Ron Harris tapes reveal abuses

Wednesday, April 5, 2000 | 11:56 a.m.

Videotaped interrogations of Ron Harris show the Nevada attorney general's office sought information about gaming regulators and the industry far beyond the area of expertise of the former state Gaming Control Board employee.

Harris, an electronics expert who pleaded guilty in 1996 to cheating slot machines and was banned from casinos, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

But he was questioned in August 1996 about other Control Board divisions such as investigations and intelligence as well as his own work as a slot machine tester.

Harris, appearing relaxed during the videotaped interrogation, was asked not only to provide details about immediate supervisors and other co-workers but to make observations about relationships such as that between former board Chairman Bill Bible and prominent Las Vegas gaming attorney Frank Schreck.

Harris said he was told by a former supervisor that an unnamed Control Board member once asked Schreck during a restroom break how he should vote on a matter involving one of Schreck's gaming clients. But Harris said he could not substantiate that story or many other rumors that either he volunteered or were pitched to him by the attorney general's office.

"One of the rumors we heard relative to him (Schreck) is that if you wanted a gaming license, just get yourself a briefcase and fill it with money, and it will find its way to Bible if you give it to Schreck," one investigator told Harris on a tape.

Harris responded that he knew Schreck was influential, having raised campaign funds from casinos for former Gov. Bob Miller and other politicians. But Harris said he could not substantiate the rumor about Schreck and Bible, who at the time was locked in a bitter dispute with Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa.

In response to the tapes released Tuesday, Schreck called the allegations about him "absurd," and Bible said he found it hard to believe that the attorney general went to such great lengths to investigate him.

In the taped interviews with Harris, the attorney general's representatives sometimes made summations followed by leading questions. For instance, Deputy Attorney General David Thompson said:

"Well, I take it then that that regulation that requires that the odds for an electronic device that simulates a live game be the same as the live game itself, are not enforced," Thompson said. "That they don't enforce that regulation?"

The interrogations, spread out over five days, touched on numerous allegations and innuendos made by Harris that were not corroborated. Among them:

"I assumed it was a payoff at that point," Harris said. "But I did what I was told and kept my mouth shut and didn't say anything. You guys are the first time I have really even told anyone about it."

"They would talk to me directly and then they would talk to Ed directly, too, and try to get Ed to put pressure on me," Harris said. "There was a lot of that."

Harris also said he "got some indication" from computer software that IGT could trigger Megabucks slot jackpots from its Reno office.

"It looks like to me, you know, that you could actually trigger it remotely and actually I thought about doing it myself at some time, but we needed to get a lot more equipment than what I had available," Harris said.

"I know there was a memo they got off the computer somewhere that had been sent to Bible and two other board members, and it made references in there to the operation," Harris said.

Bible eventually disciplined former acting enforcement chief Ron Hollis for allowing Marcus to operate the illegal bookmaking operation for three years and staging a phony raid to protect the informant. But Hollis and two other former board agents who claimed they were forced to resign in 1990 over the incident won a $110,000 out-of-court settlement from the state. Marcus was indicted for operating the sports book without a license.

"I know Hollis says he was set up, framed or whatever to take the fall," Harris said.

"You know, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and everyone else is out after him for false advertising," Harris said. "You know, it's borderline, but who am I to judge that?"

"So, when these guys submitted this stuff, it would usually go through faster because they were better at it than the small manufacturers," Harris said. "But it was a kind of a thing that we got into that mode, just expecting it to always be that way. And so, whenever a small manufacturer would come in, the stuff would get a lot more scrutiny."

Harris said some regulators were buddies with representatives of the larger slot manufacturers and attended parties thrown by the likes of Schreck and the gaming companies. Harris also named Sahara owner and former Circus Circus Enterprises Chairman Bill Bennett as an example of a long-time casino owner who had an easier time getting approval for new casino licenses than was true of individuals who had little industry experience.

"So it's like the old boys can slide right in," an attorney general's investigator said. "Is it because they already know their background?" Harris answered affirmatively.

"I said, you need to do this and this and this and it is going to take so long," Harris said of the company. "And they just said, well we don't want to do this, this and this. We (got) a call from the chairman that they wanted it handled this way and it had been ... the governor had called the chairman. And so, you know, I'm sure that Caesars had made a call to the governor."

Wheatley: "Yes, it has become rather apparent in doing this that a lot of the people who left the Gaming Control Board, in spite of what position they may have been in, went to work for United Coin Company."

Harris: "Yeah, there was like, United Coin sucked up a lot of them."

Wheatley: "Yeah, a disproportionate number of them."

"Like if someone was going to submit a gaming device and we found out that they didn't intend to use it in Nevada, they were just submitting it so they could get it approved in Nevada so it could be used in other jurisdictions, they'd say, screw them and they would return it to them," Harris said.

Steve Kanigher is a staff writer for the Sun. He can be reached at (702)-259-4075 or by e-mail at steve@lasvegassun.com

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