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A new cardroom for the community of Selma was proposed for the Legends restaurant. Voters shot it down.

published on November 5, 2020 - 3:00 PM
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It looks like there are no card rooms in the cards for the community of Selma.

Not enough voters in Selma voted Tuesday for Measure L, a licensed cardroom charter amendment that would have allowed cardrooms to operate in the city.

According to the most recent results from the Fresno County Registrar of Voters, out of a total of 5,374 votes cast regarding Measure L, 63.2% of Selma voters voted against it — 3,397 votes.

For the measure to pass, 50% + 1 of the vote was needed.

Proposed by Dwight Nelson, owner of Selma Auto Mall, Legends Tap House and Grill and the Holiday Inn in Selma, all under The Nelson Group, wanted to provide a different avenue of entertainment for adults and contribute tax revenue of around $1 million annually for the Selma Police Department to hire more officers.

In December 2019, the Selma City Council unanimously voted to put Measure L on the ballot to ask voters to approve a licensed cardroom, or gambling establishment, at one single location in the city’s Regional Commercial Zone.

The cardroom would have been in a remodeled banquet space of 4,000 square feet in the Legends Tap House and would have fit 30 gaming tables and employ about 160 people.

“Measure L was all about providing additional funding to the City of Selma, to give increased police protection for the community and youth programs for Selma,” said Amber Nelson Billingsley, marketing director for the Nelson Group. “The crime issue in Selma over the past several years is what created this movement.  The community has rejected the idea and we can only hope there is going to be a Plan B to stopping Selma Crime.”


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