The cardroom tax, which comes to voters on the fall ballot, would generate about $15 million annually for city services.

Former Casino M8trix owner Eric Swallow says the state broke the law by forcing him to sell his stake in the card club to his business partner.

San Jose's City Council will decide this week whether to cut allowable annual rent increases for one-third of the city’s apartments.

San Jose plans to roll out yet another pilot program testing body-worn cameras on police officers this fall. That would push the date of official deployment out to late 2016.

Two years after upping its local minimum wage, San Jose may back a statewide effort to raise the minimum to $13 an hour by 2017. Mayor Sam Liccardo, who voted against San Jose's minimum wage increase in 2012, says the policy makes more sense at a state level.

Bay 101 owners are hedging their bets, pouring $200,000 into Measure E, which would allow them to take their $8.4 million in yearly tax revenue to Milpitas.

A state bill that would have paved the way for Bay 101's move to Milpitas died over the weekend, leaving the fate of the San Jose card room uncertain.

As Bay 101 floats plans to build a new casino with adjoining hotels closer to competitor Casino M8trix, our selfless public servants in Sacramento are trying to do the right thing by green-lighting the San Jose card club’s exit to Milpitas. At least that's one version of the story.

Casino M8trix owners are accused of operating a $119 million shell game to hide profits. While the key players have clammed up, there is an election at hand and political points to be won and lost.

Josué Garcia, a lobbyist who previously worked in Councilmember Xavier Campos' office, is once again trying to get around a policy designed to prevent former city workers and elected officials from holding undue influence on public projects.

A rule of thumb for the protracted battle between Casino M8trix and the city of San Jose: When things seem to be going swimmingly, introduce new actors to vent into the microphone.

The nearly two-year standoff between the city of San Jose and owners of Casino M8trix may finally be coming to an end. On Monday, owners of the Tetris-adorned tower and card club filed papers to pull their lawsuit over several disputes—mainly the city’s rejection of gaming on the top/eighth floor. Sean Kali-Rai, a lobbyist for the card club, said he met City Manager Ed Shikada last week for coffee and had his “first meaningful interaction” with a city official in six months.

A Sacramento lobbying firm appears to be playing a game of snooker when it comes to misleading San Jose residents about crime and casinos. The “Consumer Alliance for a Strong Economy” has been scaring residents into believing the city wants to deregulate card club oversight through robocalls, provocative mailers and even a Mercury News op-ed.

San Jose’s top casino cop has had enough. In his first interview since Casino M8trix filed lawsuits in February against the city of San Jose, Richard Teng, the San Jose Police Department’s gaming administrator, called accusations against him “a political nightmare.” There is history in this dispute.

The city’s poised to deny for the second time a Public Records Act (PRA) request from a journalist who wants to glimpse the behind-the-scenes workings of Casino M8trix. Other items on the Rules and Open Government Committee agenda fro Wednesday include a dispute within the Vietnamese community and a passionate letter from our favorite city critic.

San Jose’s casinos increasingly require more police attention, according to an annual audit of the two permitted card rooms going before the City Council. Other items on the agenda include an update on Measure B litigation and an audit of Team San Jose.