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

Lynwood Municipal Code § 4-17 regulates every card club, card room, card school, bridge club, social card club, or public eating place, pool hall or billiard hall where card or game playing is part of the business, defining a parallel category of game clubs for non-card games run the same way. Before operating, the person conducting, managing or carrying on the club must first procure a permit and pay the fee set under the general business license schedule in § 4-8. The permit does not authorize any game prohibited by state law or city code, so it layers onto, rather than overrides, state gambling restrictions.

Clubs must close between 2:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon the same day, and only the owner and regular employees may remain on the premises during those closed hours. Operators must keep out intoxicated, quarrelsome or disorderly patrons, and no music, dancing or unnecessary noise is allowed inside a card or game club. Anyone under eighteen is barred from entering, visiting or remaining on the premises, and the person running the club must actively prevent minors from getting in. The city also walls off card rooms from alcohol: a permit cannot be granted for a club on premises holding an on-sale liquor license, and no one may be on the premises at all while alcohol is sold, served, consumed or given away there.