Edmonds, WA Gambling & Gaming: Card Room Licensing (2026)
Key Facts
- Card rooms
- prohibited citywide, ECC 3.24.015
- Penalty for illegal card room
- up to $5,000 fine, 1 year jail
- Other gambling violations
- up to $250 fine, 90 days jail
- Bingo/raffle tax
- 5 percent of net receipts
- Nonconforming card rooms
- grandfather clause later held preempted, 2003 ruling
Summary
Edmonds bans commercial card rooms outright. ECC 3.24.015 prohibits operating social card games as commercial stimulants, and a violation is a gross misdemeanor under ECC 3.24.200 punishable by up to $5,000 in fines and a year in jail, far above the $250 civil-tax penalty that applies to the rest of the gambling tax chapter.
The conduct or operation of social card games as commercial stimulants as defined in RCW 9.46.0217 and 9.46.0282 shall be prohibited. ... ... B. Any person violating ECC 3.24.015 shall have committed a gross misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine in an amount not to exceed $5,000 or imprisonment for a term not to exceed one year, or both such fine and imprisonment.
Official source re-checked September 8, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: current through Ordinance 4444, passed August 3, 2026).
Full Breakdown
0282, is flatly prohibited inside the city. 016, a legal nonconforming use provision letting card rooms already operating under a current Washington State Gambling Commission license continue at their existing table count, with no expansion, permanent closure on license revocation or lapse, on any 30-day discontinuance, on relocation or redevelopment, and in any case five years after the ordinance's enactment. The code's own reviser's note records that this nonconforming use provision was later held preempted by state law: in Edmonds Shopping Center Associates v. City of Edmonds, 177 Wn.
App. 295, the state statute that lets cities prohibit card rooms but constrains how they may treat existing licensees. 015 itself was not disturbed by that ruling. 110, collected quarterly by the city clerk.
Violations & Fines
Operating a prohibited card room violates ECC 3.24.015 and is a gross misdemeanor under ECC 3.24.200(B), punishable by a fine of up to $5,000, imprisonment of up to one year, or both. All other violations of Chapter 3.24, unlicensed gambling activity, unpaid tax or false returns, carry a lesser misdemeanor penalty of up to $250 and 90 days in jail per day of violation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are card rooms or poker rooms legal in Edmonds?
What is the penalty for running an illegal card room in Edmonds?
Could an existing Edmonds card room keep operating after the 2000 ban?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Edmonds
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Card Room Licensing in Nearby Cities
How other cities in Snohomish County handle card room licensing.