U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL: ORANGE COUNTY’S DAY : LOS ANGELES 1991 : Attila Malek Hopes a Title Is in the Cards : Table tennis: Once a compulsive gambler, he looks to regain form that made him one of the top players in Hungary--and the U.S.

For at least the millionth time, Attila Malek was asked the same, stupid question.

“ Attila ?” a visitor asked him in between matches at the U.S. Olympic Festival table tennis competition at Cal State Los Angeles. “Attila as in ‘Attila the Hun?’ ”

“No,” Malek said, smiling. “Attila, as in ‘Attila the Hungarian!’ ”

Malek, a 38-year-old Costa Mesa resident, may have given up quite a bit by leaving his native Hungary for the United States 13 years ago, but he has always held fast to his sense of humor.

That’s good. A smile always comes in handy when you’re feeling miserable, which was Malek’s state of mind until a couple of years ago.

Malek was one of the top professional table tennis players in Hungary when he and his wife, Sylvia, decided to defect in 1978. In Hungary, Malek says, table tennis is akin to professional basketball in the U.S.--very popular and very competitive. Three of the teammates on his club were world champions.

In defecting, Malek and his wife were giving up a good life by any country’s standards. The government provided him with a nice apartment, first-class travel accommodations, excellent physical fitness facilities, and a monthly paycheck for a government job at which he never once worked.

“I was getting more money than most engineers there,” Malek says. “It was a good living. We were very comfortable.”

But his wife wanted them to move to Chicago to join her father, so Malek applied for a seven-day vacation in Italy. Seven days turned into seven months, and finally, the Maleks were able to immigrate to the United States and settle in Chicago.

A year later, Malek entered the U.S. Table Tennis Assn. National Championships at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace. Malek was warned that the competition would be very strong, and his chances for success were slim.

He won--and was offered a job on the site.

An executive at Caesars told Malek he could be a card dealer if he liked, and Malek agreed. In a short time, he was making $150 to $180 in tips per shift, in addition to his weekly paycheck. Then Sylvia became a card dealer, too.

At first, it seemed too good to be true. Cost of living was low in Las Vegas, and the Maleks ate at the expansive hotel buffets for free. They started investing in real estate, owning four homes at one time.

But then the tables turned. Malek stopped playing table tennis, using his spare time playing the blackjack tables instead. Eventually, he was spending 16 hours a day at blackjack--eight hours dealing, eight hours being dealt to.

This went on for seven years. Malek finally admitted to himself that he had lost control. He was ruined financially. He hated the city. He had to get out.

“It’s hard to say how much I lost,” Malek says. “I left Las Vegas with nothing. In seven years, I’d say I lost $50,000 or $60,000--at the very least--but probably more.”

He walked away from the casinos and didn’t look back. He told his wife he wanted to move to Costa Mesa to stay with friends. Sylvia didn’t want to leave, so Malek moved west alone.

His first job at a mortgage company looked promising. But the company went bankrupt after six months. Broke and separated from his wife, he felt his marriage--and his life--were falling apart.

Finally things started going his way. He got a job at an insurance agency--he is now a department manager--and his wife moved to Costa Mesa to be with him.

But his return to competitive table tennis two years ago was also a big turnaround for him, he says. Although he knows he’ll probably never reach the level of play he had in Hungary--he trained at least eight hours a day then--he is back to working out with weights and using a stair climber nearly every day now.

“Two months ago, I couldn’t play (table tennis) for more than an hour at a time,” Malek says. “Now I can play four or five hours, no problem.”

Thursday, Malek helped the North team win the silver medal at the Olympic Festival, going 3-3 in singles and 3-0 in doubles teamed with Jim Butler of Iowa City.

Although he is quick, agile and strong, Malek, currently ranked among the nation’s top 10, is most often described by his peers as having great sportsmanship.

He is a charming, affable-but-modest type, and very popular in table tennis circles. And he is very grateful.

“This is the greatest country in the world,” Malek says. “I know lots don’t think that, but it is. We have everything we need here, fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, anything . . . People complain about taxes but it’s not bad. We are not taxed to death here. And there is freedom. People are free to be anything they want to be.

“If I can get to where I am today, a man who came to this country with no English skills and no background other than being a professional table tennis player, then anyone can make it.”

Next month, Malek is returning to Hungary for a three-week visit. Of course, he says, he’s planning on playing in a few tournaments to see where he stands against his old friends.

But his No. 1 goal is to do well at the U.S. Nationals in December. Yes, that means a trip back to Las Vegas.

While some former compulsive gamblers might see that as a risk, Malek says he knows he’ll be OK.

Apparently, it’s one gamble he can handle.