Blacks in Congress, mayors looking at casino policies

David Strow

Monday, July 10, 2000 | 11:27 a.m.

A leader of the congressional Black Caucus said Friday that the powerful organization plans to hold informal hearings in September on the issue of minority involvement in the gaming industry.

The hearings, to be held at the Black Caucus' annual meeting in Washington, are aimed at "putting the industry on notice," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.

"Gaming is no different from any other industry," Thompson said. "If it's in the best interest of gaming to sit down and work with the minority community, they'll do it. (Minority involvement in gaming) is on the radar screen of the Congressional Black Caucus.

"(The industry) needs to work harder so everyone will benefit from the fruits of gaming."

Thompson made the announcement at "Gaming Venues in the New Millennium," a national conference organized by the Urban Chamber of Commerce last week at the MGM Grand. Currently, 38 members of congress are part of the caucus.

Thompson said the caucus will invite industry officials to speak at the meeting, including American Gaming Association President Frank Fahrenkopf. At that meeting, Thompson said, the caucus plans to release a survey outlining levels of minority contracting and minorities holding executive positions within major gaming markets throughout the United States.

"I think the industry, when presented with that, will say, 'We have to do better,"' Thompson said. "We want to know, can gaming as an industry set a goal of having more minorities in its business.

"Publicly regulated entities ought to be held to a little higher standard."

If the industry fails to respond, Thompson said, "obviously you'd see some kind of public display of displeasure."

But the Black Caucus isn't the only minority organization pushing for a national debate on the issue of minorities' involvement in gaming. Johnny Ford, an Alabama state legislator and director general of the World Conference of Mayors, said his organization will hold meetings in August in Biloxi, Miss., to discuss the issue as well. Ford said his intent is to invite leaders from a variety of groups, including the National Conference of Black Mayors, the Black Caucus, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, as well as Hispanic and Indian political organizations.

At the conference, Ford emphasized the need for all segments of the minority community to pull together in focusing on the issue.

"We will come out of there (the Biloxi meeting) with a resolution and say to the casino industry, 'You need to do a better job of providing opportunities for all in the casino industry,"' Ford said. "We have to find a way to create equality."

Rather than a threat to the industry, the hearings could present opportunity for the gaming industry, particularly as it tries to pick up support in Congress, said Las Vegas Urban Chamber Executive Director Louie Overstreet. This will become even more critical if the Democrats take control of the House, since several Black Caucus members will become committee chairmen.

"If we enlighten them (black legislators), they will have a more informed vote," Overstreet said. "When an issue comes up that has an impact on Nevada, we want them to be informed on the issue.

As a trade-off, however, Overstreet said the Urban Chamber will expect the industry to begin discussions on how to increase minority involvement in the gaming industry.

"We have a great opportunity to carry a unified message to D.C.," Overstreet said.

The best method for increasing that involvement was heavily -- and sometimes heatedly -- debated during the three-day conference, as black leaders sought ways to get more minorities into top executive positions in gaming, as well as more contracts for minority-owned companies. Attendees often expressed frustration over the historically low level of minority participation in Nevada's gaming industry.

"Only one non-restricted (gaming establishment) in this state is owned by an African-American," said Bobby Siller, member of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. "And I've yet to see someone before me at a restricted location who is African-American.

"Institutionalized discrimination hurts us all."

One possible method of accomplishing that was promoted by Las Vegas businessman O.J. Webb, founder of Blacks In Gaming Inc. BIG serves three purposes, Webb said -- as a for-profit supplier of equipment to the gaming industry, as a non-profit organization designed to educate black businesses on how to become involved with gaming companies, and as a lobbying group aimed at promoting gaming to black political leaders.

By acting as a line of communication for gaming on behalf of such groups as the AGA, Webb said, BIG will receive industry exposure -- and it could be in line to receive business from the gaming industry.

"We will be able to act as a buffer between legislators and the AGA," Webb said. "Then they go tell the boys on the Strip that there's a new game in town."

The need for that line of communication wasn't lost on Wally Chalmers, a lobbyist with the AGA.

"Whatever you're doing, we want to hear about it," Chalmers said.

"We want to be on your team," Webb responded.

Punam Mathur, director of government and community affairs at MGM MIRAGE, said that diversity is a continuing goal of her company. While the company's front-line employees do reflect the diversity of Clark County, she said, the same isn't true for executive-level positions -- but she added that solving the problem can be a difficult task.

When Mirage Resorts opened the Bellagio in 1998, she said, the company actively sought out black dealers for the new hotel-casino.

"We knew we were woefully underrepresented in black dealers," Mathur said. "But there simply weren't applicants. That's a systemic problem."

This problem, Mathur said, extends into executive-level positions. One way MGM MIRAGE executives are trying to help solve that problem, Mathur said, is by mentoring hospitality students at UNLV.

"We don't have people lined up for those positions," Mathur said. "We can talk about whose fault it is, or we can work together to solve it."

These remarks drew the wrath of Anthony Snowden of the West Las Vegas Community Development Corp. In a heated response to Mathur, Snowden said he had a number of friends who had been educated in the hotel industry at UNLV, but failed to get jobs at gaming companies.

"You have hand-picked folks getting these jobs ... they call that gate-keeping where I come from," Snowden said. "It's an atrocity. The people sitting up there in the glass tower don't want us to be involved in gaming."

Mathur's colleague, MGM MIRAGE Vice President of Community Affairs Tony Gladney, retorted that his company wasn't ignoring the problem -- and said it simply wasn't fair to draw comparisons with states such as Mississippi or Michigan, which mandate certain levels of minority hiring and contracts as a condition of licensing.

"We take responsibility for knowing this information and moving forward," Gladney said. "But show me a mandate in Nevada. This is a good-faith effort. This is not a legal issue. We want to do what's right.

"Let's be real. This isn't just a problem with gaming."

Attendees heard from one executive who had made it into the boardroom, Mandalay Resort Group director Rose McKinney-James. But she and other black gaming executives pointed out that they couldn't single-handedly change things overnight.

"I do have a growing rapport with Mr. (Mike) Ensign (chairman of Mandalay Resort Group)," McKinney-James said. "But as one of seven board members, in all my blackness, there's only so much I can do."

In order for the few black gaming executives and officials to succeed, Siller said, they would need support from the entire black community. In many cases, he said, blacks that make it to top-level positions in gaming are pressured to do more to help the cause of diversity.

"We create awareness," Siller said. "I've met with these CEOs ... and talked with them about these issues. Nothing's going to happen overnight, but the awareness is there. They know I'm aware of it, and that it's something they have to deal with."

"We never forget where we came from and who we are. I need your support. If you chop me, I lose my credibility."

Hannah Brown, president of the Urban Chamber, echoed Siller's call for unity among the minority community.

"We can't feed off each other," Brown said. "When we have this much power, we have to use it to our advantage."

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