Tonight I'll be at The Bicycle Casino in Gardena, playing in the Ladies Championship of the 2005 Legends of Poker Tournament.
In addition to pocketing a hefty chunk of change, the winner will compete against a formidable field of female pros in tomorrow's World Poker Tour Ladies Invitational Event. It's an exciting competition in a storied locale.
The Bicycle has an inglorious history that brings to mind images reminiscent of "L.A. Confidential" and "Chinatown." In the mid-1930s, Ernest J. Primm was running illegal casinos in downtown dens that had previously been Prohibition-era speakeasies. This was made possible by the patronage of the nefariously corrupt mayor, Frank Shaw.
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When Shaw became the first mayor to be recalled by L.A.'s voters, Primm's businesses were raided and closed. But Ernie Primm was an enterprising fellow who would not be stopped. Scrutinizing the 1872 statute outlawing gambling in California, he discovered that when the legislators listed the illegal games, poker wasn't among them.
Turns out the old boys were poker players who didn't want their games interrupted. Primm took this loophole to court, and was successful in having California card rooms legalized.
For the next 40 years, the poker clubs of Gardena were the playground of movie stars, gangsters, card sharks and cheaters. The places were crawling with con men, who had a four-decade-long field day fleecing the uninitiated.
Many of today's legends, such as Johnny Chen and Mike Caro, cut their teeth at these tables. Initially, only Five-Card Draw and Lowball were allowed. Then, in 1987, the 100-year-old statute was trotted out again, and a judge was convinced that all games of skill were legal, including Seven-Card Stud, Texas Hold 'Em and Omaha.
With that stroke of the pen, Southern California became the poker capital of the world, which it remains to this day. Of course, nowadays The Bicycle, Commerce Casino and even Larry Flynt's Hustler are respectable places where hundreds of women can gather on a Wednesday night to test their mettle under the glare of television lights.
Ernie Primm, meanwhile, moved his family to Reno and once again took his grand ideas to court, winning the right to build the first casino on the undeveloped west side of Virginia Street. Literally crossing the line, he opened the Primadonna Club in 1955, and changed the face of Reno forever.
He still wasn't done. At age 75, he bought some desolate acreage from an old moonshiner named Peter McIntyre. Only a two-lane road and a run-down gas station interrupted the arid landscape. Today, Primm, Nevada, home of Whiskey Pete's, straddles Interstate 15 40 miles south of Las Vegas and welcomes upwards of 10 million visitors a year.
Way to go, Ernie. Thanks for blazing the trail.
Source: The Desert Sun
