Gefen: There is no inherent Issur. R’ Moshe has T’shuvos about playing cards on Shabbos. But there is no inherent Issue so long as it’s not for gambling. And I highly doubt the Arizal said anything about it. The modern deck of cards wouldn’t exist for almost 3 centuries after that. It could be he was referring to an old form of Tarot cards, which would make more sense.
See, however, the Be’ur Halachah in Hilchos Channukah where he says playing with cards is quite a bad thing to do. However, it’s clear that he’s talking about playing with some form of gambling.