Columnist Jon Ralston: Why vote no? Council can count the ways

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2000 | 9:54 a.m.

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

When the Las Vegas City Council meets today, the board surely will vote to entomb that Internet gaming idea proposed by Mayor Oscar Goodman. Or was it entrepreneur Bob Stupak who proffered the idea? Or was it the honorable men who appeared before the council last month suggesting the city sell its credibility for promises of streets paved with gold -- or something even better, tax equity with the county?

No matter. It's dead. But death in political terms is not quite the same as flatlining in real life. As anyone who has followed any legislative process knows, resurrections not only happen, they are routine. A bill killed one day resurfaces the next -- or maybe even the same day. These are not religious experiences; they are S.O.P.

And that's why late Tuesday, Nevada Resort Association President Bill Bible sent a missive over to Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic on the Internet gaming proposal. The gamers already have taken the temperature at City Hall during the last 10 days or so and found the council less than feverishly behind Goodman's scheme. His Honor actually has recused himself, and Councilman Michael Mack also has ducked out because one of his consultants once worked for the Vegas- One.com venture.

But the gamers are taking no chances. The NRA hired Jack Godfrey of the newly reconstituted firm of Schreck Brignone Godfrey to analyze the city's possible partnership with the company that wants to use the city seal to attract people to its Internet gaming website. Godfrey's analysis "raises serious concerns" about the proposal, Bible wrote to Jerbic in a cover letter. Does it ever.

Godfrey raises several cogent legal points, some of which have been obvious to laymen watching this spectacle unfold during the last few weeks:

Godfrey also points out that the lump sums promised by the backers could be hardly lumpy if the profits turned out to be minimal. And then he concluded: "Based on the foregoing, it is our view that the City of Las Vegas, through its City Council, would be exposing itself to serious issues of potential violations of federal and state law through a proposed association with VegasOne.com."

Call it an opinion written to order by the gamers who as Johnny Come Latelys have tried to kill a proposal that already was dying of its own weight -- not to mention the weight of common sense and Stupak's baggage.

Godfrey may be stabbing a corpse. But he's also, as a political veteran like Bible knows, provided the council with yet another peg on which to hang its hat as it prepares today for the funeral for VegasOne.com.