Open 24 hours a day the gaming room was much the same as many around that time, with the usual pool and card tables and a bar in a smoke filled room with dim lighting, which was the usual during the time of the great depression. The pool tables were where you could find the great Bill Robinson who put his gun on the table from time to time while he took a difficult shot. This action appeared to be a warning to others to keep quite, but it was really because he wanted more freedom to manoeuvre round the table.

There was also a small area in one corner where some light entertainment, usually from female singers, provided a pleasant background atmosphere for the action taking place around the club. As the club was open through out prohibition, no alcohol was served or seen to be openly available. At the time though, every thing had its price, undoubtedly there was some kind of bootleg liquor available to certain preferred customers.

It has to be remembered first and for most, the club was a mainly for gambling and not just a place where entertainers hang out after a gig or waiting for one to start. The back room (The Hoofers Club.) was an after thought due mainly to many of his customers being in the entertainment business. It was the logical thing to do and has put the club on the map for decades and decades to come. Providing a place to practice and watch dancing in a club at the time was a stroke of genius. This may seem to have been an astute move by the proprietor, but many say that Lonnie Hicks was just a big hearted guy who loved entertainers.

Many of the clubs customers were performers or people who worked in the entertainment industry, which thrived at the time, came from various clubs and theatres near by. With their resent wages in their pockets they would drop in and some times blow it all on a card game or other gambling venture within the club. Or they would just hang out there playing pool, which was the safest way to keep your money as it took a lot longer to lose it and at least you had a better chance to win.

Most of the popular clubs around Harlem at the time were segregated whites only establishments, where African Americans could only perform to a whites only audience. After they had performed they would seek out one of the many black gambling clubs to fill in time between gig's (paid performances.) which were not always in the same club, but some times in several clubs all in a 1 mile radius.