Once a gamer, always a gamer

Inside SOCAL

Long Beach Press-Telegram (Long Beach, California)
8/16/2006

By Doug Krikorian, Columnist

Haig Kelegian is seated coolly behind the huge desk in his
well-appointed second story office above the sprawling casino at the
Bicycle Club, a picture of practiced calm and self-assurance befitting
a man who owns a majority piece of the famous card emporium in Bell
Gardens and is its CEO and president.

He is 73 even though his unlined face doesn’t betray it, and he got
into the card wagering business in 1982 when he bought a share in a
new establishment called the Commerce Casino.

He had become rich in insurance, but left it all behind when he found
out there was more money to be made in the gambling industry.

He would retain his small interest in the Commerce and would go on
to open Ocean’s Eleven Casino in Oceanside and then with a couple of
partners would take over the Bicycle Club from the U.S. government in
April of 1999 and would triple its business and double its profits
within a year and would even recently with son Mark purchase the
Crystal Casino in Compton.

And during most of this span, as he sold his lucrative insurance
business and retired, as he came out of retirement and quickly began
ascending the gaming ladder, as he became a powerful figure in the
state’s card casino landscape, Haig Kelegian somehow also found time to
attend dozens of boxing matches locally, nationally and internationally
as one of Jose Sulaiman’s top lieutenants in the World Boxing Council.

As a member of the WBC’s executive council, as well as its
international secretary and treasurer, Kelegian was involved in a lot
of high profile matches and even served as the fight supervisor in
promotions involving the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler,
Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, Salvador Sanchez and Oscar De La Hoya.

Between 1982 and 2002, there wasn’t a big fight in Las Vegas that
was sanctioned by the WBC – and most of the big ones were – that Haig
Kelegian missed, as he was always a visible presence at the weigh-ins
and at press conferences and at the various pre-fight instructional
meetings.

"In those days, I was always going to fights," says Kelegian, who
became involved in the sport after the then California governor,
Jerry Brown, appointed him to the State Athletic Commission in 1979
and who will be honored for his role in it by being inducted Saturday
into the California Boxing Hall of Fame at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in
Studio City. "I’d go to the Forum on Monday evenings and to the Irvine
Marriott on Thursday evenings and Las Vegas on the weekends. It seemed
like in those days there were fights going on all the time."

Haig Kelegian pauses, as his cell phone rings.

"It never stops," he says with resignation as he picks it up and
apologizes for the interruption.

He listens patiently for a moment, and says, "I’ll call you back
later on the matter."

"Who was that?" I ask with curiosity.

"Oh, it was just a credit issue," he replies matter of factly.

The walls of Kelegian’s office are dominated by large photos of Frank
Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. and Marilyn Monroe and others who were
in their primes when the pictures were taken a long time ago.

"Time passes," I say. "A lot of the people in those photos are gone."

Haig Kelegian nods.

"Yeah, they are," he says. "Sinatra was a huge boxing fan. Used to
attend all the fights in Las Vegas."

Son of an Armenian immigrant who came to America in 1919 from eastern
Turkey and settled in Milwaukee, Haig Kelegian attended the University
of Wisconsin at Milwaukee for a couple of years where he played
baseball, did a two-year Army hitch, majored in English literature
at Wayne State University, married a George Washington University
graduate named Argine (Jean) Bagramian in 1958, and got started in
insurance during college when he went to work for Prudential.

He would move his family to Southern California in February of 1962 –
he had a young daughter and son at the time and later would have two
more sons – and soon would open his own insurance firm that would
evolve into such a profitable enterprise that he decided to sell it
in 1991 and lapse into leisurely retirement at the modest age of 58.

"I was making very good money from my investment in the Commerce by
this time, and so I decided to take it easy," says Kelegian.

At the time, he was living in Montebello where he long had been one
of the leaders in the local Armenian community, heavily involved in
its church and school activities.

But in 1997, Haig Kelegian found dabbling in real estate, hitting
golf balls and playing cards – he’s a poker devotee to this day –
didn’t sate his ambitious inclinations and that’s when he and his
partners opened the 47-table Ocean’s Eleven and then a couple of
years later successfully took over the Bicycle Club.

"I just wish I would have gone into the gambling business earlier
in my life because it’s so exciting, as well as quite profitable,"
he says. "I’ve been pretty fortunate.

I have been privileged to attend a lot of great fights all around
the world. And now I’m involved in a business that is equally
entertaining. But what I’m most blessed in his having a great family."

Haig Kelegian’s face glows when he speaks of his nine grandchildren,
his daughter, Michelle Shrikian, an attorney, and sons Mark,
also an attorney and president of Celebrity Casino Inc., Haig
Jr. vice-president of Celebrity Casino Inc., and Andrew, president
of Pacific Coast Propane.

"You couldn’t ask for better kids, and all are married," he says
proudly.

Naturally, Kelegian has a litany of notable memories from his lengthy
involvement with boxing, the defining one coming on the evening of
May 18, 1995 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

"Jose Sulaiman had me present Muhammad Ali with certificates honoring
his achievements that were given to him from both the U.S. Congress
and Senate," says Kelegian. "It was the first time he was officially
honored by those bodies."

Haig Kelegian and his wife now live in Newport Beach in the same
upscale vicinity where Kobe Bryant resides, and they also have a home
in Incline Village at Lake Tahoe.

He no longer is officially involved in boxing, but has remained
friends with Jose Sulaiman president-for-life of the WBC.

"I’ve made a good living from insurance and gambling," he says. "But
I’ve met so many unforgettable and famous people from boxing. Boxing
is like the gambling business in one respect. Once it gets into your
blood, it’s there for good. . ."

Doug Krikorian can be reached at doug.krikorian@presstelegram.com

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress