Columnist Jeff German: Binion, Gaming Control Board headed for showdown

Thursday, Feb. 26, 1998 | 10:55 a.m.

IT'S HIGH NOON at the Nevada Gaming Commission today for suspended Horseshoe Club executive Ted Binion.

In his zeal to prove that the state Gaming Control Board has been "persecuting" him, Binion is looking to put board member Steve DuCharme on the hot seat.

Things were expected to come to a head at this afternoon's commission meeting in Carson City.

Binion wants DuCharme to testify before the commission next month about a decade-old attempt by slain reputed underworld figure Herbie Blitzstein to bribe DuCharme while he worked as an undercover police officer.

The theory advanced by Binion is that if DuCharme had first-hand knowledge of Blitzstein's nefarious activities, he should have moved more quickly to nominate Blitzstein for Nevada's Black Book of undesirables banned from casinos.

That would have alerted Binion to stay away from Blitzstein. It also would have helped Binion avoid the most damaging aspect of a five-count complaint the board filed against him last year.

In the complaint, the board asks the commission to revoke Binion's license in part because of his association with Blitzstein, once a top lieutenant of the much-feared Chicago mob kingpin Anthony Spilotro, who was murdered in 1986.

A hearing on the complaint is scheduled next month, and DuCharme is slated to be a witness.

But DuCharme won't get close to the witness stand if the attorney general's office has its way.

The AG wants the commission today to bar Binion from questioning DuCharme at next month's hearing. Licensees like Binion, the AG says, can't delve into the minds of board members during their decision-making process.

The principle strikes at the heart of good government.

Last June, after federal indictments were returned in the Blitzstein murder investigation, DuCharme disclosed in this space that he had accepted $800 in bribes from Blitzstein while working as an undercover cop in 1986. The money carefully was documented and put in the police evidence vault.

No case, however, ever was brought against Blitzstein because he was charged in another criminal probe. The fruits of DuCharme's undercover activities weren't needed.

But Blitzstein apparently went to his grave believing he had corrupted the board member, who has a reputation for being straight as an arrow.

More than a decade later, Binion is trying to use the bribe attempt to bolster his case that DuCharme and the board are mistreating him.

Binion's lawyer, Richard Wright, contends the bribe attempt amounts to "important evidence of the board's bad faith" toward Binion.

In papers filed with the Gaming Commission, Wright says the board never warned Binion to keep his distance from Blitzstein after he publicly acknowledged a limited business relationship with the mob associate in the spring of 1986.

"The board laid in wait for Mr. Binion to continue his innocuous relationship with Blitzstein, who could at the time enter into any casino or hotel in the state," Wright says.

"Only after the board proposed Blitzstein for the Black Book, at which time Mr. Binion terminated the business relationship, did the board complain that Mr. Binion's association with Blitzstein constituted grounds for revocation."

The board didn't propose Blitzstein for the Black Book until December 1986. A month later he was murdered in an attempt by the Los Angeles mob to take over his lucrative street rackets.

Deputy Attorney General Kirk Hendrick rebuts Wright's claims in papers before the Gaming Commission.

He calls Binion's theory that the board entrapped the casino executive into associating with Blitzstein "farfetched" and "preposterous."

Hendrick says Binion already has acknowledged that he knew Blitzstein was a trusted Spilotro associate.

"Binion knows that the government has no duty to be his conscience," Hendrick writes. "If the board were required to warn licensees about potentially bad characters, it would improperly shift the regulatory burden from the licensees to the board."

To the attorney general and the board, it's a principle worthy of going to the mat.