Execs acknowledge error in hiring politician

Thursday, Sept. 23, 1999 | 10:50 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Executives of Park Place Entertainment of Las Vegas testified they made a mistake in hiring a now-jailed Florida politician, the Press of Atlantic City newspaper reported.

The executives, however, said there was nothing illegal or fishy about Bally Entertainment Corp.'s decision to pay former speaker of the Florida House Bolley Johnson $240,000 for real estate expertise that would be needed if voters had legalized casinos in Florida in 1994.

Bally Entertainment is now part of Park Place. A 1994 effort to legalize casinos in Florida failed.

Johnson did little to justify his $100,000 fee and $10,000 monthly expense allotment, officials told the New Jersey Casino Control Commission Wednesday.

"Clearly it wasn't my best business decision," Park Place Chief Executive Arthur Goldberg testified, according to the Press.

Goldberg said he had relied on an opinion from a Florida law firm, "and thought I was doing the right thing, but obviously it did not turn out that way."

Johnson is now serving a prison sentence for tax evasion. A federal probe into his finances uncovered Bally's role during a 1994 push by several companies to put a casino measure on the ballot.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement and Park Place agree the company broke no laws but did fail to comply with several New Jersey reporting procedures about the Florida relationship with Johnson.

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