A look back -- Jerry Person

I was sitting around with the early morning gang at the Sugar Shack,

when in walks Steve Gale another member of the morning clan. He had just

returned from Las Vegas and couldn’t keep the good news of his winnings

from his friends.

Steve is a bit of a legend at the Shack in that Lady Luck has smiled

on him often.

Another Shack gambler is Ron whose trips to Gardenia, Hawaiian Gardens

and Pala to enjoy a day out at their casinos is also legendary.

So what have these two gamblers got to do with history?

When the town of Pacific City (early Huntington Beach) was created in

1901, the founders wanted it to rival Atlantic City on the East Coast.

And what is that city famous for today. . . its gambling.

Games of chance are nothing new to Huntington Beach citizens. For

years our big oil men of the town would be found upstairs at the Windsor

Club on Main Street playing high-stakes poker.

Longtime Huntington Beach resident Orville Hanson was telling me that

a boat would depart from our pier daily with a load of passengers and

head out to a gambling ship anchored past the three-mile limit and the

law.

My parents told me how in the 1930s the local businesses in Los

Angeles County had slot machines in their establishments and Huntington

Beach was not immune to the gambling fever.

In 1944 the Palm Cafe here in Huntington Beach had such a machine for

his customers until the Rev. Wesley Edwards raided Ray DeBouwer’s cafe,

ending slot machines in Huntington Beach.

At least for two years it did.

In May of 1946 the city granted permission to H.F. Faust and Gilbert

Scanlon to install 25 slot machines in 22 local businesses.

The city had just passed ordinance No. 484 that allowed slot machines

for amusement purposes that didn’t pay off, much like our state run

lottery.

In return for allowing slots, Faust and Scanlon would pay the city

$2,000 a year -- and that was big money in 1946.

By June 4, 1946 the city fathers were talking about allowing Draw

Poker tables in the city.

City leaders heard about the success the city of Gardena was having

and how it was raking in $3,000 per establishment and $525 per table, and

wanted some of that action too.

The City Council talked of having 10 tables in town, with no more than

two per establishment, and each of those places would have to fork over

to the city $500 to start up and also be required to have a gaming

license with the city, which would cost them $300 per year. Six games

were operating in town at that time and two more were ready to go.

But, like the saying goes about the best laid plans of mice and men,

history reached from the distant past and brought everything to a halt.

Local people were up-in-arms about so much gambling coming into town

and wanted all forms of it eradicated. They appealed to the City Council

for help.

Mayor Ted Bartlett asked City Atty. Ray Overacker what options were

available. Overacker explained to the council that during the time of the

city recodifications and its municipal statutes in 1940, it somehow missed an ordinance enacted on March 19, 1909 known as ordinance No. 9 --

the anti-gambling ordinance. It prohibited any game of backgammon,

bagatelle, billiards, card games of any kind, carom, checkers, chess,

crokinole, roulette, fantan, dice, dominoes or any clock, dice, tape,

slot or card machine.

Now this would have satisfied those people who were against gambling

in the city, except that it would prohibit even ladies card parties at

the Women’s Club that were open to the public and awarded prizes.

Can’t you just imagine your moms having a friendly penny card game and

the police busting down their front and back doors?

Under ordinance No. 9 this could happen. Police Chief Don Blossom

stated to the council that he would enforce the measure as it was

written, and so the good citizens of Huntington Beach got up a petition

to repeal the ordinance.

More than 700 people signed. In July 1946 more than 150 people,

against the ordinance, packed the city council chambers. During the

meeting some called the ordinance “antiquated” and others told the

council that its repeal would help business.

Can you believe it, the council listened and passed ordinance No. 499

on July 28, 1946 to repeal the dreaded No. 9.

With its repeal, it didn’t mean that the town was wide open to

gambling as state laws were still on the books to regulate gambling.

Kelly Mandic of the city clerk’s office was very helpful in giving me

information on gambling ordinances in the city today. But before you go

out to a card party you had better know about the city’s dreaded code No.

9.24 on gambling and the subsection .090 that reads -- “When any legal

game of cards is being played it shall be open to inspection by any

on-duty police officer.”

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.