For the first time, a Nevada County business has been shut down due to alleged violations of coronavirus guidelines. But it wasn’t by local authorities. However, Grass Valley Police Captain Steve Johnson says his department was the first to respond to some residents’ complaints that Towers Casino and Card Room, on Bank Street, had opened. Noting the gaming business also serves food and alcohol, an officer tried to sort out, with the owner, whether it could reopen, under Phase Two…

But the owner, Jamey Robinson, says she declined what she described as a “request” and did open on Monday, the first gaming establishment to reopen in California. But on Tuesday, officers from the California Bureau of Gambling Control and Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control raided the place. She says she’d signed up for a local Phase Two Zoom meeting and was never led to believe by local officials that she couldn’t reopen. She says the state raid was heavy-handed and unnecessary…

Gaming establishments are not included, under the state’s Phase Two reopening plan. Johnson says Grass Valley Police also tried to contact the Gambling Bureau but never heard back from them either and knew nothing about the raid.