What steps/hoops/hurdles would I need to jump through to open a small cardroom (say 4 tables) in the SF Bay Area?

Thank you in advance for your responses and mods feel free to move this thread if it's in the wrong place.

You would have to buy an existing license and get cleared by both the state and local authorities.


No new licenses are permitted for at least another two and a half years

Interesting thank you. How much would that cost would you think? And then how much $ to actually get the room off the ground?

When Stones opened up in Sacramento, they consolidated licenses from the Phoenix card room and Lucky Derby. I heard at the time that they had purchased each license for about a million dollars. Add in whatever it costs to secure a venue, hire and train staff, get food/liquor licenses, etc.

It's not cheap and I don't see how a 4 table room would make it worthwhile. The Limelight in Sacramento was for sale as of a few years ago. Not sure what's going on with it now.

I appreciate your perspective. Thank you!

There's probably a California Gaming department you should call or check out their website? There may be different levels of licenses, maybe not. A card club may or may not be different than a full blown casino.

Without the availability of a 'lessor' permit/license I don't see how a 4-table room would be very profitable, especially in CA.

In Michigan there is a (suspended for now) charity system in place that allows for 4-day permits that are used to host poker. Your role could be as a 'Supplier' to those charities to assist in running the poker and that's where there's an income opportunity.

Hopefully you can find a niche/crack in the system and work on that opportunity. GL

if you are serious about this... Consider a minimum of a 15 table room, investors with not only the cash but the political influence in the Bay area, and 2-3 years of time to get everything/everyone bought and paid for.

Just a business guess from a non gaming business owner is you are going to need roughly 5-7 million to get your ball rolling.

If the plan is to wait until 2023, he'll need a lot more than that. California will likely put any new licenses up for bid, and the bidding will be furious. Then he'll have to find a city he thinks will allow a cardroom. Don't pick San Jose, they are barely tolerant of the two they have. He may have to buy a mayor and/or city council, so he should pick a small city. Then he will have to find an actual building for it.

But you're right, all of this expense and hassle isn't worth it for 4 tables. The building and tables are going to be a small portion of the total expense, so might as well have a big place for a big payback.

Seems like it would be a lot easier to just run some kind of bar league or "home game" type of deal than trying to get through all the red tape and securing a gaming license. I would see which counties are most lenient and what loopholes there are to create revenue without actually taking a drop like in Texas.

You know there already is a 4-table card room in the Bay Area, right? It's called Pete's 881 Club, and it's in San Rafael, about 13 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's got a lot of character, in the way that a neighborhood dive bar has character. It's too small to have a security guard or cashier/cage. The bartender doubles as a waiter, ferrying food and drinks to the tables. It's only open 6 pm to 2 am weeknights, though it does open earlier Saturdays and Sundays. The clientele is mostly very local. The staff dresses casually. They don't use shuffling machines. The vibe is more like a home game than any card room I've ever been to.

I've always thought a card room permit was a license to print money, but Pete's looks like a really hard way to make an easy living. I wonder if they'll even survive the protracted closure due to COVID-19. (Their website appears to have been taken down except for the restaurant menu.)

It sounded like he wants a real business. When you look at how busy the San Jose rooms are, it can make you wish you could make the same kind of money.

Marin county is not the best location. The rent must be sky high. The demographics are also wrong. You want either a lot of disposable income and/or a built-in degeneracy. That's the south bay or peninsula, with lots of engineering types and asians.

Bill - you seem to have a decent handle on this kind of stuff, so location-wise, where would you think a new room could realistically go assuming you're keeping it on the peninsula side? Lived in the area for 8 years and moved away shortly before Matrix opened. I remember how much red-tape was involved with that so tend to agree with your earlier post that SJ (and SF) proper would be out of the question and it'd need to be a smaller(ish) town.

Ideally, I'd think you'd want to go as far north as possible to get the SF traffic. Assuming you could find the space & approval for a room, somewhere like Daly City or Brisbane? Would you go further south... maybe Redwood City to be far enough north not to compete with 101/Matrix, but far enough south to not (directly) compete with LC? Ultimately I suppose the idea of not trying to be within another room's drawing area isn't that valid given Matrix & 101 are basically right on top of each other.

As others have already said ITT... if you're going to go through the hassle of getting a license and opening a room, I'd aim much higher than 4 tables.

Some good points and I agree. I was thinking mid -Peninsula somewhere

You'll also have to compete with a 'little' cardroom (only 20 tables) north of Marin called Graton... though they don't seem to have a problem getting clienteles.

Realistically the only area not served by a nearby poker room in the SF Bay Area is probably Palo Alto, but good luck getting them to license degeneracy there.

Both Lucky Chances (29 tables) and Artichoke Joe's (17 tables) are in that area.

Matrix/101 works because San Jose has a huge population (900k+). Has more people than San Francisco or Oakland. It also draws from Fremont (200k+), Santa Clara & Sunnyvale (100k+ each).

Redwood City is only 77k in comparison, including neighboring cities it's still maybe 300k, though if you're trying to distance from existing rooms while staying close to population Redwood City/Palo Alto maybe the best bet.