Alex Silverman and Andrew Imber, two 9-year- old friends from Merrick, L.I., say they were forced to empty their piggy banks to buy endless packs of low-value cards in the hope of buying a rare one.

The suit says the cards' maker, Nintendo, randomly includes a rare one in the 11-card packages that sell for $3 to $11.

Thus, the lawsuit says, kids are forced to empty their pockets to get the rare cards, which can be resold for $30 to $100.

Alex and Andrew joined two kids from San Diego in filing the suit, which claims Nintendo is involved in an "illegal gambling enterprise" and demands the company stop randomly including rare cards in regular packs.

The federal class-action suit seeks unspecified damages.

One of the kids' lawyers, Neil Moritt of Garden City, L.I., said the Pokemon craze has the three elements of gambling.

"You pay to play ... there is the element of chance, and you've got a prize," he said. "It's gambling."

Alex, who used to be a frenzied collector, said "I spent lots of money on it. It's like gambling, kind of."

He and fellow fourth-grader Andrew said they spent thousands of dollars trying to get the scarce cards that are a big status symbol with their friends.

"People are stealing them and trading them," said Alex.

Andrew said, "Sometimes I used to get too into it and I wouldn't think about anything else."

The boys' mothers say the cards spark thefts and fights, and cause older kids to cheat younger ones out of valuable cards. Their schools have banned the cards.

"It teaches gambling," said Marci Imber. "A 9-year-old shouldn't be gambling to get a rare card."

Janet Silverman said she decided it was time to cut back on the obsessive collecting "when they came home from school asking to spend $100 for a card from a friend."

The suit, filed in San Diego, accuses Nintendo of conspiring to engage "in a pattern of racketeering activity ..."

It charges that the entertainment giant violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law - known as RICO - which is usually used against suspected mobsters.

Court papers said Nintendo, along with U.S. distributor Wizards of the Coast and licenser 4 Kids Entertainment, stand to rake in $1.2 billion this year alone.

Nintendo's lawyer, Richard Flamm, called the suit "baseless" and said Moritt's law firm has filed similar actions against other trading-card makers.

"To our knowledge, none of these cases has been successful in asserting that trading cards is a form of illegal gambling," he said.