Penn is also among the last of the old-style card room owners in San Diego, and the state: sole proprietors, often tavern owners who had a few tables in the back room, who ran the clubs featuring mostly poker games like a small family-owned business. The Lucky Lady was the last legally operating licensed card club in a city that once had more than 100 card rooms - Alibi on Richmond Street, Doc’s Lo-Ball Poker at 61st and El Cajon Boulevard, House of Cards on Ocean View Boulevard.

It was an answer that was both a promise, and a kind of epitaph for the business he had toiled in for 40 years.īecause last month, after a year when the business was shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic, Penn sold the Lucky Lady property in the El Cerrito neighborhood to the Family Health Centers of San Diego, and permanently closed the casino.Īnd with that, San Diego’s once-thriving card room industry ended, likely never to be seen again.