A friendly little casino fronts a stew of lawsuits, feuds and takeover attempts
Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times
Patrons ring a blackjack table at Diamond Jim’s. Behind the scenes at the friendly 24-hour casino, shareholders are playing for stakes that are far higher.
Diamond Jim's is a profitable desert enterprise with a bright future, no local competition and an owner in a Mexican jail.
With a handbag over a shoulder and a bounce to her step, 47-year-old school psychologist Lisa Klenner bounded through the doors of the small casino in the Mojave Desert. Gerald Morris, the floor man of Diamond Jim's, greeted her with a familiar smile and coaxed her to a table where a game of poker was already underway.Forty dollars worth of chips bought a chance to win a share of a $29,800 "Monster Jackpot" and to trade good-natured razzing with a diverse band of gamblers, including a man with an everlasting grin known as "Smiley."
The boxy white casino with blue trim is off California 14 in Rosamond, an unincorporated speck of a town surrounded by desert scrub and the tawny mountains. Palm trees frame the canopy entrance and an American flag flaps outside in the parking lot.
"When people walk in the door we've never seen before, I point to the restroom, cause that's where they're going," Morris said with a laugh. "We're so far out in the middle of nowhere."
Diamond Jim's modesty hides what is a profitable enterprise, ruffled but unbroken by the crushing recession. The nearest competitor is the Golden West Casino in Bakersfield, about 76 miles up the road. There is a moratorium on new card clubs in the state, so a place like Diamond Jim's -- only a short drive from exurbs like Lancaster and Palmdale -- is a valuable asset.
So valuable that shareholders are now fighting over control of the friendly 24-hour casino, with lawsuits and accusations of misspent money and takeover attempts. The fight involves the former king of Los Angeles card clubs, a struggling Las Vegas-style casino in Belize and an owner who's being held in a Mexican jail in connection with a shootout.
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The tale begins with George Hardie Sr., who founded and ran the Bicycle Club in Bell Garden. The card club was raided in the late 1980s by federal agents, who accused some of the club's partners of building up the casino with laundered drug money. Hardie was cleared and he testified for the prosecution.
The federal government took over, with Hardie as a manager. But in the mid-1990s, Hardie was accused -- though never criminally charged -- of allowing loan sharking and other illegal activities at the club. In a settlement with the state, Hardie agreed to surrender his California gaming license.
About five years later, Hardie brought together a group of shareholders under the name Wizard Gaming Inc. to buy the Rosamond card club, then known as Sal's Town. Without a gaming license, Hardie could not own or operate any casino in California.
He set up a trust to run the club and made his son, George Hardie Jr., the beneficiary, essentially giving him a 42% stake in Diamond Jim's. Hardie put more than $350,000 into the trust and lent at least $860,000 to the casino.
Though the state Gaming Control Commission gave Hardie Jr. a gaming license, it prohibited him from being involved in the operations of Diamond Jim's, citing his lack of experience and steady income, outside of what he got from his father. The license allows him only to be a beneficiary of the trust.
So one of Hardie's close friends, Bob Cuicchi, was made trustee of Hardie Jr.'s trust. In 2005, Cuicchi died and the younger Hardie asked Cuicchi's wife, Emily Jean, to become the trustee.
Emily Jean Cuicchi, 64, said state officials had warned her and her husband what could happen if Hardie were found to be involved in operating Diamond Jim's.
"We were told that . . . it would be the kiss of death" for their running of the casino, she said.
The 75-year-old Hardie insisted that he was just trying to take care of his son financially and that he was devoting his energy to opening a casino in Corozal, Belize, which he did in late 2006.
"I was in Belize 95% of the time. Why would I care about Diamond Jim's for?" Hardie said recently during a telephone interview from Las Vegas, where he was playing in the World Series of Poker at the Rio hotel.
Cuicchi said that after Hardie Jr. got his license, his father became demanding, asking for repayment of the loan he'd made to the casino. Hardie complained when the shareholders wanted to install a large sign for the card club on the side of the freeway and argued that a higher percentage of the profits should be dispensed to the shareholders instead of going into remodeling, said Alan Isaacman, an attorney for Wizard Gaming Inc.
In early 2008 the gaming commission rejected a request that Hardie Jr. be allowed to have a greater say in the operation of Diamond Jim's. Cuicchi was replaced as trustee and another shareholder, George Deitch, a former Bell Gardens councilman and real estate owner, took her place. Isaacman said Hardie was angry because Cuicchi would not go along with his ideas.
In October 2008, Deitch got his gaming license and was approved as trustee by the gaming commission. As trustee and with a stake in the casino, Deitch now stands to gain majority ownership of Diamond Jim's as long as he gets an OK from the Kern County Sheriff's Department. If that happens, Isaacman said, it would be like giving Hardie control of the card club.
Deitch bristles at the notion that anyone is controlling him.
"I don't think I need Mr. Hardie pulling my strings," Deitch said.
Hardie said he is being demonized by people who once had no qualms about taking his money and advice. He said he is a father who lost a son and a daughter and is merely trying to take care of his remaining child.
"I am their boogeyman," Hardie said.
The affairs of Diamond Jim's took another twist last year when Hardie Jr. was arrested in the southern Mexican state of Quintana Roo after a July 13 shooting outside his father's casino in Belize.
The shooting broke out in the casino parking lot, leaving a patron wounded. The victim and another man who had been at the casino fled back to Mexico as Hardie Jr. and three Belizean security guards -- all armed -- pursued them. At the border, Mexican soldiers arrested Hardie Jr. and the security guards.
Hardie said the two casino patrons initiated the shootout and that his son showed up later. But Mexican authorities said Hardie Jr. directed the shooting. Last month, Hardie Jr. was sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempted murder.
Isaacman said that after his arrest, Hardie Jr. said he was an owner of the Belize casino. Under state law, someone who owns a Las Vegas-style casino anywhere in the world cannot also own a California casino. Hardie, a driving force in passing that law when he ran the Bicycle Club, said his son is an employee, not an owner.
One issue is clear: State law prohibits a convicted felon from owning a casino or card club. Isaacman said details of Hardie Jr.'s conviction in Mexico have been sent to gaming authorities.
Hardie said his son is innocent and expressed confidence that he will be cleared once a magistrate hears his appeal. Hardie alleges that his enemies have sent people to Mexico to buy information to use against his son. Isaacman, though, said Hardie has thrown around money to get his son out of jail, including paying the man who was injured in the shootout. Hardie said he gave the "so-called victim" money for his wrecked vehicle, for his injuries and his hospital stay.
"If the appeal fails . . . my son has to put up his share up for sale," Hardie conceded.
But all of this is mere inside baseball for the regulars at Diamond Jim's, who see the club as a homey place where conflicts are rare.
"We're a little bit nicer at Diamond Jim's to each other," said Pat Taylor, 67, who began to visit the card club after her husband died five years ago. "They don't allow any bad language here. They're very strict about that."
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