A New Card Room Is Coming to a Small California Coastal Town

Published: Jan 20, 2023

Updated: Jan 20, 2023

There will soon be a new card room in the Northern California coastal town of Marina.

On Wednesday, the Marina City Council voted 3-2 to allow Parkwest Casinos, LLC., to open a new card room casino in the city. The company acquired the card room license once held by a now-closed card room, Mortimer’s, last year and is now cleared to move forward planning its new poker room.

The new Marina property, Parkwest Casino Marina, will be the 60th card room up and running in California. Currently, 84 facilities have licenses to operate, but only 59 are open.

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A moratorium preventing new card rooms from opening since 1995 expired on Jan. 1, 2023. However, that moratorium applied to companies getting new licenses for new card rooms. Parkwest Casinos received a transferred license from Mortimer’s, so this process would still have been allowed to happen during the moratorium.

Marina had two card rooms when it was incorporated in 1975: Mortimer’s and the Marina Club. Mortimer’s closed in 2015, and the Marina Club is still active — with 10 tables.

The Parkwest Casinos license is also for a card room with 10 tables. Beyond the 10 tables, Parkwest is planning a 12,000-15,000-square-foot property with a full-service restaurant. It anticipates hiring around 100 on its own, with likely 60 more employees used for third party player proposition services operating its table games, such as blackjack.

Parkwest Casinos also owns seven other up-and-running card rooms in California, including The Bicycle Hotel & Casino, one of the state’s premier poker rooms with 165 tables.

Why Marina Wants a New Card Room

The Marina City Council vote was contentious, with strong opinions on both sides. But Mayor Bruce Delgado was the rubber vote, stressing a new card room would help turn Marina into a more well-rounded city that serves more than just a pit stop along the way to larger, more popular coastal towns.

“It’s going to help our downtown by bringing people from all over the (Monterey) Peninsula,” Delgado said Wednesday, according to the Monterey Herald.

“It’s the evolution of new investment coming to town, and then somebody else might want to come in to create something else.”

Delgado said he expects the new card room to bring Marina close to $400,000 in tax revenue. He also hopes and expects gamblers who visit the new card room will also go to other local restaurants and businesses in Marina.

Parkwest Casinos has targeted a location off of Highway 1 and Del Monte Blvd. for the new card room.

About the Author

Matthew Bain

Matthew Bain started as News Editor and Content Manager at California Casinos in 2022. Before that, he spent six years as a sports reporter and then deputy sports editor for the Des Moines Register, during which time he won nine statewide journalism awards, including the Genevieve Mauck Stoufer Outstanding Young Iowa Journalists Award. As deputy sports editor, Matthew oversaw the Register’s recruiting coverage while also innovating the outlet’s high school sports coverage. Matthew graduated from San Diego State and grew up in California, but he’s somehow a Boston Celtics fan. Long story.