Gambling foe to lead governors

Larry Henry

Friday, July 25, 1997 | 9:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- At the National Governors' Association meeting next week in Las Vegas, the casino industry will lose a friend and gain an enemy.

Ohio Gov. George Voinovich, who compares casino gambling to "crack cocaine" in its destructiveness, will take over as chairman from Nevada Gov. Bob Miller.

Voinovich, a Republican, has said gambling causes "a breakdown of the family." Miller, a Democrat, is the son of Ross Miller, who was one of the original investors in the Riviera hotel-casino.

Coming on the heels of Miller's term, Voinovich's chairmanship draws attention to the national debate over the spread of gambling, which is the focus of a new federal commission. Every state except two, Hawaii and Utah, allows some form of gambling, and 26 states have casinos.

In that light, even the location of the conference has significance.

The exchange of leadership is to take place Wednesday at The Mirage hotel-casino. Its parent company's chairman, Steve Wynn, is one of the casino industry's most active campaign contributors.

President Clinton, who is to speak Monday at The Mirage and is a former chairman of the governor's association, has played golf with Wynn at Miller's urging.

Voinovich, a former Cleveland mayor, is not expected to crusade against casino gambling during his one-year term as chairman, said executive assistant Tom Needles. The association works with Congress and the White House to provide direction on national issues.

But as governor, Voinovich has been a staunch critic of casinos.

"He believes it ruins families," said press secretary Mike Dawson.

In 1996, Voinovich helped raise $1 million to fight a $10 million pro-gambling campaign spearheaded by an Ohio auto dealer trying to legalize casinos.

The ballot question, which would have put casinos in four counties, failed by 24 percent of the vote, Dawson said.

In an editorial Voinovich wrote, he said casinos created social problems in Nevada.

"To comprehend the full impact of its poison on families, consider these facts from Nevada, where casino gaming has been legal since 1931," Voinovich wrote. "Nevada residents recorded the nation's highest suicide rates, high school dropout rates and children's death from abuse in the years when Nevada and Atlantic City, N.J., were the only venues allowing legalized casinos."

Miller, who expects more than 40 governors to attend the four-day conference, said he's not bothered if some of them criticize casinos.

"There's a lot that don't like gaming in their states," Miller said. "The argument they use is, 'Go to Nevada.'"

Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, said Voinovich already oversees a lottery, bingo and horse racing in Ohio.

"The governor sits on a $3 billion-a-year lottery," Fahrenkopf said. "Ohio is a state that's tremendously involved in gaming today. When you already have some form of gambling, the people in those other forms want to protect their turf."

Thomas Grey of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling said Voinovich's chairmanship, while coincidentally following Miller's, is "symbolic."

Grey said the national spread of casino gambling is beginning to slow, despite voter approval in Michigan last year to allow three casinos in Detroit.

"It reflects more where this country is to have Voinovich than Miller," Grey said.