Thousand Oaks, CA Gambling & Gaming: Card Room Licensing (2026)
Key Facts
- Rule
- Card rooms are prohibited citywide
- Exception
- Purely social home card games
- Repealed 2001
- Old permit, hours, minors rules
- Misdemeanor fine
- Up to $1,000, 6 months jail
- Infraction fine
- $100/$200/$500 escalating
- Governing chapter
- TOMC Title 3, Chapter 3
Summary
Thousand Oaks outlaws card rooms outright. Municipal Code Section 3-3.02 makes it unlawful to keep, conduct, or maintain any card room, or to knowingly let a building or room be used as one, with the only carve-out for purely social card games in private homes.
Sec. 3-3.02. Prohibited. No person shall keep, conduct, or maintain a card room or knowingly permit any building, room, or place owned by him or under his charge or control to be used as a card room, except for the carrying on of card games in private homes for purely social purposes.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: 2026 S-78: 2026 S-78 Supplement contains: Current city legislation passed through March 31, 2026).
Full Breakdown
01 as any business house, room, apartment, or place where cards are played for money, checks, chips, credit, or any other representative of value. 02 then bans the activity outright: no person may keep, conduct, or maintain a card room, or knowingly permit any building, room, or place they own or control to be used as one. The only exception written into the code is for card games played in private homes for purely social purposes, meaning a home poker night among friends is lawful but a commercial or semi-commercial card room, however small, is not.
05 formerly addressed permit non-transferability, hours of operation, and rules on minors, but Ordinance No. 1374-NS, effective April 26, 2001, repealed all three, leaving only the definition and the flat prohibition in place. That legislative history shows Thousand Oaks deliberately moved away from a licensed-card-room model toward a categorical ban rather than merely letting old permit rules lapse. Because Chapter 3 of Title 3 contains no permit or application procedure of its own anymore, there is no path in the local code to legally open a card room in the city; any commercial cardroom-style gambling establishment would have to operate, if at all, under a different state-authorized license structure entirely outside this ordinance, and the city ordinance does not provide one.
Violations & Fines
A violation of Section 3-3.02 falls under the Code's general penalty scheme in Chapter 2 of Title 1. Under Section 1-2.01, violating any Code provision may be charged as an infraction or a misdemeanor, and is a misdemeanor by default unless the City Attorney or the citing officer specifies an infraction. Section 1-2.03 caps infraction fines at $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second offense of the same ordinance within a year, and $500 for each further violation within that year; a misdemeanor conviction can bring a fine up to $1,000, imprisonment up to six months, or both. Each day the card room continues to operate counts as a separate offense.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I open a poker room in Thousand Oaks?
Is a home poker game with friends illegal here?
What happens if someone runs an illegal card room?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Thousand Oaks
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Card Room Licensing in Nearby Cities
How other cities in Ventura County handle card room licensing.