Garden Grove [Orange County, CA] considers casino

[BozMan82]

Just stumbled across this story (2 weeks old) in the OC Register.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister...le_1729147.php

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GARDEN GROVE – City officials are in talks with members of the Gabrielino-Tongva Indian tribe about building a casino resort in what is being envisioned as the entertainment hub of the city-designated resort area on Harbor Boulevard.

Casino resort discussions have been a source of friction in Garden Grove since 2004, when city officials' talks with the Mesa Grande tribe about a casino on Harbor ended with public outrage over closed-door discussions with a Las Vegas developer.

Details of a meeting last month between Councilmen Mark Rosen and Steve Jones and Jonathan Stein, chief executive officer of the Gabrielino tribe, were discussed toward the end of the City Council meeting late Tuesday night.

The city was approached by the tribe, whose members seem "very interested and motivated" to put a casino at the former Fire Station Motel site on Harbor, Rosen said. The city's redevelopment agency paid $5.5 million for the 5-acre site in 2003.


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Good news... I hope they can pull this off.

Note: Apologies in advance if this was already posted. I ran several searches, but did not see any posts/threads about this.

[Rick Nebiolo]

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Good news... I hope they can pull this off.

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From the article: "The resort would be along the lines of the Bellagio in Las Vegas, with an amphitheater, restaurants, retail and about 2,500 slot machines, Stein said.

IMO this won't be good for poker. The doomsday scenario:

1. The Garden Grove Casino gets in. It will be 90% slots and at best a token poker room (due to limited space and much higher revenue for slots).

2. Existing licenced LA card club owners sue for the right to install slots and eventually find the right court/judge and win.

3. The LA card clubs install slots and owners want to install more.

4. With the possible exception of Hollywood Park and perhaps Commerce all clubs are hemmed in by existing business and can't grow easily.

5. With 12 million people within an hours drive every slot machine will be jammed close to 24/7.

6. Poker tables continuously removed for more profitable slots.

7. Within a few years only a few token poker tables are left; today's rake/drop for remaining tables seems like a bargain.

~ Rick

[BozMan82]

Rick - Good points... I didn't foresee that scenario.

[csuf_gambl0o0r]

garden grove has an indian tribe?!?!

man this sounds sick. i hope they build it. garden grove is even closer then hawaiian gardens. also garden grove is like 100% Viet, so theirs gonna be plenty of degens and plenty of action at the tables. Me likely

[DeMaci]

This will never, ever happen.

[Rick Nebiolo]

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This will never, ever happen.

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I hope you're right.

~ Rick

[Rottersod]

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[ QUOTE ]
This will never, ever happen.

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I hope you're right.

~ Rick

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He probably is. Garden Grove has a bad history of trying to attract big development as they try and play off their proximity to Disneyland. I give this a 2 in a 100 chance of succeeding.

[Frond]

How tough was it to get HG up and running? I can't recall.

[murph0110]

hg is la county, big difference.. cannot really compare the two...

slots/cards/gambling will never fly in the oc...

[Rottersod]

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How tough was it to get HG up and running? I can't recall.

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I don't know but I think that HG had a history of gambling with bingo parlors.