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

Section 9.12.010 prohibits any person, whether as owner or employee and whether paid or not, from dealing, playing, carrying on, opening or conducting draw poker (including lowball), cribbage, pool, billiards, or any other game played with cards, dice, billiard balls, pool balls or cues for money, checks, credit or a 'thing of value' as defined in California Penal Code Section 330.2. The ban covers every game not already listed as exempt in Penal Code Sections 330 or 330(a), and Orange has never adopted a local authorizing ordinance for card rooms of the kind the state Gambling Control Act, Business and Professions Code Section 19960 et seq., requires before a city may license one; there is no local card-room permit process to apply for.

Section 9.12.020 extends the prohibition to spectators: it is unlawful to knowingly be present or remain in any residential structure, building, stand or place used for gambling, or where a game barred by Penal Code Section 330 or Section 9.12.010 is played for money or a thing of value. The only carve-out in either section is for bingo conducted under Chapter 5.95 of the code, which lets qualifying nonprofit organizations run licensed bingo games. Because the ordinance predates the modern Gambling Control Act and has never been amended to authorize a card room, any commercial poker or card operation in Orange, run openly or from a private residence, falls within the ban, and simply attending such a game is a separate offense under Section 9.12.020.