MONROE – Despite the city’s no-gambling ordinance, a card-game casino wants to open in town, saying it would generate about $400,000 annually in tax revenue for the city and create nearly 100 jobs.
“It is very simple. This is a legal business. It’s legal to operate in other cities,” Lanny Edgeman, a real estate agent for Freddie’s Club, told the City Council on Wednesday.
The casino operators want to convert a 20,000-square-foot warehouse on Cascade View Drive east of the Evergreen State Fair Fairgrounds, Edgeman said.
“This is our first choice. We’d like to come here,” said Bud Brown, Freddie’s manager.
Freddie’s has alreadysold current business in Everett, and a new owner is scheduled to take it over in December, Brown said.
The casino operators said they have had their eye on Monroe because of its location and growing population, Edgeman said.
“It’s a good place for casinos,” he said.
But city law prohibits card rooms and minicasinos within the city limits. State law allows local governments to ban gambling in their jurisdictions, said Susan Arland, a spokeswoman for the state Gambling Commission.
Freddie’s wants the city to change the law, saying the proposal would benefit the city.
The proposed casino would have 15 tables – the maximum under a state law. Games would feature blackjack and poker, but no gambling machines, Edgeman said.
The council decided to have a public hearing on the proposal, but no date was set.
In 2003, Mayor Donnetta Walser visited a card room in Mountlake Terrace to see what it was like, she said.
“It was totally different in some ways from what I expected. It was clean,” she said.
The city has debated several times over the years whether to lift its gambling ban. Ken Berger, a longtime City Council member, said he remembers that the community opposed gambling, saying it would add another stigma to a town already known for its state prison.
But it’s been a long time since the city last discussed the topic, Councilman Robert Zimmerman said.
“I don’t have any idea what the sense is out there,” Zimmerman said.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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