Clark County commissioners are expected to decide today how they want to officiate a blame game among strip clubs, cab drivers, limo drivers and doormen at resort hotels.

Strip club owners contend they are extorted by cabdrivers who demand pricey payouts for delivering passengers to their businesses. Cabbies argue the escalation of payouts, which have reached $70 per passenger, is the result of club owners trying to one-up each other to pack their businesses.

Taxi drivers also have complained that limo drivers receive most of the fares to strip clubs because of a pact they negotiated with resort doormen, who collect a percentage of the payout.

Limo drivers blame the doormen, who will not direct passengers to their vehicles unless they receive a chunk of the strip club tip.

Commissioners plan to review an existing, but rarely enforced, ordinance that prohibits strip clubs from offering payouts to cabdrivers.

Early next year, the board will decide whether to do away with the ordinance or change it to include other commercial vehicles, such as limousines.

Board members' opinion on abolishing the ordinance varied Monday. Most commissioners said they will make their final decision after public hearings.

"At this point, I have a lot of questions; that's why we talk about this stuff in public," Commission Chairman Rory Reid said. "We have a 20-year-old policy, and I don't know if it works or if it's enforceable."

Commissioner Tom Collins, a former state assemblyman, said he heard all of the arguments when similar bills designed to control payouts came before the Legislature. The first-term commissioner said he opposed governing the practice then, and he has not changed his position.

"We never did anything about it there because it was none of our business," Collins said. "If someone wants to give someone a tip for good services, whether they're playing blackjack, driving a taxi or serving hot food, I have no problem with that at all.

"It's the American way. It's the Nevada way anyway," Collins said.

Critics, including some strip club owners, complain that tourists are diverted to clubs they had no interest in visiting because the payouts are higher.

The main reason to strengthen the existing ordinance would be to protect tourists, Commissioner Bruce Woodbury said.

"I think it's an issue between the cabbies and the club owners and the limo drivers," he said. "But I guess some tourists may feel harassed by the situation, so we should at least take a look at it."

The commission has the authority to penalize strip clubs that violate the ordinance because they operate with a privileged county license. The county does not regulate commercial drivers.

Woodbury said that a new ordinance would require the county to bolster its enforcement team, which would cost an undetermined amount of money.

To avoid taxpayers footing the bill, Woodbury said the commission would explore charging clubs a fee or receiving funding from the Las Vegas Convention and Business Authority.

"If we do something, we need to know how it will be enforced and who is paying for it," Woodbury said.

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates said she thinks most of her colleagues are leaning toward repealing the ordinance, but she believes it existed for a purpose and should remain on the books.

The payout restrictions should extend to other forms of commercial vehicles to ensure cabdrivers are not discriminated against, she said.

"I think we need to stick to our guns," Atkinson Gates said. "They're not supposed to be doing it; we should be enforcing it.

"If we have something on the books and every time it becomes controversial we just run from it, that's what it appears we're doing, running from it," she said.

Earlier this month, strip club owners came up with their own solution.

Club operators agreed to stop paying drivers tips. But some drivers think the boycott is only for the holiday season, when business is slow anyway.