Card rooms, also known as card clubs, are businesses across the state that offer card games like poker and pai gow where players bet against one another. They’ve existed in some form since before California became a state, and were particularly popular during the Gold Rush era. Unlike tribal casinos, card rooms can’t offer slot machines or games where players bet against the house.

Card rooms have sometimes run afoul of the law. In 2021, Artichoke Joe’s Casino, a card room in San Bruno, paid a $5 million federal penalty and agreed to pay a $5.3 million settlement with the California Department of Justice for misleading regulators and violating a federal law aimed at combating money laundering. The card room’s violations had gone on for eight years. Several card rooms were ordered to close in 2020 for failing to follow state COVID-19 orders. And in 2019, Hawaiian Gardens Casino, one of the largest card rooms in the state, settled with state attorney for $3.1 million for misleading gambling regulators and paid $2.8 million for violating a federal anti-money laundering law. 

Some card rooms are a major source of revenue for the local government of the city they are in. The city of Hawaiian Gardens, for example, received about 70% of its revenue from The Gardens Casino in its 2019-2021 budget.