Editorial: AG records should be unsealed

Sunday, Feb. 20, 2000 | 9:51 a.m.

Nevada has the most successful gaming industry in the world thanks largely to strict and competent oversight by the Nevada Gaming Commission and state Gaming Control Board. This oversight helped to eliminate Mob influence from local casinos by requiring individuals seeking gaming licenses to go through expensive background checks that are as thorough as possible. It is no wonder that Nevada has served as the model for all other states when it comes to gaming regulation.

That is one of the reasons why we urge Clark County District Judge James Mahan to grant a motion from the Sun and KLAS Channel 8 to unseal documents that may show that the Nevada attorney general's office secretly probed gaming regulators. We believe the motion, scheduled for a Thursday hearing, must be approved because the public has a compelling right to know whether our dominant industry is being properly regulated.

If the documents we seek reveal evidence of regulatory shortcomings, that is a matter serious enough to warrant full and open discussion. If, on the other hand, the records show no such problems, we ought to know that as well because it would prove that our gaming oversight withstood rigorous examination.

As reported by the Sun's Jeff German, the judge placed a confidentiality order on the documents when he turned them over to Mike Anzalone, a former investigator for Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, who has sued her. Anzalone alleged that he was forced to resign in 1996 because he refused to participate in a probe believed to have targeted former Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, an adversary of Del Papa.

The attorney general's office did not want Anzalone to have the documents. Mahan denied that request but ordered Anzalone and his attorney not to disclose contents of the records to anyone else.

We object to the confidentiality order because the press and the public were not given a chance to voice legal objections. The documents, compiled in connection with the criminal probe of former Control Board computer expert Ron Harris, reveal that Del Papa's office conducted "mass snooping" that "cries out for disclosure," according to Discovery Commissioner Thomas Biggar.

Another reason the judge should approve our motion is that Bible, now president of the Nevada Resort Association, also has asked for full disclosure. As a public servant, Bible had a spotless career that included stints on the state Ethics Commission and National Gambling Impact Study Commission, as well as the Control Board. His request deserves to be granted.