Casinos fear bias by fed panel

Thursday, Sept. 3, 1998 | 10:43 a.m.

Fears have surfaced again that the staff of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission is not playing fair with the casino industry.

Industry lobbyists charged the panel's staff has stacked the deck against gaming at next week's hearings in Biloxi, Miss., and New Orleans.

The nine-member commission's crime agenda has drawn the most concern. Panelists critical of the industry from as far away as Virginia, New York, Illinois and Oregon have been invited to testify.

"It just seems to me there's an anti-gaming bias," said Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the Washington-based American Gaming Association.

Wayne Mehl, a Washington lobbyist for the Nevada Resort Association, agreed.

"They've tried to stack the deck here more than anywhere else we've been," Mehl said.

The industry has complained in the past that the commission has gone out of its way to line up speakers critical of gaming during its hearings across the country.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., an outspoken critic of the panel, said today he's "very concerned" about next week's witness list.

"This agenda weighs heavily toward the anti-gaming establishment," Gibbons said.

Gibbons said the just-released agenda confirms his earlier concerns that the panel's acting director, Timothy Kelly, is biased against gaming.

Kelly was hand-picked by Commission Chairwoman Kay James, a Virginia college administrator regarded as an emerging leader in the Christian right, which is spearheading a campaign against gambling.

The commission has been hit hard by staff defections in recent weeks, which has led some within the industry to conclude that James may be trying to lead panel in an anti-gaming direction. James has said such talk isn't true.

Kelly was appointed to run the panel's daily affairs in July after veteran Washington bureaucrat Nancy Kennedy resigned for personal reasons. Kennedy was respected by both pro and anti-members of the commission.

From Washington, Kelly insisted that the overall presentations in Biloxi and New Orleans will be fair to the industry.

"We work very hard to try to come up with a balanced agenda," Kelly said. "We make every effort to invite experts on the pro and con side of each issue."

But Fahrenkopf and Mehl said the majority of witnesses expected to testify on crime panels next week are anti-gaming.

Terrence Brunner, executive director of the Chicago-based Better Government Association, is among those listed on the Biloxi agenda. Brunner's group led the charge against legalizing gambling in Chicago.

Scheduled to testify in New Orleans are Warren de Brueys, former director of the New Orleans Metro Crime Commission and Edward Galanek, a detective in the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. Galanek is an expert on illegal bookmaking and organized crime.

Legalized gambling in New Orleans, plagued by allegations of corruption and mob influence, has become a nationwide embarrassment to the casino industry, primarily because of lax regulations.

Mehl said he was concerned that the panel has invited people from all parts of the country to speak on crime.

"The point of a site visit was to get the flavor of the gambling economic experience in those areas where gambling is taking place," he said. "You don't expect them to go out and find half of their witnesses out of the state unless there's a specific agenda."

Mehl said the makeup of next week's agenda doesn't bode well for Las Vegas, which has been planning for the commission's two-day visit in November.

"We may have to work harder to get the panel representation we should be getting here," Mehl said.

Gov. Bob Miller has appointed a 54-member committee to prepare for the commission visit.