I had been there from time to time, as I camp out on land I own about 20 miles north of Marina; so it's an easy ride. Never had problems buying a few low-value chips. The last time I visited, in autumn of 2015, a Latino guy I'd never seen in the cardroom before was in the Cage. He refused to sell me even one $1 chip. His words were: "I don't want to get in trouble here." The "vibe" I got was very unfriendly/fearful. And next thing I heard, through some online posting in December, was that Mortimer's had suddenly closed down. Mortimer's Motel next door also changed ownership around that time, and had a new name. The closure was so abrupt that it's said (again, internet postings) the dealers weren't notified, they showed up to find the doors locked.

I suspect that someone (the Manager) had "swapped out" workers to facilitate whatever was going on.