We learn the Chinese game. We learn the Vietnamese game. When we play, we understand about where each other comes from,” he said, returning to his cab as the line started to move.