ORDINANCE NO. _____ (N.C.S.)
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 5-05.16 AND 5-05.17 OF THE SALINAS MUNICIPAL CODE TO ALLOW FOR AN INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF GAMBLING TABLES OPERATED WITHIN A LICENSED CARD ROOM City Attorney Impartial Analysis
Current Municipal Code provisions limit the maximum number of allowable gambling tables per licensed card room to eleven (11). This ordinance would allow licensed card rooms to periodically increase the number of gambling tables up to an additional ten (10) tables as set forth in state law, for up to a total of twenty-one (21) tables.
WHEREAS, effective January 1, 2024, California Business and Professions Code section 19961.07 provides that a city may allow existing card rooms operating fewer than twenty (20) tables to increase the number of tables by two (2) within the first year, and up to two (2) additional tables every four years thereafter, not to exceed ten (10) additional tables; and WHEREAS, in accordance with Business and Professions Code section 19961.1, the City submitted the proposed amendment to the California Department of Justice, Bureau of Gambling Control for review and comment. The Bureau indicated in a letter dated May 11, 2026, that the proposed amendment is permissible.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF SALINAS as follows:
SECTION 1. Section 5-15.16 of the Salinas Municipal Code is amended as follows (with additions in underline text and deletions in strikethrough text):
Sec. 5-05.16 - Number of card room permits and card tables limited.
A maximum of one card room shall be allowed to operate in the city.
A maximum of eleven card tables, with one dealer per table, shall be allowed to operate in the City. On or after the effective date of this ordinance, a licensed card room shall be allowed to increase the number of gaming tables operated in the card room by up to two (2) additional tables above the number of tables operated in the card room on January 1, 2023. With this increase, no more than thirteen (13) tables shall be permitted in any one card room. Thereafter, on or after each four (4) year anniversary of the effective date of this ordinance, a licensed card room shall be allowed to further increase the number of gaming tables operated in the card room by up to two (2) additional tables, not to exceed ten (10) additional tables above the number of tables operated at the licensed card room on January 1, 2023. With these subsequent increases, no more than twenty-one (21) gaming tables shall be permitted in any one card room.
SECTION 2. Section 5-05.17(a)(2) of the Salinas Municipal Code is amended in its entirety to read as follows:
(2) Not more than eleven tables shall be permitted in any card room. Not more than the maximum number of gaming tables permitted by Section 5-05.16(b) shall be permitted in any card room.
SECTION 3. All ordinances and parts of ordinances and all resolutions and parts of resolutions in conflict herewith are hereby repealed as of the effective date of this ordinance.
SECTION 4. Publication. The City Clerk shall cause a summary of this ordinance to be published once in a newspaper published and circulated in Salinas within fifteen (15) days after adoption. (Salinas Charter Section 11.9) SECTION 5. CEQA Compliance. The City Council’s adoption of this ordinance is not a project subject to environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3) because it would not have a significant effect on the environment. Additionally, the City Council’s adoption of this ordinance is exempt because it does not meet the definition of a “project” under CEQA, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines sections 15060(c)(1) and 15378(a), because it has no potential to result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable physical change in the environment.
SECTION 6. Severability. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any court of any competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance. The Salinas City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this ordinance and each and every section, subsection, clause, and phrase thereof not declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion of the ordinance would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional.
SECTION 7. Effective Date. This ordinance will take effect thirty (30) days from and after its adoption.
PASSED AND ADOPTED this _____ day of ____________________, 2026, by the following vote:
AYES:
NOES:
ABSENT:
ABSTAIN:
APPROVED:
_________________________________
Dennis Donohue, Mayor
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
___________________________________
Christopher A. Callihan, City Attorney
ATTEST:
___________________________________
Patricia M. Soratos, City Clerk
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