Showing his hand

Standing at the corner of Third and Main streets, Jon Scott pointed to dilapidated awnings and ugly signs in the windows while commenting on the number of times he’s had to step over people sleeping on the sidewalks there.

“There is a problem downtown and somebody needs to do something about it other than talk,” Scott said.

He’s ready to do just that. Scott has proposed to turn this dingy-looking corner spot—most recently occupied, albeit briefly, by Jimmy Jack’s Rib Shack—into a card room with seven poker tables. Adjacent to that spot, in the space where 33 Steaks, Booze & Jazz first set up shop, he wants to put in a restaurant, which would serve food and beverages to patrons of the card room as well as those in its own dining area.

Unfortunately for Scott, despite overcoming some large hurdles on the state licensing front, he’s encountered opposition locally. In October, the Planning Commission decided to recommend against changing the zoning for downtown to allow for a card room. That discussion will move to the City Council on Tuesday (Dec. 16).

“While we are in agreement that the 303 block of Main Street is in dire need of revitalization, we do not think that a Card Room is the right mix for our downtown core,” says Melanie Bassett, Downtown Chico Business Association executive director, in a letter addressing the project.

Chico Planning Services Director Mark Wolfe agreed—his department also recommended that the zoning not be changed. He noted that card rooms are allowed elsewhere in the city.

“What it comes down to is, what do we want, as a community, our downtown to be—one that includes card rooms or one that doesn’t include card rooms?” he said. “Historically, the community didn’t feel that that was an appropriate use in our downtown.”

For Scott, neither Bassett’s nor Wolfe’s reasoning is good enough to deny the potential revitalization of one of downtown Chico’s most vacant blocks. A few doors down sits the now chain-linked remains of The Underground and Towne Lounge. Catercorner from the proposed card room is the beautiful—but empty, at least on the ground floor—Grand View building.

Officials, including the Chico Police Department, also have expressed concerns about adding another alcohol-related business to the area. In response, Scott said his plans are for the restaurant to serve only beer and wine—no liquor—and that it will close by 11 p.m.

Scott charges that the real opposition isn’t about alcohol, however. All the talk about a card room “not being the right fit” or “not being appropriate for downtown” comes down to one thing: intolerance.

“They think gamblers are low-class—‘We don’t want those people around us,’” Scott said. “But poker playing has become a sport akin to pool—people who don’t play think it’s done in the back of a smoky room, but really it’s analytical, it takes skill. People watch it on TV and they follow their favorite players.”

Wolfe acknowledged that gambling does have a negative reputation.

“Culturally it has some stigma attached to it,” he said. “That’s widely known.”

Scott is no stranger to running a card room. In the 1990s, he opened Casino Chico in part of what’s now the DownLo. A few years later, he relocated to Nord Avenue, but the location, plus the relatively new popularity of tribal gaming, led him to close up shop in early 2000. Not long afterward, the state imposed a moratorium on card room licenses, the only exception being if you held an active license on Jan. 1, 2000. In 2011, however, the law changed and Scott wasn’t properly notified.

With the help of legal counsel, Scott was able to reapply for his gaming license, and it was granted last summer. Since then, he’s been working on plans for the Main Street businesses, which he says will employ about 50 people. In his proposal to the city, he outlines some deal-sweeteners, as well: a self-imposed 8 percent gross revenue tax to be used toward public safety and a $7,000 table tax for the Chico general fund.

“I want to do something incredible for this city,” he said.