OCEANSIDE - The national Texas hold 'em poker craze has paid off for Ocean's Eleven Casino, turning the modest card room into a $27 million-a-year business and creating a need for more game tables to meet the Friday night demand, a casino official said Tuesday.

However, before the casino can grow, the city must buy in on the changes by adjusting its gambling ordinance and amending the casino's permit. The Oceanside City Council is set to consider some of those changes tonight.

The casino is seeking permission to increase its total number of tables from 45 to 56 and wants Oceanside to lift restrictions on games such as Pai Gow or Super Pan Nine, which under existing city rules can't occupy more than five tables at a time.

If the city grants the requests, it could share in the payout. Under city law, Oceanside gets 4 percent of the casino's revenues, meaning the city received a cool $1 million from the casino in the past fiscal year.

A converted bowling alley on Brooks Street, just east of Interstate 5, Ocean's Eleven doesn't have the endless ranks of slot machines or towering hotels offered at tribal gaming facilities, such as the Pala Casino east of Fallbrook or the Pechanga Resort & Casino south of Temecula.

Still, business is clearly booming. Bob Moyer, the casino's general manager and one of its owners, said Tuesday that poker has turned Ocean's Eleven into a hot spot on the weekends.

"We max out all 45 of our tables on Friday night," Moyer said. "Our no-limit Texas hold 'em games, we feel we could run five or six more tables."

The casino does a brisk business on weekdays, too, judging from the packed parking lot on Tuesday afternoon. Stephen Terry, a patron from Mission Viejo, said he visits Ocean's Eleven about three times a week - primarily drawn by the casino's location.

"I can be here in 20 minutes versus in L.A. with traffic, it can take an hour and 40 minutes (to get to a casino)," Terry said, as he stood outside the casino, smoking a cigarette.

Ocean's Eleven is owned by several local businessmen, including Moyer, Haig Kelegian and Dan Dreger.

Expanding the number of gambling tables at the casino, which opened in 1997, would also require an amendment to its conditional use permit and development plan in order to add more tables. The Oceanside Planning Commission would have to approve those amendments.

Oceanside City Councilman Rocky Chavez said Tuesday that he considers Ocean's Eleven to be a good corporate citizen, noting that the organization has contributed to many local charitable organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club and the Campfire Girls.

"I think they're good neighbors to the community," Chavez said. "But I think that issues like parking are going to have to be addressed as part of this approval."

A city ordinance permits a limited number of card rooms such as Ocean's Eleven, though the state currently has a ban on new card rooms until 2015. The same ordinance requires Ocean's Eleven to pay the city $2,000 per table each year, plus 4 percent of gross revenue.

An analyst with the Oceanside Finance Department said Tuesday that the card room paid about $1 million to the city during the 2006-07 fiscal year. Estimates for the 2007-08 fiscal year project that number will jump to $1.25 million if the proposal for 11 new tables is approved.

Simple math shows that cards have become big business in Oceanside. Only about $90,000 of last year's million-dollar payment came from the per-table fee, while $950,379 came from the city's 4 percent cut of the casino's gross revenue.

Moyer told the North County Times in 2004 that the 4 percent payment made to the city for the 2002-03 fiscal year was about $520,000, meaning that the business's gross revenue has jumped 82 percentage points in only four years.

Moyer said he attributes the growth to the nation's poker craze which has make rock stars out of steely-eyed high-stakes gamblers televised from Las Vegas casinos. In Texas hold 'em, players use a combination of five community cards and their own two 'hole cards' to make a hand.

"The TV exposure and the Internet exposure has brought millions of new players to poker," Moyer said.

Moyer added Ocean's Eleven would not need to physically expand its existing Brooks Street building if the council approves its request. The gambling floor at the casino already has 50 tables, but five must be covered at all times.

"We can only use 45 at one time, but we have 50 because sometimes we need to change the mix of games we offer, depending on the time of day or the day of the week," Moyer said.

- Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.