Support Mounts for Artichoke Joe's After Raid

In the aftermath of a casino, a backlash is forming among residents and business owners who say the reputation of the venerable business is suffering due to allegations against a few.

Sheets of inch-thick plywood have sealed the entrance to the downtown casino since Wednesday's raid by federal agents and state and local police.  The California Gambling Control Commission mandates that the business remain closed until a requested hearing, which by law must take place within 10 days.

The U.S. Attorney's Office  operated out of the Asian gaming sections of  and Oak's Card Club in Emeryville, and indicted 15 people on loansharking, tax evasion and drug dealing charges. Lawyers for the owner appeared in federal court Friday in a bid to reopen the San Bruno casino.

Critics of the action note that neither owner Dennis Sammut nor manager Joe Wilson have been accused of wrongdoing.

“They have been so generous,” Laura Baughman, executive director of the San Bruno Chamber of Commerce, said of the casino. “It will be crushing if they are not allowed to re-open.”

Sammut has been a lively advocate for San Bruno's business community and a reliable donor to school and youth groups and charitable drives—including aid to the victims of the Sept. 9 pipeline blast, Baughman said.

City Manager Connie Jackson said the casino has been the most consistently involved businesses in the city over its centurylong operation, contributing both to City Hall and to the community at large. At one point, Jackson said, Artichoke Joe's paid for Internet access for children from low-income families.

"They've been a consistently quiet, stable neighbor," Jackson said. "A gambling establishment could be considered an anomaly or even a threat, but that has not been the case with Artichoke Joe's."

While 15 people have been named in an indictment, the casino and restaurant employs 300, said construction consultant Ron Cox.

“What happens to all those people?” Cox asked from a Redwood City hospital bed, where he has been receiving treatment for complications of diabetes.

He said news reports have mischaracterized him as the casino manager; rather, he is a construction manager and deals with such matters as lease agreements and seismic upgrades on various properties owned by Artichoke Joe's. And while articles raised suspicion by noting that he was not reachable by phone, in fact, he had just undergone an amputation, he said.

The former Foster City mayor and councilman said he has helped Sammut arrange donations to the Little League, 4-H Club, Toys for Tots and scholarships.

“The Sammut family has helped tremendously over the years,” Cox said. “They gave $100,000 to the library alone.”

Artichoke Joe's lawyer Alan Titus did not return phone calls. Messages left on Artichoke Joe's voicemail were not immediately returned.

Open 24 hours a day, the 20,000-square-foot casino has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the city coffers; its tax tab for 2010 is pegged at $1.4 million—roughly 4 percent of the city's general fund.

City leaders have already been penciling around an anticipated shortfall of $1 million. While retailers had been enjoying slow but steady growth, the  added five vacant storefronts to San Mateo Avenue, “and that made a huge impact,” Baughman said. “We’ve got 54,000 square feet of vacant space just in downtown.”

Real estate tycoon Joe Welch gathered at Artichoke Joe's for lunch with business leader friends regularly.

“He’s been an institution in the community for 100 years,” said his son, Joe Welch Jr. “It was a meeting place for the older guys in San Bruno. Absolutely, the owner would always sit down with us. He inherited the business from his father, who inherited it from his father.

"Of course, over the past 20 years or so the clientele has changed," he said.

The former Joe's Pool Parlor and telephone exchange—most calls having to do with horse races—opened in 1916. Reportedly, Joe Sammut was once asked how he would pay if he lost a bet, and he answered, "in artichoke leaves."

Neighbors said cabs, limos and SFO shuttle buses often lined the streets outside Artichoke Joe's.

On Sunday, a bartender from a nearby pub fretted for friends and longtime employees of the casino who could be put out of work.

"The people I saw coming and going were so little and nice and polite,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Added longtime resident Robert Ramirez: “I’ve worked this strip for 17 years, and I’ve never heard of anyone being robbed or (strong-armed by loansharks). It makes me wonder if they were set up.”