Larry Flynt won a stare down with the Gardena city council last week when he shut down his Normandie Casino for two days over the council’s demands that he pay higher taxes, and the council backed down.
Flynt purchased the Normandie a few weeks ago, only to have the city council propose that he pay a minimum of $800,000 each month, rather than whatever tax amount the Normandie and his other casino, the Hustler, would have actually generated during that period. Flynt refused. The council insisted. So Flynt stormed out of the meeting, threatened to work to defeat council members in the upcoming election, and shut down the Normandie. He called the council’s proposal “foolish” and added, “That makes absolutely no sense at all. That’s a proposal only a fool could sign and I’m no fool. You can’t guarantee revenues. In my 50 years of business, I’ve never heard ever of a deal like that.”
Then he shut down the Normandie.
A few days later, on July 24, after “very intense” negotiations, the council held a special meeting during which casino employees filled the council chambers asking the city to back down. The Normandie employs about 400 workers. Flynt had promised to hire them to work at his new Lucky Lady Casino, which he renamed the Normandie.
Flynt acquired the Normandie after the family that owned it ran afoul of the law against money laundering and was forced to surrender its gaming license.
One employee told the council: “Please kindly think about we have families that depend on us and they are looking forward to good living. Right now we cannot provide for them because we are not working.” She added, “Please kindly sign this deal because, if you do that, you’re going to put food on our plates.”
Another resident declared, “Evidently, you weren’t even listening to Mr. Flynt and what he was saying. He’s the expert. You’re not the expert. And here we are tonight giving him what he wanted, what he should have. Look what he’s going to do to the Normandie Club. He’s going to do for that corner what no one else could do. I can hardly wait. I hope I live to see what goes up there.”
The council members who had voted 3-1 to require the minimum $800,000 payment, took another vote for a new deal that keeps the rate at 12 percent, but gives the city the option of renegotiating if casino revenues fall below a certain amount. The city promises to reimburse the porn and gaming magnate half of his tax payments if his revenue exceeds $2 million a month.
Flynt has promised to reopen the Lucky Lady.
The city is heavily dependent on the revenue from the two casinos, and has had to cut staff, and to require the police chief to have other duties in order to make ends meet. Flynt has promised that the city will make even more money off of his casinos once he gives the old Normandie a $60 million upgrade over the next four years.
The Normandie is California’s oldest card club, and had been operated by the Miller family since 1947.
