A Helping Hand Some Would Rather Not Grasp

Porn publisher and casino landlord Larry Flynt has promised that everyone will be clothed at all times.

Still, Gardena officials are betting that the $35-million Hustler Casino, which opened Thursday night with a capacity crowd of 1,100, will be daring enough to draw a lot of gamblers back to the city and pots of tax money into municipal coffers.

“I’m excited about what this is going to provide for our city,” said Mayor Pro Tem Paul Tanaka.

Gardena, located near the junction of the Harbor and San Diego freeways, was the first city in Southern California to legalize flashy card clubs, back in the 1930s. Then the city fell on hard times after five of its six casinos closed because of financial problems in the 1980s and ‘90s.

Now the El Dorado Club casino, which went bankrupt and closed in 1996, has been renovated into the 50,000-square-foot Hustler--bedecked with gold-leaf trim, faux 18th century furniture and expensive reproductions of Gustav Klimt’s golden-hued paintings.

Except for the name, little in public view overtly suggests the outrageous, and to many people offensive, sexuality that Flynt’s Hustler magazine has specialized in. Nevertheless, the opening of the casino, especially one that prominently bears the Hustler name, has created controversy in town.

City officials say it is worth the heat. Despite increased competition from Indian gaming and card casinos in nearby cities, Gardena officials say they’ve drawn a hand with all the aces. The city is entitled to 12% of the casino’s gross revenues, which officials estimate will mean at least $2.5 million in new tax revenues each year.

Since 1998, Gardena has had a $5.2-million annual budget deficit. Though no city employees were laid off, those who left were not replaced, and park hours and community services have been scaled back.

Enter Larry Flynt. In a now famous story in Gardena, he agreed to buy the El Dorado after a former employee there wrote him a letter asking him to save the failing casino. But also enter people who find it unsettling to have in the role of alleged municipal savior a man who is notorious for publishing an image of a woman being run through a meat grinder.

A group of ministers has denounced the casino’s name and what they say is the city’s financial dependence on gambling. But many residents, especially those who can remember when casino taxes used to fund free garbage collection, say they think Hustler may be a saving grace for the city of 60,000, which has empty storefronts on many blocks and does not boast a single shopping mall.

“This is, like, the coolest place in Gardena right now,” said Martine Rickell, a member of the Gardena Chamber of Commerce. “Everyone was so mad about it being called the Hustler, but I think people understand that it’s going to help the city financially.”

Managers of the 24-hour Hustler Casino, at 1000 Redondo Beach Blvd., aren’t really targeting locals anyway. Everything about the club--from the decor and the sushi bar to the celebrity guests that Flynt has promised to attract--is designed to convince high rollers that Gardena offers an alternative to Las Vegas (albeit without slot machines or roulette or sports betting).

Flynt, who greeted the stream of players from his 24-karat gold-plated wheelchair, said, “The other clubs in California, they’re just card rooms. People don’t go there for a night running out.” Flynt has used a wheelchair since he was shot in the back in 1978, allegedly by a white supremacist outraged over the depiction of an interracial couple in Hustler.

Flynt bought the casino building and paid for its refurbishment, and leases it to his friend and attorney Alan Isaacman to run.

Inside the casino’s big circular room, the click-click-click of poker chips fills the air like the hum of a thousand crickets. Areas are roped off and reserved for players willing to bet $1,500 to $3,000 on a single hand, but some tables have bets as low as $5.

Unlike Las Vegas casinos, California card clubs don’t make money from patrons’ losses. Participants play directly against each other, not against the house. The casino rents seats to players, for as much as $21 per half-hour at some of the high-stakes tables.

“We are looking to attract people from politics, industry and Hollywood,” said casino operator Isaacman.

And on Thursday, at the casino’s opening, that strategy seemed to be working. For instance, Todd Scott, a Studio City resident who said he hangs with “the Hollywood crowd,” journeyed to Gardena for only the second time in his life.

“Gardena--are you kidding? I think I got off the freeway by accident here once,” he said.

The casino boasts enough cameras and security guards to rival a Las Vegas operation, a sports bar with flickering televisions visible from every angle, and a glass-enclosed solarium with mature sequoia pine trees and retractable ceiling panels to enable smokers to puff away while they wager.

In a nod to Flynt’s other business interests, upstairs, away from the public eye, casino managers’ offices and hallways are decorated with paintings of nude women. Hustler magazine will discreetly be available for sale in the casino’s coffee shop, Flynt promised.

But even though such images have been tucked away out of sight, casino managers have come under heavy fire from local clergy.

“The families should be the backbone of our city, not the gambling casinos,” said the Rev. George Villa, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Lutheran Church and president of the Gardena Ministerial Assn. “While the casinos may play a key role in the short-term financial gain for our city, in the long term it’s a fiasco.”

Villa said he has seen first hand the devastating costs of gambling addictions on families in his parish. And he also said the casinos bring crime, prostitution and a bad moral example to the city’s youths.

Even more important, the easy money from casinos distracts city officials from the economic development necessary to sustain the city through tough times, he added.

“There’s no long-term vision for our city, and so we’re jumping on this because it’s expedient,” Villa said.

City Manager Mitch Lansdell said city officials will not repeat past mistakes by tying the city’s fortunes to the casinos. He pointed to two new supermarket complexes and a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts shop that is opening in the city next week as evidence of other developments.

But he also conceded that none of those offer the financial payoff of casino revenues, which are projected to make up at least 12% of the city’s budget next year. In addition, he said, the casinos draw customers to Gardena, and thus help other businesses.

So it’s not surprising that city officials say Flynt’s casino may be just what Gardena needs. “There are people who are morally opposed to the name, and to gambling, or to Mr. Flynt himself, but I think we’re doing what’s in the best interests of the majority of people in Gardena,” Mayor Pro Tem Tanaka said.