The 500 Club Casino Reopens After Chip Controversy

6 years ago
The 500 Club Casino Reopens After Chip Controversy
08:05
04 Sep

The California cardroom which was closed down two weeks ago by the Attorney General’s Office, after it was claimed that the cardroom’s owners didn’t have enough money to cover chips in use, has been told they will be allowed to resume their gambling activities.

In order to re-open, the owners of the ‘500 Club’ in Clovis ‘were required to reach an agreement with the state Gambling Control Commission’, according to Marc Benjamin writing for the ‘Fresno Bee’, although the ‘terms of the agreement haven’t been disclosed’.

PokerTube reported last week that ‘Gaming activities at the 500 Club in Clovis were suspended Wednesday, with the California Attorney General’s Office stating that the card room’s owners failed to have enough money to cover chips in use,’ a fact that the club’s General Manager Dusten Perry disputed.

Since the closure of the club, located at Shaw and Willow avenues, on August 16th the club’s restaurant has remained open, along with the 500 Club restaurant on Clovis Avenue, but the poker tables have been lying idle while the two sides have been trying to hammer out a reasonable compromise.



The club owners were told to provide “a report detailing the source of all funds” related to their gambling activities, while the state Department of Justice’s Gambling Control Bureau also asked for the license of card room owner Louis Sarantos to be revoked, Perry replaced as general manager and fines, penalties and investigation costs to be paid by the club.

It is not clear how much of the state’s requirements were met to allow the re-opening, but it is likely to have also included factors such as the criminal backgrounds of those involved in the funding of the club via loans, following previous investigations into how it was being operated.

The cost to Clovis of any lengthy closure of the was expected to be quite large, its operations bringing $420,000 into the town’s coffers in 2016 and $460,000 in 2015, according to city documents. According to the Fresno Bee, the 500 Club has 265 employees, more than 200 of whom are employed in the card room operation.


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Andrew from Edinburgh, Scotland, is a professional journalist, international-titled chess master, and avid poker player.Read more

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