Gardena Gives Tax Break to 2 Remaining Card Clubs

Gardena, the grandfather of the Southern California card club scene, is giving its two remaining clubs a tax break.

The City Council unanimously agreed this week that the maximum tax the two card clubs will be required to pay on their gross revenues will be reduced from 15 1/2% to 12% in an attempt to help the clubs expand and compete with bigger clubs in neighboring cities.

That means the Normandie Club, which opened nearly 50 years ago, will save about $1 million a year.

The city’s other club, the Eldorado Club, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late May and hasn’t paid any taxes to the city in the 1995-96 fiscal year, Gardena City Manager Ken Landau said.

“We hope that by reducing the gross rentals [taxes] it will give them enough money to promote and expand and do the things necessary to bring extra players in,” Landau said.

The Normandie Club is one of the oldest card clubs in Southern California. But it has lost many of its players to fancier and newer card clubs, such as the Hollywood Park Casino, a glitzy Art Deco-style club with more than 100 tables that opened two years ago in Inglewood next to the Hollywood Park racetrack.

In October, Compton is expected to open the Radisson Crystal Park Hotel and Casino with 112 tables, hotel rooms and transportation to and from Los Angeles International Airport.

During the 1995-96 fiscal year, Gardena received $4.5 million in gambling revenue from the Normandie Club, or about 12% of the city’s general fund budget.

The Normandie Club has agreed to voluntarily pay the 15.5% tax rate over the next 10 months to make sure the city doesn’t suffer any immediate revenue loss, Landau said. But it would take the tax cut the following year.

Stephen Miller, owner of the Normandie Club, said he plans to lure more customers by introducing card games that his club has invented and expects to copyright. The club will install a new smoke filter system and upgrade its air-conditioning. The club now has about 80 card tables but that could increase to 120 tables.

The Eldorado Club, which is trying to emerge from Chapter 11, has about 35 tables operating but is authorized to have 120.

In 1980, Gardena had six card clubs, which brought in $2.5 million to city coffers, making up about 20% of the city’s general fund budget.