Chinese Gambling Games Are Dealt a Losing Hand

The high-stakes Chinese gambling games of pai-gow, pai-gow poker and pan 9 went bust late Tuesday at legalized gambling casinos in Los Angeles County as sheriff’s deputies began enforcing a Dec. 29 appellate court ruling that declared the games illegal under commonly used rules.

Deputies closed 65 tables and halted play for several hundred ardent bettors at six of the county’s seven casinos--including the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens, the Commerce Casino in Commerce, the California Bell Casino in Bell, the Huntington Park Casino and the Normandie Club and the El Dorado Club in Gardena, said Sheriff’s Vice Lt. Curtis Spears.

Officers also ordered the games discontinued at the Horseshoe Club in Gardena, although none of the games were under way there at the time of the late-night crackdown, Spears said.

The action will not affect several legalized forms of poker--including seven-card stud and hold ‘em--but it is expected to cause heavy financial losses for casinos that have relied more and more on the popular Asian games.

In recent years, the Asian games have surpassed lo-ball and draw poker in importance as casino revenue producers, according to industry officials. Yearly revenues from the games have been estimated at several million dollars.

At the Normandie Club, where seven tables were closed Tuesday, as many as 19 of the club’s 51 tables are regularly used for pai-gow poker and pan 9, also known as “Lucky 9,” spokesman Blaine Nicholson said.

Each table typically seats eight players and requires minimum $10 bets. At some higher-stakes tables, $75 and $100 bets are considered commonplace on each rapidly played hand, and occasionally a single wager may reach $1,000, Nicholson said.

The games are considered similar to blackjack in that each player’s cards are compared to those of a dealer. In pai-gow poker, a player receives seven cards, which he divides into two hands--one with five cards and another with two. To win, the player must arrange his hands so that each is higher in total value than the dealer’s corresponding two hands.

Pai-gow is similar but is played with dominoes rather than cards.

Pan 9 also requires a player to exceed a dealer’s hand. But the game is played with several decks from which high-numbered cards have been removed. Each player is dealt three cards and the maximum value of any hand is nine points.

County officials have waged a long legal battle against the games, because of the way most casinos take their profits and run the games.

Typically, the house takes a percentage of winners’ payoffs, collecting nothing from losers, said Deputy County Counsel Kevin Brazile. That enables the casino to encourage participation and to gain huge profits from the high-stakes games without suffering any financial risk, he said.

By contrast, casinos receive only a flat fee from players of traditional poker games.

The state has outlawed so-called “percentage” games since 1885, Brazile said.

But even in some clubs where players pay only a flat fee, the games are run with one player acting as the “bank,” paying off winners and collecting from losers. Banking games also have been illegal in California for more than 100 years, Brazile said.

The introduction of the Asian betting games in Los Angeles has caused confusion, because the games are not singled out by name in the state law.

The county began trying to stop the games in 1984, but the Huntington Park casino filed and won a lawsuit to keep the games operating. That legal decision was reversed by the 2nd District Court of Appeal, leading to Tuesday’s crackdown, Brazile said.

As officers ordered tables closed, casinos complied without protest and players simply left or moved on to other tables, according to Spears.

But on Wednesday, casino operators vowed to fight the action.

“The Normandie Club does not believe that the Asian card games . . . are in violation of the state’s penal codes,” Nicholson said.

He criticized the crackdown by saying: “We don’t feel it was a proper move. And the club will seek a court restraining order to reopen the games until the question of legality can be settled.”

Nicholson said the Normandie Club does not run a percentage game, because it collects a flat fee--usually $1--before each hand is played. Arguing that the games are legal because the house does not run the bank, Nicholson predicted that a ban would lead to the games “going underground,” causing even greater law-enforcement problems.

“At least here they are played in the open, they are supervised . . . and they are fair,” he said.

Ed Noel, manager of the Huntington Park casino, said lawyers for one casino were trying on Wednesday to get a restraining order allowing the games to continue. Noel said his casino had complied with law enforcement requests to institute a flat fee--$1 per hand--and expressed surprise that authorities were now trying to stop the games.

Times staff writer Nieson Himmel contributed to this article.

ASIAN GAMBLING GAMES

PAI-GOW--An ancient Chinese game dating back centuries, pai-gow is considered the favorite gambling game in cities throughout Asia. Up to seven or eight players at a time try to beat the dealer, who collects from losers and pays all winners. Players receive four tiles, or dominoes, numbered with 2 to 12 dots. Each player separates the dominoes into two “hands,” using the dots to calculate the value of each hand. To win, each of his hands must exceed the value of the dealer’s corresponding two hands. If only one of the player’s hands is higher than the dealer’s, the bet is considered a “push” and no money changes hands. If the player does not win at least one of the hands, the dealer collects.

PAI-GOW POKER--In the Americanized version of this Asian card game, players receive seven cards and again try to beat the hands of the dealer. Each player divides his cards into two hands--one with five cards,

the other with two. The five-card hand must be higher in value than the two-card hand, and to win each hand must exceed the dealer’s corresponding hands. If a player wins on one hand and loses on the other, the bet is considered a push. The game also is played with seven or eight players. In Asia, pai-gow poker is played with 13 cards, divided into three hands of 3, 5 and 5 cards.

PAN 9--Another game of beat the dealer that closely resembles blackjack. The game is played with eight decks of cards, but all numbered cards above six are removed. (Face cards have no value.) Each player is dealt three cards and the values are added together. The value of the hand is equal to the last digit of the sum. For example, a player receiving a 5, a 4 and a 6--which add up to 15--would have a hand worth five points. A nine-point hand is considered perfect. A player may receive a fourth card on request.