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

Adopted as Ordinance 106 N.C. (2d) in 1972, Chapter 7.72 bans card-room-style gambling for money throughout Vallejo, not just in commercial card rooms but in any "house, room, apartment, or place," public or private. Section 7.72.030 separately makes it unlawful to keep, conduct, or maintain a gambling house, though it carves "cards" in that section to exclude bridge and whist. Section 7.72.040 bars property owners from knowingly letting their premises be used for gambling, Section 7.72.050 bars knowingly visiting an illegal gambling location, and Section 7.72.060 bars soliciting others to visit one.

Section 7.72.070 separately prohibits owning or possessing a slot machine, pinball machine, marble machine, or similar device on which money can be won or lost by chance. The only exceptions, set out in Section 7.72.080, are: (A) occasional private social games in a private home, plus non-card games run by a restaurant or bar's private customer group solely to settle who pays for food or drinks, expressly excluding card games from that restaurant exemption; (B) a police-chief-issued license letting an established fraternal, labor, benevolent, charitable, or religious organization active in Vallejo for at least two years run a private, members-only game room, with no advertising and a paid attendant on duty; and (C) bingo conducted under Chapter 5.60.

There is no path in the code for a commercial card room or poker room to obtain a Vallejo license: a state Gambling Control Act applicant would still need a local authorizing ordinance the city has not adopted.