Casinos leery of Ashcroft selection

Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2001 | 11:23 a.m.

The tough anti-gambling stance of Attorney General-nominee John Ashcroft has led to a new wave of worries within the casino industry about the incoming Bush administration.

President-elect George W. Bush, who has nominated the former Missouri senator to head the Justice Department, already is on record opposed to legalized gambling in his home state of Texas.

Ashcroft, a conservative Republican with strong ties to the religious right, called gambling a "cancer on the soul of our nation" during a February 1998 speech to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Biloxi, Miss.

Several months later in St. Louis, Ashcroft delivered another blistering attack on the industry at the convention of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, headed by the Rev. Tom Grey, one of gaming's fiercest enemies.

"There should be alarms going off at every casino along the Strip," one well-placed congressional source said today. "Ashcroft has the ability to make life incredibly painful for the gaming bosses in Nevada and around the country."

The Washington insider said the president-elect's nominee could become the "800-pound gorilla" on the industry's back.

"This goes to the (Ashcroft's) core," the source said. "He's not opposed to gaming for political or philosophical purposes. This is something he morally believes is wrong.

"If I were out there, and I were looking at the sky, I'd see a pretty dark cloud forming over Nevada."

Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, the industry's Washington lobby, said Monday he's concerned that gaming's political foes will have an ear with the Bush administration if Ashcroft is confirmed by the Senate.

"He's definitely opposed to gaming," Fahrenkopf said. "We hope his personal fears won't interfere with the legal activities of gambling."

Industry lobbyists are hoping the Judiciary Committee will press Ashcroft at his confirmation hearing, which could take place as early as next week, about how he intends to treat gambling in the Bush administration.

"The question of whether a state has gaming is a state decision, not a federal decision," Fahrenkopf said. "We would hope that the attorney general would not try to interfere with state authorized gaming in the country."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said this morning that Bush's selection of Ashcroft "does not bode well for Nevada.

"I think it's quite clear that it is not an asset to the gaming industry to have him as attorney general," Reid said.

But Reid, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said Ashcroft's views on gambling won't be enough to kill his nomination.

"You're not going to knock out Ashcroft on this alone," he said. "There's nothing at this stage that will prevent him from being attorney general. The key is what other things are in his background?"

Ashcroft has come under fire in Washington because of his right-wing views and reported insensitivity to minorities.

Reid said Ashcroft's nomination confirms the senator's worst fears expressed during the presidential race that Bush was easily influenced by the religious right, which has been mounting a campaign against Nevada's leading industry.

But Gov. Kenny Guinn said he remains convinced that Bush will continue to be a friend to Nevada.

Though Bush has spoken out against gambling in Texas, he has told Guinn that he believes gambling has been a success story in Las Vegas and should be allowed to continue to thrive here.

Guinn, however, said he intends to watch Ashcroft's confirmation process more closely.

"I would be seriously concerned about any candidate who has an anti-gaming position and has expressed an anti-gaming position," the governor said. "If it becomes evident that we have a problem here, we certainly will be obligated to speak out."

Grey, meanwhile, said he expects gambling, especially in matters involving allegations of crime and corruption, will get more scrutiny during Ashcroft's tenure at the helm of the Justice Department.

"For the past eight years under President Clinton, gambling has in a sense gotten a free pass," Grey said. "I think there's an opportunity now to set a new tone in Washington."

Grey said he has found Ashcroft to be a "straight arrow" who is well aware of gambling's shortcomings.

"He understands what gambling does, and he came from a state, where it has a track record of corruption," Grey said.

Grey added he was surprised that it has taken the casino industry this long to figure out that Ashcroft will not be one of its friends in Washington.

"If there are any violations of the law involving gambling, he would have no hesitancy to see that the laws are enforced," Grey said.

Another one of Ashcroft's biggest supporters is said to be James Dobson, a leading member of the religious right and founder of the conservative Focus on the Family organization.

Dobson, a member of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, was among the first to suggest that Bush find a place in his administration for Ashcroft following the former senator's defeat in November.

Ashcroft lost his re-election bid by a narrow margin to Democratic Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, who had been killed in a plane crash. Carnahan's widow, Jean, was named to the Senate seat.