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

010, carried forward from prior code section 16-7, bans keeping, conducting, or maintaining, directly or indirectly, any house, room, apartment, dwelling place, or other place where a game, gambling, or gaming activity not covered by Penal Code Section 330 or 330a is played, dealt, or carried on with cards, dice, or any other device for money, checks, credit, merchandise, or other value, for profit or commercial purposes. 020 extends liability to any owner, lessor, lessee, agent, employee, or participant who collects a fee or profits from such a game, deeming them to be keeping or operating it.

050 bans merely visiting or frequenting a place where prohibited gambling occurs. , lets a city authorize card rooms only by adopting its own ordinance, and San Clemente's code contains no such authorizing chapter, a commercial poker or card room cannot lawfully operate anywhere in the city. 08's for-profit prohibition.