[OnTheButton]

The only thing that I can say about this is that you'd better have a LOT of money to even consider doing this in the proper way.

Even if you find the way to legally start a card house in your area, (private or not) you have to have a gambling license, (and possibly liqour, and food service licenses to serve your friends legally) which I have come to learn are not all cheap or easy endeavors. Dealers are not low level employees (and you want good ones if you go that route) and you would also need cooks, runners, managers, security personell and a whole host of staffing just to even open the doors. And that does not include the equipment (tables, chairs, security systems, etc.) that all has to be in place before you open.

Here in California, there are "pockets" of areas that allow card rooms to be started, so you can't just open one in a strip mall or business park. And in the areas that you are legally allowed to start a card house, you would be setting up shop right next to a group of competitors from day 1... But since your thoughts are for a private room, you would not have the worry of competition.

It's a fun thought, I've dreamed about it too. But sans winning the lottery or being the next inventor of the Pet Rock, I've pushed it out of my mind after doing about a week of research on it.

If you just want to have a private card room, then I would keep it that way. Private. Rent an apartment, or some other kind of "residential" dwelling and stick to the laws you know are OK in your area for home games. Once you rent actual commercial space, a whole host of regulations come under your responsibility (like serving beer) and things can get really complicated for the lessors of the building, and owners of the "company" (probably a corporation) you would need to start to do this correctly.