CARD CLUBS COUNT ON VIDEO POKER.

Byline: SANDY MAZZA

Staff Writer

GARDENA -- Six solemn poker players engrossed in hours of consecutive poker hands at the Normandie Casino didn't need chips, a dealer or even cards.

They were using the card club's newest innovation to draw in younger, Internet-age players: a video poker table.

Lee Porter of Los Angeles flipped over his virtual cards and looked at other players from under a blue baseball cap before tapping a touch-screen monitor built into the table in front of him. He called to a passing waiter to bring him a coffee, and then silently reviewed his cards and placed his bet by tapping prompts on the monitor.

"I ain't got to tip a dealer," Porter said, counting one of the advantages of playing poker on a computer.

A player sitting next to Porter said he likes the game because hands move faster and players don't have to wait for a dealer to shuffle cards.

In a bid to meet competition from Indian casinos and other challengers for gambling dollars, the South Bay's two card clubs -- the Normandie Casino and Hustler Casino -- are upgrading technology in the casinos and on their Web sites, adding video poker tables, plasma flat-screen TVs, automated card-shuffling machines and other upgrades.

The Hustler Casino, opened by pornographer Larry Flynt in 2000, now has 89 tables and has grown in recent years. The Normandie Casino has 53 tables and is the state's oldest surviving casino.

Card clubs take a cut of each hand played at their tables. Unlike Las Vegas commercial and Indian casinos, card club players bet against one another rather than the house. The clubs also can't offer slot machines, which are the largest revenue generators at casinos.

"Card clubs don't have slots, and we're not as big as the Indian casinos," Normandie Casino General Manager Karlo Deza said. "In order for us to remain competitive, we have to think of innovative ways to bring in action. We want to attract younger players and bring in more foot traffic."

Keeping up with Indian casinos is a challenge for California's card clubs. The state Assembly last month approved the expansion of several Indian casinos, allowing more than double the number of slot machines at their facilities.

Total revenue at California's 57 Indian casinos was $7.7 billion in 2006, according to the Indian Gaming Industry Report by Alan Meister, an economist with Analysis Group in Los Angeles. That adds up to an average of about $135 million at each Indian casino, and represents a 10 percent increase from 2005, Meister said.

Nevada's commercial casinos showed 8percent growth in 2006, bringing in $12.7 billion in revenue, he said.

In contrast, California's 90 card clubs generated about $737 million in revenue in 2005, an average of about $8.2 million each, according to the American Gaming Association.

Gardena's Hustler and Normandie casinos generated $25 million and $35million, respectively, in revenue last year, club officials said. Though they make significantly less than Indian and commercial casinos, the two clubs are the second-largest tax generator in Gardena and collectively will add more than $8.5 million to city coffers this year, officials say.

Gardena officials say card-club revenue exceeds other types of city funding, and it's necessary to maintain current city operations. "I have a $43 million general fund operation," Gardena City Manager Mitch Lansdell said earlier this year. "Eight-and-a-half million is half of the Police Department. If I don't have that money, what do I look like? A couple departments wouldn't exist, or all departments would be scaled back.

"... We would be a very different organization if we didn't have the card clubs. They are a major employer, a major tax contributor. They are also one of the reasons why people come to town."

Local casinos have also increased their monitoring of player habits -- through players club or reward club cards -- to determine what they like to eat, play and buy in the clubs.

"We can look at a real-time snapshot of the game on a moment-to-moment basis," said Hustler's marketing director, Al Underwood. "All this is in an effort to give customers a better experience. If they have a better experience and keep coming back, it's good for our revenue."