The Gardena Poker Story is Spreading Courtesy to 'Freeway City'

The Gardena Poker Story is Spreading Courtesy to ‘Freeway City’

Freeway City is a documentary on the complicated history of Gardena, California, filmed, edited, and directed over the period of nearly a decade by filmmaker Max Votolato. This entails tracing the area’s agricultural beginnings back to the late 1800s, all the way to its admission as a city in 1930.

Following World War II and its influence on the city’s significant Japanese-American community, the tale moves through racial tensions, political struggles, economic challenges, and the city’s ever-changing demographics.

The Gardena Poker Story appears as the self-proclaimed “Poker Capital of the World” for a lengthy period of time, a moniker well-earned due to the unique concentration of famous card clubs there. These were the clubs where David Hayano did his research for his book Poker Faces.

The Gardena Poker Story : Created a Legal Loophole as Great Result

It all started with a risky wager by businessman Ernest “Ernie” Primm, made possible by more than a mid of ambiguity from California politicians and judges on the legality of poker.

In 1879, the state constitution was amended to prohibit many different sorts of gambling, but draw poker was not listed on the list of illegal games, and further regulation in 1891 prohibited gambling without mentioning draw.

There were also cardrooms, albeit not all of them were authorized, and there were occasional busts based on the whims of local officials. Primm was one of the founders of the Embassy Palace cardroom in The Gardena Poker Story in the late 1930s, when draw poker was the main game.

A raid on the room sparked a courtroom battle, with the judge finally accepting the 1911 decision and exempting draw poker as a skill game, allowing the clubs to operate as long as the community maintained them, as was the case in Gardena.

Primm was able to maintain his club operational and later added another. Gardena quickly grew to have a half-dozen cardrooms, including the Embassy, Normandie, Gardena, Monterey, Rainbow, and Horseshoe.

The Gardena Poker Story: The City That Poker Built

Gardena historian Tom Parks worked for some of the cardrooms and appears in the documentary to help explain their history.

He tells how, for quite a while, Gardena was the only city in the county with cardrooms, which stifled other sorts of growth since some restaurants and businesses refused to come to Gardena because of the clubs.

Blaine Nicholson, a retired advertising executive who worked on public relations with Primm, recalls how his former boss envisioned the Gardena clubs as social meeting spots for poker enthusiasts.

“You could come there and play poker with your friends, and every hour a chip woman would turn up and collect money from everyone,” Nicholson continues. As seen in California Split, players would deal themselves. Everyone plays on slot gacor.

Despite the fact that the scene was very tiny in contrast, The Gardena poker story describe the place looks like “casino town,” perceived externally as a kind of mini-version of Las Vegas.

The Gardena Poker Story : Poker like a Garden

Parks observes that the clubs “were pretty much filled every day and every night” during the 1950s. Gardena became a major poker destination outside of Las Vegas, with players there helping to create the game and its strategies.

Parks goes on to detail how Primm, then owner of the still Monterey and Rainbow clubs, wanted to open a third cardroom called the Starlight, despite resistance from rival club owners who felt Primm was on his way to establishing a monopoly.

The feud got so bitter that the other owners campaigned for legislation that would close all of the clubs. The disagreement erupted with a bombing at the Rainbow, fortunately on a night when the club was closed, and Primm abandoned his intentions to build the Starlight as a result.

The film of The Gardena Poker Story goes into further detail on the numerous political and business posturings that are required for the clubs to remain open with the backing of the community and those in power.

The Decline of The Gardena Poker Story

The year 1980 was a turning point in both Gardena’s unique role in poker history and the subsequent history of poker in California.

When the city of Bell, also in Los Angeles County, voted to legalize poker, the California Bell card room opened soon after. More clubs emerged, and in 1987, both stud and “flop” games like as Texas hold’em and Omaha were permitted in both Los Angeles and Santa Cruz counties, igniting a virtual poker “boom” that swept the state.

“That’s when it really wreaked havoc on Gardena,” Parks says. “They allowed beer and heightened games, and Gardena was still trapped” in the past; “they ultimately altered the regulations and the ordinances, but it was too late since the clientele had already left.”

However, the Monterey Club dissolved in 1980, and its owner, Primm, died the following year. More Gardena card rooms closed, leaving just the Normandie to represent the original “Gardena six.”