Poker Club Pays Fine for Illegal Campaign Tactics

The Commerce Club, the state’s largest poker casino, has agreed to pay an $85,000 fine for secretly funneling campaign contributions to defeat ballot measures that would have allowed rival clubs to open, according to court records released Tuesday.

The fines resulted from an investigation by the state Fair Political Practices Commission of the casino’s spending during the 1995 elections, in which at least five Southern California cities considered ballot measures to open new casinos.

The FPPC discovered that the Commerce Club secretly paid a San Marino political consultant more than $95,000 to oppose gambling measures in the cities of Azusa, Hawaiian Gardens, Irwindale, Lynwood, Pomona and Ontario, according to court records.

The FPPC said the casino never reported the contributions.

The Commerce Club has already settled a previous FPPC case involving similar violations during the 1995 election. In that case, the FPPC found the casino had funneled $39,120 in nonmonetary contributions to consultants who worked to oppose a ballot measure to build a casino in Pico Rivera.

The contributions were not disclosed until months after the ballot measure was defeated by voters.

The Commerce Club agreed to pay $24,000 in fines.

An attorney for the Commerce Club could not be reached for comment.