Editorial: Gamers can do more as battle heats up

Friday, Feb. 22, 2002 | 3:43 a.m.

Twenty years after the federal government named Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a possible site for burying the nation's deadly nuclear waste, and 15 years after it named Yucca Mountain as the only site it would consider, and just weeks after Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recommended Yucca Mountain to President George W. Bush, and just days after the president approved the recommendation, the state's largest industry finally stirred itself enough to pitch in a few dollars to fight this ever-onrushing spectre.

Consider the billions that have been spent building The Mirage, Treasure Island, MGM Grand, Luxor, Excalibur, Aladdin, Monte Carlo, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Paris, The Venetian, New York-New York and other properties during the time that the Department of Energy was drilling away at Yucca Mountain, planning to turn it into the world's most dangerous site for the next million years. And imagine the almost $9.5 billion in gross gambling revenue earned in Nevada in 2001 and the $61 billion earned nationally. Then consider the industry's contribution to the fight to keep Nevada free of nuclear waste: $250,000 from the Nevada Resort Association and $500,000 from the American Gaming Association.

Nevada's major industry, the taproot of all gaming in the United States, should give more as the state lobbies Congress and files lawsuits pointing out unsound science and unsafe transportation. Considering the economic implications for Nevada if the state becomes a dumping ground for nuclear waste, industry executives should make Yucca Mountain their top government affairs priority wherever their interests take them. Any gaming enterprise based in Nevada should be uncompromising in its stand on Yucca Mountain.

The industry should be inspired by the little Northern Nevada town of Wells, which chipped in $1,867 -- a buck for every resident. And by Fallon, population 23,860, which came up with $7,500 even while fighting its own horror of child leukemia cases. With the state now spending $250,000 a month just on legal fees as it prepares filings against the DOE, it needs more help from the industry most benefitting from Nevada's international reputation as a clean and safe place to enjoy a vacation.