Mason County, WA Gambling & Gaming: Card Room Licensing (2026)

Mason County Code § 5.10.010 authorizes all forms of gambling permitted by the Washington State Gambling Commission under RCW 9.46 to operate in the county, 'unless otherwise prohibited by this chapter.' Section 5.10.020 is that prohibition for card rooms: no person, firm or corporation may conduct, or allow any premises or facility it owns or controls to be used for, a social card game as defined in RCW 9.46.0282. The section carves out one exception: it does not apply to social card games that the Washington State Gambling Commission itself regulates under RCW 9.46.0351, the state statute that lets the commission license certain card game businesses.

In practice, this means Mason County has not adopted its own local card-room licensing scheme; instead it defaults to the state's authorization framework in Chapter 9.46 RCW and specifically bars unlicensed social card gambling operations from unincorporated county land. The chapter's severability clause, MCC 5.10.030, confirms the prohibition and the state-licensed exception are meant to be read and enforced independently of each other, so a court striking one would not automatically strike the other. Because the ordinance defers entirely to the state's gambling commission for the licensing mechanics, a business seeking to run a card room in unincorporated Mason County must obtain the state license first; the county code offers no separate local permit path around it.