Editorial: Always be careful what you wish for

Thursday, Jan. 11, 2001 | 9:21 a.m.

The gaming industry's choice for president clearly was Republican George W. Bush -- casino interests gave three times as much money to Bush than to Democrat Al Gore. It would have been fun, then, to have been a fly on the wall of casino boardrooms when executives first heard that Bush had nominated former Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., to be attorney general.

Ashcroft's conservative views on race, abortion and a host of other social issues have generated the most controversy for the nominee, but Nevada's leading industry also should be troubled by his hostility to gaming. For instance, as the Sun's Jeff German reported Tuesday, Ashcroft in 1998 called gambling a "cancer on the soul of our nation." Ashcroft is a darling of the religious right, and his nomination is heavily supported by James Dobson, a gambling critic who was a member of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission.

The fact is, though, that no one should be shocked that Bush would appoint someone with inimical views to this state -- after all, he didn't hesitate to name a secretary of energy who supports burying nuclear waste in Nevada. Regarding gaming, Bush strutted his anti-gaming views to socially conservative voters in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary, suggesting that John McCain was beholden to the gaming industry. Of course, Bush failed to mention at the time that he actually was gathering significantly more campaign contributions from the casino industry than McCain, who wants to ban betting on college sports.

If Ashcroft's nomination is any indication, it looks like the casinos' wagers on Bush may not pay off.