Bingo Hall Shuts Doors After Court Appeal Fails : Charities: The Woodland Hills hall is refused a judicial order to allow it to stay open. It was accused of paying its employees.

A Woodland Hills bingo hall--the richest in Los Angeles--shut its doors Saturday after the state Court of Appeal refused to extend a judicial order allowing the charity to remain open while it appealed a city ruling closing it down.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do next,” said Edith Ryan, founder and president of Identity Inc., which ran the bingo hall. “We’ve raised a lot of money for the disabled. But we might not be able to fight this one anymore. Identity may be dead.”

Friday’s court ruling is the latest twist in a two-year battle between Identity, which operates the cavernous bingo parlor at De Soto Avenue and Oxnard Street, and the city Department of Social Services, which claims the nonprofit group violates state laws governing charitable enterprises.

Identity, which raises money for disabled children, has generated more than $28 million since it opened in 1982 and has consistently been the top grossing bingo game in the city. Several thousand customers wagered about $3.3 million there last year, according to city records.

The Department of Social Services, which oversees bingo parlors, charged two years ago that Ryan paid employees in violation of state laws aimed at keeping bingo an amateur and charitable pastime.

Ryan, known as the “Queen of Bingo,” has denied paying her workers and has been fighting attempts at closure.

Identity had been holding games on Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights, and some regular bingo players did not learn of the judge’s order until they showed up ready to play Saturday evening. The charity’s answering machine announced the closure but invited players to attend a bingo-free party. “No money on the table,” the message said. “Identity will be your host.”

“About 300 came by to see if there were games,” Ryan said. “Most didn’t stay. About 75 people stayed here and we had a little party. We played cards--not poker--and Monopoly. There was a lot of hugging and crying.”

When the Department of Social Services revoked Identity’s permit in January, Ryan challenged the decision. But a city administrative hearing officer upheld the revocation in March, as did a Los Angeles Superior Court judge when Ryan later sued.

But Identity was able to receive a temporary order from the Court of Appeal last month allowing it to remain open pending the appeal. That stay was revoked Friday.

City officials could not be reached Saturday for comment on the court’s action.

Nick Brestoff, Ryan’s attorney, maintains that the permit revocation was not fairly decided by the hearing officer and that Identity should be allowed to remain open or be granted a new city hearing.

“Identity is the victim of a kangaroo court,” Brestoff said. “The Department of Social Services has acted as judge and jury. It’s regulatory overkill. It’s an egregious violation of due process.”

After Friday’s decision, city officials told Ryan she must not reopen Saturday, Brestoff said.

The city revoked the permit based on the testimony of four former volunteers who said they were paid from $100 to $300 a night by Ryan to work the games. Under state law, bingo games must be run by volunteers and all money after expenses must be donated to charities.

In testimony before the administrative hearing officer in February, other witnesses--including several off-duty Los Angeles police officers who provided security--said they had no knowledge of any volunteers being paid.

Identity also was the subject of an undercover investigation by Los Angeles police in 1990 and 1991, but the inquiry turned up no evidence of illegal activity.