Gaming foe: Keep Bible off fed panel

Friday, March 14, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

A congressional gambling critic is using an ABC News report this week to pressure President Clinton into backing away from naming State Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible to a federal commission that will study the casino industry.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., one of the architects of legislation creating the federal panel, wrote to Clinton Thursday urging him to abandon Bible following a "Prime Time Live" report that suggested Nevada regulators ignored concerns about possible slot machine rigging.

"This is just another effort by Wolf and the anti-gambling advocates to stack the commission their way," said Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, the casino industry's political lobby in Washington, D.C.

Wolf also asked the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate allegations of "deceptive slot machine operations" and "lax oversight" by Nevada regulators.

Wolf said the "Prime Time Live" report raises serious questions about "Nevada's ability to regulate gaming operations."

The report, relying on a convicted slot cheat and a former slot machine company owner banished from the industry, suggested the machines are rigged with near-misses to encourage gamblers to keep playing.

Bible said today the theory alleged in the report is not a new one.

"Journalists periodically discover this characteristic and think they have a news story," Bible said. "This type of slot machine was approved for use in Nevada in 1984 and since that time has been approved in every other jurisdiction in the United States that allows slot machines."

In his letter to the president, Wolf suggested Nevada and its casino industry already were well-represented on the nine-member federal gaming commission. MGM Grand Inc. Chairman Terry Lanni and Culinary Union leader John Wilhelm previously have been appointed.

"Mr. Bible, given the cloud now surrounding him and the (Control Board), should no longer be a viable candidate," Wolf wrote.

A spokesman for the White House could not be reached for comment today.

But Fahrenkopf, in a letter to Wolf today, accused the gambling foe of deliberately making false statements about Bible and the industry to the president.

"I beseech you as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives to not use your office as a platform for demagoguery and untruth to support your vehement opposition to gaming," Fahrenkopf wrote.

Gov. Bob Miller, who's been pushing Bible's appointment, also questioned Wolf's motivation.

"Congressman Wolf continues to show a total lack of objectivity on anything connected to the gaming industry," Miller said. "He did all he could to create a stacked national gaming study commission, and now he's reaching again.

"His logic has become absurd. I think his latest move is systematic of an extremely biased attitude."

Meanwhile, the furor over how videotapes of Ron Harris, a former Control Board electronics expert convicted of slot cheating, were obtained by ABC News continued today.

The tapes, which outline discredited allegations of wrongdoing at the Control Board, were made by the Nevada attorney general's office, which has denied being the leak.

Assembly Minority Leader Pete Ernaut, R-Reno, said he has asked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Mark James, R-Las Vegas, to investigate the matter and James was receptive to the idea.

"I expressed my concerns to him, and I think it's accurate to say he's concerned as well," Ernaut said.

"Prime Time Live" showed excerpts and copies of at least one internal attorney general's memo during its report.