Card Clubs

The leader of a crew that took casinos for about $7 million pleaded guilty Wednesday to racketeering conspiracy charges in what federal authorities have described as one of the largest cheating schemes ever busted. Phuong Quoc Truong, nicknamed Pai Gow John, ran a sophisticated operation that enlisted shady dealers to rig blackjack and mini-baccarat games and gamblers to place big bets, authorities said.

SACRAMENTO -- Watching anxiously as the state deals lucrative contracts to Indian gaming groups, a coalition of seven Los Angeles County casinos has anted up to increase its influence with legislative leaders, donating $1.3 million to lawmakers' pet causes in the last 18 months. The contributions were made to committees with ties to state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) and others. Legislative leaders have passed a batch of bills this year that relax rules on the casinos.

Gambling halls and arts education may make strange bedfellows. But over the last three years, five Los Angeles-area card clubs have showered more than $100,000 on a Bay Area school for the arts some 400 miles away. The gifts offered more than a chance to help inner-city kids. They were an opportunity to please the state official who asked for the money, directly oversees the clubs and is widely viewed as the front-runner to be California's next governor: state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown.

They sip flavored martinis, pass carefully crafted hors d'oeuvres and chat amiably between hands. It might not look like a game of Follow the Queen, but it is, new millennium style. And with the porkpie hats, Sinatra on the stereo and women aplenty, one thing's for sure -- this is not your dad's poker party. Card playing is back in a big way, as an alternative to hitting the bar scene and an updated version of in-home board game nights of the '90s.

Haig Kelegian did the federal government a big favor some years back by taking an embarrassment off its hands: the Bicycle Club casino in Bell Gardens, a card club the feds had acquired, somewhat absent-mindedly, through an asset seizure in a 1990 money-laundering case. After buying out the government's interest in 1999, Kelegian and his partners spent a few million restoring the Bike so it could reassume its status as one of the leading poker clubs in the state.

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt has closed escrow on the bankrupt El Dorado Club and is hoping to open the card club within five months, according to his attorney. A federal Bankruptcy Court judge approved the $7-million sale of the Vermont Avenue club to Flynt in December. Alan Isaacman, Flynt's attorney, said the sale was finalized Tuesday and applications for a license and business registration have been submitted to the state and federal government.

Opening a new legal front in the fight over the Bicycle Club casino, a group of investors filed a $150-million lawsuit Thursday against their partners--the U.S. Justice Department and its federal Marshals Service. The suit was announced outside the Bell Gardens casino, where employees and investors waved signs saying, "Feds get out." The U.S. government has operated the casino since 1990, when it seized a controlling interest after a drug and money-laundering investigation.

State investigators have reached a settlement with California's largest poker casino over allegations that it secretly funneled tens of thousands of dollars to political consultants to defeat a proposal that would have opened a rival club, court records show. As part of its settlement with the Fair Political Practices Commission, the 220-table Commerce Club agreed to pay $24,000 in fines--far less than the maximum penalty under campaign finance laws.

Legal wrangling over a proposed card club in Hawaiian Gardens may not keep the city from receiving gambling revenues after all. An attorney for casino developer Irving Moskowitz said an interim card club is under consideration. He said such a facility could provide the revenues that were promised when city voters approved the casino last year.

Gardena, the grandfather of the Southern California card club scene, is giving its two remaining clubs a tax break. The City Council unanimously agreed this week that the maximum tax the two card clubs will be required to pay on their gross revenues will be reduced from 15 1/2% to 12% in an attempt to help the clubs expand and compete with bigger clubs in neighboring cities. That means the Normandie Club, which opened nearly 50 years ago, will save about $1 million a year.