Flush with full houses, L.A.'s poker palaces now play politics.

IN a cavernous, brightly lit room not far from the confluence of four major thoroughfares in the City of Commerce sits the intersection of money and politics.

The Commerce Casino, filled with rows of green felt tables surrounded by serious looking players clutching cards, is one of eight licensed card clubs in L.A. County. The clubs, whose history here dates to the 19th century, are in the midst of a raucous and expensive political battle over Proposition 68, the November ballot initiative that would allow some of the state's 95 card clubs and its race tracks to add as many as 30,000 slot machines to their gaming offerings.

Proposition 70 is a counter-measure that would allow Indian tribes to operate an unlimited number of casinos in the state in return for paying the corporate tax rate of 8.84 percent.

Tim Gustin, manager of the Commerce Casino, said that if Proposition 68 passed, his operation would add as many as 1,700 slot machines.

"It is something we'd like to see," he said. "We had no problem getting signatures (to get the initiative on the ballot.)" Still, he doubted its prospects at the ballot. "I don't know if it is going to pass," he conceded. (Both measures are doing badly in the polls and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to campaign against them.)

At stake are hundreds of millions of dollars for businesses that already generate as much in annual revenues. Besides throwing off badly needed state taxes, L.A.'s clubs are especially important to the cities where they are located: Commerce, Bell Gardens, Compton, Inglewood and Gardena.

The Commerce Casino, for instance, generated $15.7 million in licensing fees for the city on revenues of $119.5 million, according to Vilko Domic, its director of finance. That represented 19.8 percent of the city's fiscal 2004 operating budget of $79 million.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the clubs, which need municipal approval to operate, and the cities, which relish the money they add to their coffers. Nowhere is the relationship more evident than in the political contributions the clubs make, contributions that have been magnified with the increased pressure from expanding Indian casinos and the prospect of added revenues from slots.

The owners of the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens have contributed more than $876,000 in the 2003-'04 campaign cycle, according to the California Secretary of State's office. Beneficiaries have been state and local legislators and committees backing Proposition 68.

The owners of the Normandie Club in Gardena have contributed more than $400,000 in the current cycle to a similar mix of recipients; Larry Flynt's Hustler Casino, also in Gardena, has put up just shy of $500,000; and the owners of the Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood have kicked in more than $57,000, almost exclusively to local races.

Although limited to card games and governed by rules that ensure that the business model remains distinct from that of Las Vegas-style gaming, card clubs in L.A. County appear to be enjoying a wave of newfound popularity.

"We have seen a 20 percent increase in poker over the last 16 months," said Gustin, attributing much of the spike to TV shows and online gaming. "People get a taste of it and they want to come in and play," he said.

Unlike casinos in Las Vegas, card clubs may not act as "the house." That role is filled by a player at the table or "third-party secured providers" who are licensed by the state but have no affiliation with the casino.

"We are basically providing them with a place to play, the facilities, the security and a dealer," explained Gustin. "It is a lot like the restaurant business: Very service oriented, very labor intensive."

The casino takes a fee for each hand played and a small percentage of winning hands. The Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County has estimated that local card club employment stood at 8,100 in July, up from 7,300 a year earlier.