With his recent purchase of the Normandie card room, California’s oldest, adding to his Hustler card room just down the street in Gardena, porn entrepreneur Larry Flynt has become Southern California’s leading casino owner.
He is already a publishing mogul, publishing not only his infamous “Hustler” magazine, but 29 others as well.
Flynt is also a champion of free of the press and an opponent of censorship, something he has battled against himself upon occasion. One of his legal battles was the subject of the 1996 film “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” which starred Woody Harrelson.
In 2000 he opened the Hustler Casino in Gardena and was almost immediately immersed in controversy. He had converted the Hustler from the old El Dorado, which he purchased after it closed in 1996. The city council objected to the name, but Flynt got his way and the name stuck.
Then a few weeks ago he acquired the Normandie, which dated back to the 1930s. The Miller family, longtime owners, lost the right to have a gaming license after they allegedly allowed money laundering.
Flynt stepped in to buy the property and was almost immediately embroiled in a controversy with the city council, which wanted him to guarantee a monthly tax payment of $800,000 for the two casinos, no matter what the receipts were each month.
Flynt threatened to shut down the Normandie, which he had rebranded as the Lucky Lady, and actually did shut its doors for several days. The council quickly backtracked and on July 20 Flynt obtained terms much more to his liking.
In return Flynt has committed to spending up to $60 million on upgrading the casino and the land it sits on, fueling speculation that he plans to enlarge the casino and add a hotel and convention center.
Flynt commented recently, “We’re excited to have the Larry Flynt’s Lucky Lady Casino open for business with renovations underway. Our goal is to create a beautiful gaming property and reintroduce the City of Gardena as the Poker Capital of the World.”
