When Lucky Chances first opened, it was every Asian gambler's wet dream who lived in the area. No need to trek all the way to Vegas when you can lose all your $ here locally! No need to be a gangsta or real ass G (that's G for gambla) and stir up shit in the East Bay (aka the casinos in San Pablo).
I'm not going to mince words here. Lucky Chances/LC is right inbetween Coma and South San Francisco. Pretty much tapping into the gambling Filipino population, Vietnamese and of course Chinese. I think that was their business strategy and it worked for them, much to the chagrin of the wives and poor children of these gamblers. That was at least the bulk of the patronage and if you want to stereotype that's the proof right there.
You will not find any Vegas style card games here, they are all variations with twists, so if you dont' know the rules or how to play properly, keep your money back in your rich ass, else you may experience a bankrupting anal leakage of galactic proportions, like my poor cousin did in 1999 (which I will get into in a moment).
It pays to understand some Feng Shui before you even think of coming here to gamble, let alone take your wallet out to get some gambling chips. I dont' mean dabble in it like some people do, who think they are experts in FS but are full of BS, yet bow to Thai restaurant managers and putting their hands together while doing so, thinking they are so Zen when they are so not. This is because Lucky Chances is located right across a CEMETARY. I think it shouldn't take an Einstein or a Ghost Busting Bill Murray to know that a place of burial/memoriam doesn't exactly jive well with being lucky at the crap or card tables, unless you find some evil spirit Taoist priest to aid you in conning a spirit to cheat and win money, but we know that eventually leads to MAJOR bad luck, not to mention Chinese style pox upon the cursed and generations below (aka generational boots up the ass).
I'll have to admit that while I did not gamble here, I've been inside (basically to drive my cousin back home after he blew out his wad errr wallet for the day). Parking is plentiful during the day, and at night the lot is full so people park up the road....right outside and across the cemetary and up the road, pet cemetary (I shit you not). Yeah, go figure on that one. The inside is clean and well kept, and of course there's standard security to keep patrons relatively safe, but not nessarily lucky (that's not their job).
My cousin was addicted to gambling but he really didn't know how to play his cards. LC had some whacked up poker table there, and while I know very little about the game, I knew my cousin was losing his shirt (this was in summer 1999). He folded like 8 times in a row, usually within the first change of cards, within 10 minutes of watching him! When our friend asked him why he kept doing that, my cousin said "well I always got shit cards!". We thought he just didn't know how to play properly or bluff.
In an interesting twist of events, I almost got married that summer, but called it off last minute (long story...). Basically my cousin figured he had no more groomsman duties and although he lost some $ a few nights before, he decided to take it up the ass again at LC and figured he would spend the rest of the supposed wedding day there, and remarked, "pick me up in a few hours" after we dropped him off there (despite our earnest warnings not to go).
I was still in shock of calling off the wedding myself, and when we got to LC to pick up my cousin (who was still at the tables, folding his hand of cards), I was remarking how odd it was that I cancelled my wedding on a really beautiful and sunny day. To which my cousin responded "oh boo hoo you, so what, it was raining inside the fucking casino the whole time I was here!" as he wept and mourned the loss of 6 months pay (almost). I guess he should have learned a little FS before coming in here...
Thanks LC for these somewhat fun but messed up memories. read more