I was raised in Gardena, California, which is about 15 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. We lived just north and west of Vermont and 135th Street. The nearest card clubs were five blocks south, at Vermont and 140th. I was born in 1947, and the clubs were “always there” when I was a kid.
Richard Munchkin and I were sent copies of the Gardena Poker Clubs book by the author, presumably hoping for an interview on our podcast. I read the book with interest, having already known a bit about the subject. Whether or not we eventually discuss the book on the podcast hasn’t been decided at this point. But the book is certainly worth discussing here.
For a significant period of time, Gardena had the only legal card games in greater Los Angeles. This book chronicles the rise of Gardena poker in the 1930s and the demise of the game beginning in the late 1980s because of bigger clubs being built relatively nearby. The newer clubs, The Bicycle Club and The Commerce Club among others, offered fancier premises, higher stakes, alcohol, and better security. Today, only two poker clubs remain in Gardena, both owned by Larry Flynt.
The decades of poker in Gardena were never without opposition. I remember as a boy in the 1950s being instructed in Sunday school on the evils of allowing poker clubs, and to make sure our parents voted against them in the next election. (Our home was two doors north of 135th Street, which was the boundary at that time for voting in the Gardena elections. Regardless of whether my folks were for or against the card clubs, they didn’t have a vote. I suspect they would have voted in favor, because the card clubs sold inexpensive food in their restaurants, so our family ate at them fairly frequently.)
Sometime after I turned 21, I tried my fortunes at the clubs — with no success. Although I had read every book in the libraries on how to succeed at poker, I was not a net winner. I learned early on that I couldn’t make it as a poker player. Players dealt the cards at these games, and there was probably cheating at the games I played, but I wasn’t savvy enough to detect it and/or protect myself against it.
The book traces the political battles for the clubs and the various compromises and deals made along the way. The book represents a major piece of scholarship in running this all down.
One of the movers and shakers of Gardena poker was Ernie Primm — the same guy who would eventually build Whiskey Pete’s along the Nevada-California border. Ernie was born in 1901, and it was his son Gary who expanded on his father’s dream in what is now called Primm.
The latest political wars around Gardena poker surround Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine. The churches who were against poker in general on moral grounds were even more opposed when there was a pornographer in the discussion. But money talks in Gardena, so Flynt was able to prevail.
Today, there are more poker games in greater Los Angeles than anywhere else in the world. Gardena remains a part of it, but no longer the main part.
If you wish to know more about the history of poker clubs in Gardena, this is definitely the book for you.