Indian casino operators at odds with federal commission

Mark D. Preston

Monday, April 12, 1999 | 10:21 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Federal gambling commissioners are sharply criticizing the Indian gaming industry for its failure to submit information about its business practices for a report examining the gambling industry.

Some members of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission last week threatened to use their congressional authority to subpoena the information unless the Indian tribes cooperate.

"This sounds to me like we are being stiff-armed," said Commissioner James Dobson, a conservative talk radio host and vocal gambling critic.

Indian gambling representatives immediately raced to their own defense, saying the information requested by the Commission are the tribes' business plans.

"A lot of the information this Commission has requested is deemed proprietary by the local councils," said Tom Rodgers, a consultant with the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA), after the commission's two-day meeting in Washington.

Rodgers also produced a Feb. 26 letter written by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., and Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, supporting their defense.

But commissioners said the information is needed to provide a complete picture of the Indian gambling industry as the panel prepares its report detailing gambling's social and economic impact on the nation. The Commission finished up its meeting discussing the report's contents on Thursday. The report is scheduled to be released June 20.

Rodgers suggested Commissioner Bill Bible, the former head of Nevada's Gaming Control Board, wants to use the Indian gaming information to advance Las Vegas casino interests. "It is no mistake Bill Bible, the former Nevada gaming commissioner, is requesting this information," he said. "He wants to walk through our business plans."

When Bible was told about Rodgers statement, he immediately replied, "that is a red herring."

"Myself and every other commissioner is governed by the confidentiality requirements in the federal law," Bible said. "There are similar provisions in the state law, and certainly I would obey any of these provisions at this level the same I obeyed them at the state level."

While one commissioner singled out the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, the owner of the Foxwoods Casino in Ledyard, Conn., for criticism, a tribal representative later said that resort is in the process of delivering the information.

"It took us a long-time to gather that information," said John J. Guevremont, director of governmental affairs for the Pequots. "It took some effort to gather the numbers."

Despite his misgivings about releasing the information, Guevremont said he wants people to know the Pequots are cooperating with the Commission, even though he thinks it is stacked against Indian gambling. "I think we are trying to be proactive, up-front," he said. "We want to show we are taking the high ground."

Indian gaming is expected to receive harsh criticism when the Commission releases its report in June because of the lack of government oversight the industry enjoys. In an interesting alliance, both anti-gaming commissioners and those with commercial casino interests appear united against Indian gaming. There is only one Indian on the nine-member Commission, Robert Loescher, and he comes from an Alaskan tribe with no involvement in gambling.

The anti-gambling commissioners want to control the spread of gambling, and commissioners with commercial casino interests want to preserve their market share, Rodgers said.

Rodgers contends the Commission has been flawed ever since Congress created it in August 1996. Commission members such as Bible and Terry Lanni, chairman of MGM Grand Inc., should be excluded from the Commission, Rodgers said, because they are constantly looking out for commercial casino interests.

"It's not personal with them," Rodgers said. "It is business."

Anti-gambling Commissioner Dobson and Chairman Kay James, a rising star in a Christian right movement spearheading nationwide anti-gambling campaigns, should also be excluded, Rodgers said. James is the dean of the School of Government at Regent University in Virginia.

Guevremont said he feels Indian gaming is being "singled out" for all of gambling's problems, which he thinks is unfair.

"For whatever reason you have a coalition of sorts, where the Indians are in a position of being in the wagons with everybody else circling and shooting at us," he said.