After more than two hours of public comments in a heated, standing-room only meeting at Orange Park Town Hall, elected officials granted the Orange Park Kennel Club its poker room Tuesday night.

The council voted 3-2 to approve Jacksonville Greyhound Racing Inc.’s request to open a card room at the greyhound racing track on Park Avenue at Wells Road.

Before the vote, council members said they spent the Labor Day weekend polling residents and doing online research on this volatile issue which has pitted neighbor against neighbor in debates of morality versus economics. By Tuesday afternoon, those in opposition to the poker room were holding up signs in front of the Town Hall at the intersection of Kingsley and Park avenues.

During the meeting, Orange Park Police Chief Jim Boivin said law enforcement officials in five Florida cities with poker rooms told him the facilities had no impact on crime whatsoever.

Following the vote, River Road resident Ron Raymond stormed out, red in the face, pointing at council members and yelling “Sell out.”

“Let’s get rid of them all,” another poker room opponent hollered out, before Mayor Bob Standifer demanded order with a gavel thump.

Police offered to escort Howard Korman, president of Jacksonville Greyhound Racing, to his car following the vote.

With the town’s approval, Kennel Club spokesman Michael Munz said, the company can now apply for a state license to open a card room, similar to its Best Bet facility in St. Johns County.

“The process worked,” said Munz, adding that though Standifer voted against the poker room, he appreciated the mayor’s willingness to allow all sides to speak at the Aug. 29 meeting and again Tuesday night before the final vote.

Munz denied allegations that the Kennel Club had already built a poker room.

Many were surprised by Standifer’s dissenting vote because months earlier he supported the request, claiming that it didn’t seem fair that this business needed council approval to expand their business when other businesses do not.

Tuesday night, Standifer said he had changed his thinking and decided he can’t support a business that profits on people’s losses. He called the gambling industry an insidious cancer eating away at society.

Councilman Steve Jones was the other dissenter.

“Residents don’t want this,” he said.

Councilman Travis Cummings, who voted yes along with councilmen Pete Morgan and Jim Renninger, said he was still swayed by Standifer’s previous fairness issue. He said he was saddened to find that some residents don’t have respect for the Kennel Club as a long-standing, good corporate citizen.

“I think that’s unfortunate,” he said.

Morgan said a day in the life of Orange Park won’t change.

“At the end of the day, you’ll drive by the Kennel Club. There will be a few more cars in the parking lot and people will be gambling inside and you’ll go home,” Morgan said. “A year from now, you will all forget about it and be on to something else.”

“Don’t bet on it,” someone shouted from the audience.

“This is just shameful,” said resident Brooke Caplin following the vote.

But Scott Obermiller of Milwaukee Avenue said he was happy with the outcome.

“I think the good outweighs the potential for bad,” he said. “I do respect the moral issue though. That’s valid.”

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How they voted:

Bob Standifer – no
Steve Jones – no
Pete Morgan – yes
Travis Cummings – yes
Jim Renninger – yes

Recovered from the Poker Players Alliance archive index. This is the archived item as preserved.