Artichoke Joe’s agrees to $900K annual payments to San Bruno

“I want to thank Artichoke Joe’s for coming to the table, I want to thank the councilmembers who supported this initiative that’s now resulting in nearly a million dollars to our city every year,” said Vice Mayor Linda Mason, who jump-started the tax hike discussion last year.

The 43-table card room has operated in the city since 1916 is one of two casinos in the county, the other being Lucky Chances in Colma. As of last year, it also had the eighth-largest gross gambling revenue of any casino in the state, according to the California Department of Justice.

City Manager Jovan Grogan said the agreement would bring “revenue to the city more in line with the marketplace locally.”

Lucky Chances, for instance, a 60-table card room, is projected to produce $4.2 million for Colma, according to the town’s budget. San Jose, meanwhile, which operates two card rooms comprising 98 tables, collected close to $19 million from them prior to the pandemic.

Mason had requested looking into increasing San Bruno’s card room tax amid the city’s ongoing quest to up city revenue. The city is facing upwards of $300 million in unfunded infrastructure needs in coming years and expects to have a budget deficit over the next four years.

“This is something that we’ve been looking at for a while, I know it’s something our vice mayor has been championing, and I’m glad to see it come to a great conclusion,” Councilmember Tom Hamilton said.

Mayor Rico Medina and Councilmember Michael Salazar had opposed looking into the tax increase, which would have required voter approval.

Payments per the new agreement will be made quarterly, and the card room will be required to continue to pay for a police detective assigned to the facility, estimated to cost $198,000.

The city, in 2012, began requiring the casino to cover costs for a full-time officer, a year after federal officials raided the casino as part of a large-scale investigation into organized crime in which 14 people were arrested.

The casino also made headlines last year after it agreed to pay $5.3 million in fines to state regulators, following an investigation that found it had violated anti-money laundering laws and misled gambling regulators. The fine, which was in addition to $5 million paid to the federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for similar crimes, was the largest penalty in the history of state gambling regulation, according to the state DOJ.

The casino is currently within a 36-month compliance period, in which its ability to hold its state gambling license is contingent upon meeting the terms of the settlement, according to the state DOJ.