Inglewood Unveils Plan for Publicly Owned Card Club : Gambling: A change in state law is needed before the Hollywood Park card club, scheduled to open in January, could operate as planned.

The City of Inglewood has unveiled a proposed card club ordinance to govern what could become the first club in the state to be owned by a publicly held corporation.

The 54-page ordinance dealing with the proposed club at Hollywood Park was introduced Tuesday and will be voted on by the City Council on March 16. However, state law must first be changed before the ordinance can take effect.

Currently, under the state’s strictly regulated card club laws, only individuals, investigated beforehand and registered by the state, can own card clubs. Corporations owned by millions of anonymous stockholders cannot be owners.

The law was written so the state would know who has even the smallest interest in a card club. Since gaming has been associated with such criminal activity as money laundering and graft, state law seeks to ensure that no unsavory people have an interest in a gaming business.

Law enforcement officials say that with a publicly held corporation, they have no way of tracking stockholders.

At the behest of Hollywood Park, legislation has been introduced to change the law, said G. Michael Finnigan, the racetrack’s representative .

Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood) confirmed on Wednesday that he and state Sen. Theresa Hughes (D-Los Angeles) introduced concurrent bills that would allow corporations whose stock is publicly traded to own card clubs.

If approved, Tucker said, the legislation would eliminate what he called an inconsistency in state law when it comes to the ownership of gaming businesses.

“Horse racing in California,” he said, “is probably one of the most highly regulated industries and (racetracks are owned) by publicly held corporations. They have never had a scandal.”

The state must grant a license to the card club before it can be licensed by the city and open in January as planned.

If the Tucker-Hughes legislation is adopted, the changes in the California gaming industry could be substantial. With public corporations in the card club business, gaming would go from a “mom and pop” operation to a heavily financed, highly complex industry, said Paul Bishop, the assistant attorney general who oversees gaming licensing.

Unlike such states as Nevada and New Jersey, which allow publicly held corporations to own casinos, California does not have a large regulatory department whose sole job is to oversee every aspect of the gaming industry, he said.

A change in the law, Bishop said, would “all of a sudden . . . pump that industry up in a big way” in California.

He said Hollywood Park officials sent a draft of the proposed legislation to the state attorney general’s office for comment before it was introduced in the Legislature.

“Quite frankly,” Bishop said, “as written I cannot see us supporting it.”

Bishop and Michael Triggs, an Inglewood resident and paid political consultant who led the campaign against the card club initiative last fall, predicted that the bill will face stiff opposition.

For months, representatives of Hollywood Park and the city have insisted that existing state law would allow the park to own the card club. The proposed legislation reflects a shift in strategy.

Although it could take as much as a year or more to get a new law, Hollywood Park’s Finnigan said the park will open the club in January with or without the change. If the proposed law doesn’t pass, the park could lease the property to an individual or a group of partners to own and operate.

Under terms of the initiative approved by the city voters in November, the club is to be located in the Cary Grant Pavilion at the racetrack.