Bell Gardens Card Parlor Seized : Racketeering: Action taken after a Florida jury found that drug money was invested in Bicycle Club.

Federal authorities have seized the Bicycle Club, a Bell Gardens card parlor that is advertised as the largest card casino in the world, after several individuals were found guilty of investing drug money in the club.

The club, which brings in about $100 million a year on several versions of poker and popular Chinese card games, will remain open, but has temporarily been placed under the control of Bell Gardens officials.

The city, as trustee, will handle the club’s revenues and sign all checks, said Diane Cossin, executive assistant to the U.S. attorney of the Southern District of Florida.

A federal judge in Miami ordered U.S. marshals to seize the club Tuesday after a jury convicted four men of racketeering charges stemming from laundering millions of dollars from drug deals through a series of U.S. companies, including the Bicycle Club.

Federal authorities said about $11 million of the laundered money helped finance construction of the $20-million casino in 1984.

Judge Norman Roettger placed the city in control of the club until he holds hearings to determine if any of the club’s current partners knew that the drug money was invested in the parlor. All profits will be frozen and placed in a special government account until after the hearings, Cossin said.

Convicted of racketeering charges, after a three-month trial, were: Los Angeles resident Michael Gilbert, son of the late developer and UCLA basketball booster Samuel Gilbert; Benjamin Barry Kramer, once a U.S open-class offshore powerboat champion and convicted drug smuggler; Kramer’s father, Jack Jerome Kramer; and Miami criminal attorney Melvyn Kesler.

The Kramers have already been ordered to pay the court $9.5 million in money that the judge said was earned from illegal activity.

George Hardie, the Bicycle Club’s general manager, owns 35% of the club. He said he expects to be allowed to retain his share. The judge is expected to decide within 40 days whether the partners were aware of the laundered money, Hardie said.

Hardie said he never suspected that the money was from illegal activity.

He said he sought additional financing in 1984 because he could not raise enough money to finance construction. He said Samuel Gilbert agreed to purchase the land and finance the construction in exchange for a 65% interest in the club.

Federal authorities said the money came from the Kramers’ drug-smuggling operation.

Hardie testified as a witness for the government during the trial.

“Everyone here thought Gilbert was a prominent, respectable developer,” he said in an interview. “It came as a surprise.” According to the court order, Hardie is to remain general manager of the club.

The club is now owned by two general partnerships--Park Place Associates Ltd., in which Hardie has controlling interest, and LCP Associates, in which Michael Gilbert is a limited partner. The partners are forbidden from trying to do anything with their interests in the Bicycle Club, according to the court order.

City Manager Claude Booker said city officials had anticipated the guilty verdicts and federal seizure of the club, and had petitioned to be declared the trustee.

The city, which has one of the lowest per-capita income rates in the nation, relies heavily on revenues from the club. Bell Gardens collects about $10 million a year in tax revenues from the club.