Montana: Settlement ends three-year fight, awards a probationary license

Monday, April 17, 2000 | 10:01 a.m.

The Gambling Control Division, which initially rejected his application, agreed last month to grant Rodgers a three-year probationary license on condition that he obey all laws and regulations on gambling. After three years he can get a regular license.

The settlement came last week, and the division issued the license for Rodgers' Clansman Casino.

He won two legal rulings in the three-year fight. He acted as his own lawyer in one, a hearing before a Justice Department hearings examiner.

The state appealed both decisions, including a final appeal to the Montana Supreme Court in January. The settlement included the state's agreement to drop its appeal to the Supreme Court.

Rick Ask, acting chief of the Gambling Control Division, said the state decided it would be more efficient to settle the case.

"As in any settlement agreement, you have to give up something on your side," he said.

Rodgers has been harshly critical of state gambling regulators, saying they pursued him relentlessly over alleged violations that had nothing to do with his fitness as a gambling operator.

"Who would ever think they would concentrate so thoroughly, so harshly, on one gaming license when a guy's had a liquor license for 30 years and a gaming license (before) and never had a penalty on either one of them?" he said earlier this year.

His bar burned down in 1992, and it took him several years to win a settlement from his insurance company. Then he rebuilt the bar in a location down the street.

State officials said he had to reapply for a gambling license, which allows him to have video gambling machines. They denied the license in 1998 because Rodgers had failed to mention on his application that he had two misdemeanor convictions and some substantial financial problems.

They also said Rodgers had an improper arrangement to collect gambling machine revenue from a tavern owner who owed him rent. Denial of the gambling license led to revocation of his license to lease video-gambling machines to other tavern owners.

Rodgers has said he was not trying to hide anything from the state. He said the misdemeanors and debts had nothing to do with gambling.

The misdemeanor theft charges involved a dispute over a car that Rodgers had towed from his own property and a dispute over a water meter. They resulted in a $15 fine and a deferred sentence that had been removed from his record.

He also owed $272,000 in back income and property taxes, partly stemming from the financial difficulties following the fire that destroyed his tavern.

He is paying off the debts through a bankruptcy reorganization.