State Settles Case With Card Casino

State investigators have reached a settlement with California’s largest poker casino over allegations that it secretly funneled tens of thousands of dollars to political consultants to defeat a proposal that would have opened a rival club, court records show.

As part of its settlement with the Fair Political Practices Commission, the 220-table Commerce Club agreed to pay $24,000 in fines--far less than the maximum penalty under campaign finance laws.

FPPC spokesman Gary Huckaby said the club could have faced more than double the fine imposed, but he declined to discuss the negotiations that led to the lesser penalty.

The state agency is “pleased it has been brought to a successful conclusion,” he said.

A casino spokesman praised it as “a fair settlement to both sides.” But critics accused the FPPC of conducting a shoddy investigation and penalizing the club too lightly.

“What a pitiful settlement,” said Bruce M. Brusavich, an attorney for the developer whose casino plan was narrowly defeated in the election at the center of the probe. “It makes violating the [law] a reasonable cost of doing business.”

State investigators began looking into the casino’s political contributions after the 1995 election cycle, in which at least five Southern California cities considered ballot measures to open new casinos--competitors to the Commerce Club and other dominant card parlors in Southeast Los Angeles County.

In Pico Rivera, just a few miles from the Commerce Club, a card casino plan was defeated after a bitter campaign by a margin of 267 votes out of 8,475 cast. In reports filed during the campaign, the club said it had not spent a dime in Pico Rivera, although it was pouring about $300,000 into anti-casino campaigns in other Los Angeles County cities.

But months after the election--and FPPC disclosure deadlines--the casino quietly revealed in campaign documents that it had made $39,120 in nonmonetary contributions to a political action committee called Just Say No to Casinos, run by a Pico Rivera pastor who had railed against card clubs as dens of debauchery and sin.

FPPC investigators said they had discovered the money was actually sent to political consultants for the club, who advised the pastor on how to conduct his anti-card club campaign, which included flyers and phone bank work.

Investigators also found the casino had paid a San Marino political consultant, Hal Mintz, more than $400,000 to study “marketing trends.” In June 1996--one year after the election--Mintz’s company, Stateside Communications Inc., said it had provided $16,360 worth of mailers and promotional material to another Pico Rivera committee that opposed the new card club.

Commerce Club officials said in the settlement talks that they never authorized Mintz to make campaign contributions and didn’t monitor what he did. The settlement states that the club’s claim is “in dispute.” It explicitly excludes Mintz from the agreement, which means the FPPC is still free to pursue a claim against him.

Asked Thursday whether the club had instructed him to make campaign contributions, Mintz declined to comment. He characterized the $24,000 fine against the club as “pretty minor.”