Washington Card Room Licensing and Local Prohibition Authority

The Washington State Gambling Commission, created under chapter 9.46 RCW, holds exclusive authority to license commercial card rooms. Under RCW 9.46.070(2), the commission may issue an annual license, good for no more than one year, to a business "primarily engaged in the selling of items of food or drink for consumption on the premises" that meets commission requirements, letting it run punchboards, pull-tabs, and social card games as a commercial stimulant. RCW 9.46.0282 defines a "social card game" as gambling authorized under RCW 9.46.070 and specifies that authorized games may be house-banked (the house covers losses and keeps winnings) or player-funded banked games where players themselves fund the bank. The commission sets the table count for each room, but that number "shall not exceed a total of fifteen separate tables per establishment", the statewide hard cap on card room size regardless of city or county. Only players and commission-licensed individuals may participate in or take a cut of a game's proceeds, and each game needs at least two players. The commission also writes rules governing fee collection on each hand, wager limits, and how player funds are held and accounted for.

Local control sits on top of the state license. RCW 9.46.295(1) makes a card room license valid throughout the incorporated and unincorporated area of the county where it's issued, but lets any city, or the county government outside its cities, "absolutely prohibit" the licensed activity within its own borders. A city can shut every card room in town down entirely; what it cannot do is keep the license alive while narrowing what it covers ("may not change the scope of license"). A narrow annexation carve-out in RCW 9.46.295(2) lets a card-room-banning city that annexes territory allow a house-banked business already operating there as of July 26, 2009 to keep running, tied to a sales-tax credit under RCW 82.14.415.

Running a card room, or any activity chapter 9.46 requires a license for, without one is professional gambling in the first degree under RCW 9.46.220: a class B felony carrying up to ten years in a state correctional institution and a $20,000 fine under RCW 9A.20.021. A licensed room that exceeds the fifteen-table cap or lets a city-banned game continue operating risks license suspension or revocation by the commission, on top of separate criminal exposure for anyone who profits from an activity the local prohibition already outlawed.