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

Redondo Beach Municipal Code Section 4-2.101, found in the Amusements chapter's Card Rooms article, prohibits any person from operating, conducting, or permitting the operation of a room or establishment where card games, including legal poker games, are played for a fee or compensation charged to the players by the house, management, or other person permitting the games. Unlike jurisdictions that regulate card rooms through a local licensing ordinance under the state Gambling Control Act, Redondo Beach has not adopted an authorizing ordinance; instead its own Code criminalizes the for-profit card room model outright.

The section traces to Ordinance No. 991 c.s., one of the older provisions still in force in the current code, and sits alongside the Code's other Amusements-chapter licensing regimes for dance halls (Section 4-2.301) and pool and billiard rooms (Section 4-2.501), which by contrast require permits rather than banning the activity. Because the prohibition applies to any establishment charging a fee for participation in card games, it reaches commercial card rooms of the type licensed elsewhere in California under the Gambling Control Act, Business and Professions Code Section 19960 et seq., but Redondo Beach has chosen not to authorize that licensed model within city limits.