Solano County, CA Gambling & Gaming: Card Room Licensing (2026)

, leaves it to each city and county to decide whether to authorize card rooms within its own jurisdiction, and Solano County has gone the opposite direction. Section 21-12 of the county code, titled Gambling, states flatly that no person shall, within the unincorporated area of the county, deal, play, or carry on, open or cause to be opened, or conduct, either as owner or employee, whether for hire or not, any game played with cards, dice, or any device, for money, checks, or credit, as the result of any such game.

The prohibition reaches every role in a gambling operation, owner, dealer, and employee alike, and it covers card games and dice games played for anything of value, not just cash, since checks and credit are named specifically. The ordinance traces to Ordinance No. 416 and was carried forward through Ordinance No. 1691, and nothing in the current code creates a licensing or permit path around it the way some California cities have authorized card rooms under their own local ordinances. Because Section 21-12 sits in Chapter 21, Article I, Public Peace and Safety, alongside disturbing the peace and firearms discharge, a violation is treated as a criminal public offense rather than a civil licensing infraction, and the absence of any permit mechanism in Title 6 (business licenses) or elsewhere in the code confirms the county has not opted in to authorize card rooms as the state act allows.

This makes Solano County's unincorporated area distinct from cities such as those in the Bay Area that operate licensed card clubs under their own municipal codes.