SAN JOSE -- After getting word of what was supposed to be a private opening for family and friends, card players flocked to San Jose's newly built Casino M8trix card room Tuesday, a day before its planned official opening, and owners decided to let them in.
"We didn't expect it," said M8trix consultant Sean Kali-rai. "People just started trickling in, tweeting friends. You couldn't turn people away."
Casino M8trix, the $50 million reinvention of the old Garden City Casino card room on Saratoga Avenue, originally planned to open in April, but had to spend an additional four months battling for permit approval from the city.
After getting a thumbs-up on a permit from police Chief Chris Moore last month,

the card room's owners planned a "soft opening" at 8 a.m. Aug. 8 -- timed to take advantage of the date to promote a number considered lucky in Asian culture. A more celebratory grand opening is planned Aug. 17 and 18.
The owners officially shut Garden City at 2 a.m. Tuesday to begin the highly regulated and choreographed transfer of gaming operations to the new M8trix location on Airport Parkway. They planned to remain open Tuesday just for "family and friends" before an official unveiling Wednesday morning with a ribbon-cutting that is expected to be attended by Mayor Chuck Reed, Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen and council members Xavier Campos, Ash Kalra and Rose Herrera.
That's still on schedule. But Kali-rai said that as card

players arrived at Garden City to find it closed, word got out that M8trix was open and they began showing up. By Wednesday evening, the parking lot was full.
San Jose allows just two card rooms. The other is Bay 101 Casino, located across Highway 101 on Bering Drive, which opened in 1994. Bay 101 officials have qualified a November ballot measure that would allow a 61 percent increase in gaming tables at the city's card rooms.
The San Jose City Council on Tuesday officially put it
An interior view of Casino M8trix during a tour for the Mercury News on March 16, 2012 in San Jose. (Dai Sugano/Staff) ( Dai Sugano )
on the ballot. Councilman Sam Liccardo said Tuesday that he and Councilman Kansen Chu would write ballot arguments against the card-room measure. City officials have cited concerns that the measure would generate more crime and regulatory issues than revenues.
The city's card rooms currently generate about $15 million a year in tax revenues for the city thanks to a 15 percent tax on operations, more than the revenues from gas stations, restaurants, department stores or auto sales.