Gambling foe wants new probe

Friday, Jan. 22, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., one of the nation's leading gambling critics, is pushing for another sweeping congressional investigation of the industry.

Wolf, the author of legislation that created the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, has asked the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to conduct the full-scale probe of gaming.

In a letter last month to U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, who oversees the GAO, Wolf said he wanted the investigation to focus on gambling's influence and corruption over government, negative impact on families and communities and the taxpayer benefits it receives.

The Dec. 11 request, which had been kept secret until this week, was met with swift condemnation from casino industry leaders, who are scurrying to mount a campaign to neutralize the new probe.

Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the Washington-based American Gaming Association, called it "wasteful spending" of government money.

"I think that Congressman Wolf's request is absurd particularly in light of the fact the Gambling Impact Study Commission was the result of legislation introduced by him to try to find out the truth on many of the same issues," Fahrenkopf said.

"It is clear to me that this is Congressman Wolf's attempt to go around the commission because he must be convinced that the commission's work is going to come up with conclusions that will not be supportive of his preconceptions about the industry."

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

"The thing that struck me the most about it is how hypocritical it is," Mehl said. "You've got the father of the legislation creating the Impact Study Commission and now because there must be some doubt about what that commission is going to report, he's trying to go around it."

Former Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, a member of the federal commission, called Wolf's request "bizarre."

"A lot of the work would seemingly be redundant and a waste of federal taxpayer dollars," Bible said.

The nine-member Impact Study Commission, which held two days of hearings in Las Vegas in November, was authorized to take a two-year look at the social and economic impact of gambling in America. It is scheduled to deliver is report to Congress in June.

In his letter to Walker, Wolf said he wants the GAO to examine campaign contributions the casino industry makes in federal, state and local races. Wolf had backed a failed campaign this week to persuade the Republican National Committee to ban contributions to GOP candidates from the casino industry.

He said he wants to know how much money gambling contributed to federal candidates in 1996 and 1998 and how much "soft money" the industry donated to the Republican and Democratic parties during those election cycles.

He said he also wants to know how much gambling gave to state and local candidates from 1994-1998.

Wolf, a conservative aligned with the religious right wing of the Republican Party, also told Walker the investigation should "pay close attention to the pattern of crime, corruption, (cannibalizing) of local businesses and the breakdown of families where gambling and casinos have a presence."

The GAO was asked to examine the industry's impact on local economies and the break-up of families.

Wolf said he wants to know whether such things as child abuse, domestic violence, bankruptcies, suicides and teen pregnancies are higher in gaming communities.

And he asked the GAO to examine the growing problem of gambling addictions in the country.

Wolf also wants to know what kinds of incentives communities offer casinos to encourage their business.