After years of scandals and dwindling revenues, card club owners in Los Angeles County are betting on better days ahead by building two casinos and expanding and renovating several existing clubs.
Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt is taking the biggest gamble: He is investing $30 million in a new casino in Gardena, where five casinos have closed since the early 1980s because of financial problems.
In Cudahy, the owners of an Orange County bail bond business are building what a representative calls the county's first "Latino-themed" card club.
Meanwhile, club owners in Commerce, Hawaiian Gardens, Huntington Park and Bell Gardens are planning expensive expansion and renovation projects to revive flagging business.
The new clubs and expansions will add nearly 260 card tables, increase the number of tables in the county by more than a third, to 980.
In previous years, municipal officials--who depend on casino revenues for up to 50% of their city budgets--might have welcomed these developments effusively and counted on extra revenues. But history has taught them caution.
Because gambling revenues have become so unreliable, these officials say, they are trying to diversify their cities' economies.
"With the money we get from the card club, we are looking to try to attract new businesses and retain the businesses we have in town," said Hawaiian Gardens Mayor Pro Tem Leonard Chaidez.
The history of casinos in the county has been a sad, sordid tale. Half a dozen clubs have closed in the last decade because of mismanagement, corruption and what some experts say is over-saturation.
Tax revenues from the seven existing clubs have dropped by as much as a third since 1992, according to a survey of city records. The Commerce Club Casino, the largest card club in the county, with 220 tables, is the only casino whose contributions to city coffers have not flagged.
The closures and dwindling revenues have created huge headaches for city officials, who have relied on casino money to fatten meager budgets in working-class communities with diminished tax bases.
Nevertheless, encouraged by the strong economy, club owners insist that profitable days are ahead. They believe that the public is increasingly tolerant of gambling, as demonstrated by overwhelming voter support in November for Proposition 5, the measure to expand casino gambling on Indian reservations.
