Gaming critics liken their campaign contributions to tobacco’s

Brett Pulley

Tuesday, March 24, 1998 | 10:29 a.m.

Confronted by a rising concern about the pervasive growth of casinos and by the threat that a national commission studying gambling could recommend new regulations and taxes, casino operators and other gambling interests have more than quadrupled their contributions to federal candidates and political parties since 1991.

Over the last decade, finding a place to make a legal wager has become as easy as buying a beer. And though Las Vegas is still the center of growth, so many states turned to gambling during tough fiscal times in the 1980s that the gambling industry could begin to rival the tobacco industry in political influence.

As gambling revenues have grown, the industry has increased its donations to Democrats and Republicans alike. According to an analysis conducted for The New York Times by the Campaign Study Group, a research company in Springfield, Va., casino interests donated $7 million to campaign war chests in 1995 and 1996, more than four times the $1.7 million they contributed in 1991 and 1992. In 1993 and 1994, they gave $3.3 million.

The industry has also spent more than $13.5 million on lobbying since January 1996, the analysis found.

The increase in support for politicians came as grass-roots groups opposed to gambling were spearheading defeats of local measures on new casinos and as Congress was considering passage of the legislation that established the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which is looking at the social and economic impact of gambling.

"Most politicians in both parties are receiving huge donations from gambling interests," said James Dobson, a member of the national commission and president of Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based nonprofit organization that opposes legalized gambling. "It's an effort to gain access and influence."

The rising importance of the casino industry as a source for campaign money was fully evident in Las Vegas Thursday night, when Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., the House minority leader, joined other Democratic leaders in sponsoring a reception at Harrah's casino to raise money for their party's congressional candidates.

The fund-raiser, which was timed to coincide with the AFL-CIO convention here last week, was attended by casino executives who paid $5,000 each to sip wine and hear brief remarks from Gephardt, as well as Rep. Martin Frost of Texas, the chairman of the party's congressional campaign committee, and Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, the finance chairman of the committee.

The event was closed to the press, and the guests gathered inside a cavernous Italian restaurant that sits among seemingly endless rows of slot machines inside the casino.

"We had been wanting to come out here for an event for a long time," said Matt Angle, the executive director of the Washington-based Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which was expected to raise more than $100,000 from the reception.

"With a lot of members in town for the convention, this was a good opportunity," Angle said.

Since 1991, the earliest year analyzed, gambling interests have donated $13.7 million to the Democratic and Republican National Committees, other party committees and the campaign coffers of candidates running for federal offices.

"As the gaming industry has grown, federal issues have more impact on us," said Alan Feldman, a spokesman for Mirage Resorts, a Las Vegas-based casino company whose chairman, Stephen Wynn, has been one of the most prodigious political fund-raisers and contributors in the industry. "The federal government has turned on to gaming, with an eye on taxing or regulations."

The amount contributed by gambling interests over the last seven years is about half of what the tobacco industry donated in the same period.

Although tobacco manufacturers have been pushing for the enactment of legislation that would shield them from future lawsuits by smokers, casino companies want nothing more than to be left alone by the federal government. As a result, they hedge their bets, putting equally large sums on Republican and Democratic candidates.

In the 1996 presidential race, for example, Wynn personally raised more than a million dollars for Bob Dole's candidacy, only to later aid in raising money for President Clinton. Also underscoring the industry's pragmatic approach to campaign giving, the Democratic National Committee received $1.7 million from casino interests in 1996, while the Republican National Committee received $1 million. And of the total amount donated by casino interests since 1991, Democrats received $7.6 million, while Republicans took in $6.1 million.

"They were just covering their bets," said Tom Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion, a nonprofit group. "At the federal level, they just want to be protected."

Grey predicted that the industry's increasing campaign largess would make it more of a target for criticism from anti-gambling organizations like his. "The more money they spend the easier it is for us to point out their money and muscle," he said. "It's going to be like tobacco."