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

Chapter 11.14, Division 1 of the Mission Viejo Municipal Code criminalizes commercial card and dice gambling rather than licensing it. Section 11.14.010(a) makes it a misdemeanor for anyone who, "for profit, or for anything of value or for commercial purposes of any nature, keeps, operates, conducts or maintains ... in the city, any house, room, apartment, dwelling place or other place" where a card, dice, or similar game "not mentioned or included in Penal Code § 330 or 330a is played, conducted, dealt or carried on ... for money, checks, credit, merchandise or other representative of value." Subsection (b) extends liability to any owner, lessor, lessee, agent, or employee who collects a fee for the privilege of playing.

Because California's Gambling Control Act (Bus. & Prof. Code § 19960 et seq.) requires a city to adopt its own authorizing ordinance before a licensed card room can operate, and Mission Viejo has enacted no such ordinance, this chapter is the operative local rule: it bars, rather than permits, commercial card rooms.

Section 11.14.020 separately makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly permit illegal card or dice games on premises a person owns or rents, § 11.14.030 makes it a misdemeanor merely to visit or participate in one, and § 11.14.040 makes betting on one a misdemeanor. Section 11.14.050 allows the city to instead prosecute any of these as an administrative civil action under Chapter 1.02 or 1.03.