California's cardroom register, read in full: 78 licences, 22 of them not operating
The California Gambling Control Commission's register of gambling establishments listed 78 licensed cardrooms on 6 October 2026 — and recorded 22 of them as licensed but not operating. We read the whole register and published a page for every licence the state shows as trading, which is 56 rooms from Eureka to Chula Vista.
Anyone planning a California card trip runs into the same problem: the lists you find online mix rooms that are open with rooms that hold a licence and no longer deal a hand. The state itself distinguishes the two, and on 6 October 2026 we read its register of gambling establishments in full to see where the line falls.
The register held 78 licences. Twenty-two of them carry a status the commission marks as not operating — among them the Cameo Club in Stockton, Casino Marysville, Hacienda Casino in Cudahy, Parkwest Casino Sonoma in Petaluma, the River Card Room in Petaluma, Mike's Card Casino in Oakdale, Pinnacle Casino in Soledad and Tommy's Casino & Saloon in El Centro, which is listed with an authorised table count of zero. Several of those entries give their address simply as TBD, which is the register's way of saying the licence exists and the premises do not yet.
That leaves 56 licences the state shows as trading, and those are the rooms we now hold a page for. The shape of the market is lopsided. Three Los Angeles County rooms — Commerce Casino and Hawaiian Gardens Casino at 374 authorised tables each, and the Parkwest Bicycle Casino at 250 — account for about half of California's licensed table capacity between them. At the other end, nineteen of the trading licences are for ten tables or fewer, and six counties have exactly one licensed cardroom: Shasta (the Casino Club in Redding), Humboldt (North Coast Casino in Eureka), Marin (Club San Rafael), Nevada County (Towers Casino in Grass Valley), El Dorado (El Dorado Hills Casino) and Monterey has two.
Licence status is worth reading as carefully as table count. Plenty of trading rooms are not on a plain active licence: the Lake Elsinore Hotel and Casino, the largest in Riverside County at 22 tables, holds a provisional licence with conditions that expires on 31 December 2026, and Parkwest Casino Cordova in Rancho Cordova holds the earliest expiry in the whole register, 31 October 2026. Interim renewal means a room is trading while its renewal is processed; temporary with conditions is a weaker footing still.
One thing the register does not tell you is what is dealt. It records the licence, the authorised table count, the address and the status, not the game menu — so a room licensed for eleven tables may be spreading mostly California games rather than poker on the night you arrive. California cardrooms cannot bank player games themselves, which is why the poker that is dealt there is player-versus-player, but the schedule is still a question for the room rather than for the regulator. Our venue pages say as much on each one.
Frequently asked questions
How many licensed cardrooms does California have?
The California Gambling Control Commission's register of gambling establishments listed 78 licences on 6 October 2026. Twenty-two of those carry a status the commission marks as not operating, leaving 56 that the state shows as trading.
Which is the biggest cardroom in California?
By authorised tables it is a tie at the top: Commerce Casino in Commerce and Hawaiian Gardens Casino are both licensed for 374 tables, with the Parkwest Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens next at 250. All three are in Los Angeles County.
Does the state register say which games a cardroom deals?
No. It records the licence number, the holder's name and address, the licence status, the authorised table count and the expiry date. What is actually on the floor on a given night has to be checked with the room.