Placentia, CA Gambling & Gaming: Card Room Licensing (2026)
Key Facts
- Core rule
- No gambling house, room or place for cards, dice or devices
- Reach
- Place used in whole or in part for gambling
- Companion rules
- § 10.24.010 playing or betting; § 10.24.030 permitting premises
- Card table fee
- $1,105 per year per table, permit required (§ 5.08.090)
- Penalty
- General penalty: up to $1,000, one year, or both
Summary
In the City of Placentia, California, no person can conduct a house, room, apartment or place used in whole or in part for games played with cards, dice or other devices for anything of value. The city fee schedule separately prints a card table fee with a permit requirement.
§ 10.24.020. Keeping of house for gambling purposes. No person shall conduct within the city any house, room, apartment or place used in whole or in part as a gambling house or place where any game is played, dealt or carried on with cards, dice or other device for merchandise, property or thing whatsoever or anything of value; provided, however, that nothing in this section shall apply to gambling prohibited by the laws of the state.
Full Breakdown
Placentia Municipal Code § 10.24.020, headed Keeping of house for gambling purposes, provides that no person shall conduct within the city any house, room, apartment or place used in whole or in part as a gambling house or place where any game is played, dealt or carried on with cards, dice or other device for merchandise, property or thing whatsoever or anything of value. The ban reaches a place used only "in part" for gambling, so a card game run in one room of a larger business falls within it.
The section ends with a proviso: nothing in it applies to gambling prohibited by the laws of the state. The ordinance therefore does not itself authorize any game, and it does not set up a card room licensing chapter. It sits in Chapter 10.24, Gambling, beside two companion rules. Section 10.24.010 bars playing or betting at any game with cards, dice or other device for anything of value, and § 10.24.030 bars knowingly permitting premises owned by or under a person's charge or control within the city to be used as a gambling house.
The Placentia Municipal Code also prints a fee for card tables. Section 5.08.090 in the Schedule of Fees states that fees for card tables, with code section reference 6.12.145, are $1,105 per year per table, and that a permit is required. Section 6.12.145 covers card tables used by the public for playing cards where a fee or other form of charge is derived, and sends the reader to § 5.08.090 for the fee and to § 6.08.060 for the permit.
The City Council of Placentia adopts these rules by ordinance, and the Placentia Police Department enforces them in the City of Placentia. Bingo is handled separately in Chapter 10.26.
Violations & Fines
Chapter 10.24 prints no penalty clause of its own, so § 1.08.010 applies: a fine not exceeding $1,000, imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or both, with civil action also available. Every day a violation continues constitutes a separate offense under the general penalty section.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Sources & Official References
Other rules in Placentia
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