George Hardie

A proposal unveiled Wednesday by a casino operator to open a card club here will be studied by officials as a way to raised money for the cash-strapped city. The City Council, directing the city manager to investigate the idea, cited the estimated $2.5-million deficit this year. But council members also expressed reservations. "I doubt that the city of Garden Grove will ever have a card parlor," Councilman Bruce A. Broadwater said.

For more than a year, the State Bar of California has been investigating a conflict-of-interest complaint against Dana W. Reed involving charges that he worked for both sides of a 1989 municipal ballot measure in Riverside County to legalize card casinos.

The game was poker, and the banter was as colorful as a Vegas showgirl's makeup case. "I'd like to put a rattlesnake in his pocket and ask him for a match," snarled "Amarillo Slim" Preston as he peered at an opponent across the green felt table. Despite the tough talk, Preston, 73, found himself out of chips about 90 minutes into what was billed as the first World Champions of Poker Tournament.

Two years after residents defeated a proposal to build a card club in National City, another businessman announced Tuesday that he will try to get voter approval for a card room that would be open 24 hours a day. Don Gardner, who owns several businesses in the South Bay, said he and business partner Chao C. Wu began a drive Tuesday to collect signatures for a measure that will appear on the November ballot. Gardner and Wu, a developer and businessman, formed the Highland Roosevelt Corp.

A Newport Beach couple returning home with $4,000 in cash from a Bell Gardens card club were robbed at gunpoint early Wednesday, apparently the latest victims of robbers who follow winners from clubs, police said. The masked gunman, driving a Jeep, blocked the couple's car at Marine and Park avenues on Balboa Island as they were driving home from the Bicycle Club Casino at 12:45 a.m.

South Gate's hope for a solution to pressing financial problems died Tuesday with the stunning defeat of a measure that would have allowed gambling in the industrial city. Measure A lost by a 2-1 ratio, surprising both supporters and opponents, who expected a close race. It became clear an hour after the polls closed that backers of the proposal were outmaneuvered, outspent and outnumbered.

This is a gambling tale about a casino boss who took a seat at history's card table and bet the house on a royal flush of an invention. He watched it change the course of California gaming and sweep the world -- then he walked away in anonymity as the revolution he created left him behind. Pai gow poker is the game. It is steeped in Asian superstitions, and even Hong Kong high rollers think it originated in China.

Citing illegal gambling activities, Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren's office took on the federal government Tuesday, recommending license revocation for the federally appointed trustee and ordering license cancellations for three top managers of the Bicycle Club poker parlor in Bell Gardens.

State investigators have accused Bicycle Club founder and part owner George Hardie of committing a number of civil violations, including skimming $11 million in club profits, placing in jeopardy the longtime gaming impresario's license to operate. Seven violations against Hardie are contained in a brief prepared for Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren by Department of Justice officials and filed last week.

Taking a strong stand against gambling, Norwalk City Council members have unanimously rejected a proposal that would have allowed voters to approve the city's first casino in the November election. Moments after Tuesday night's vote, hotel owner D. J. Brata vowed to start an initiative drive to add an 80-table card club to his Saddleback Inn on Firestone Boulevard.