Casino company bankrolls education

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2002 | 10:56 a.m.

Station Casinos executives handed out $250,000 in checks to 53 high-need elementary schools in Clark County on Tuesday, marking the second year in a row the gaming company has donated a quarter of a million dollars to boost educational programs at struggling campuses.

Checks for $10,000 went to the company's nine partnership campuses in the Clark County School District, with the remaining 44 schools each receiving $5,000.

Station Casinos is by far the largest contributor to the public schools, said Joyce Woodhouse, director of the district's community partnership program. For the 2001-02 academic year, the casino company donated more than $400,000, plus thousands of dollars more in supplies, equipment and prizes for improved grades and attendance, Woodhouse said.

While the casino company's commitment to education has been lauded by everyone from the Clark County School Board to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, one critic says any relationship between the gaming industry and schools should raise red flags.

"The question people should be asking is why the cause of education in Nevada is in such a sorry state that schools would even need to take money from a casino," said the Rev. Tom Grey, a nationally known anti-gambling activist. "Clearly, the community as a whole, individuals and corporations, are not stepping up to the plate."

The gaming industry has not done enough to support education in Nevada, even though Clark County's public schools are its largest source of future employees, said Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling in Chicago.

"So far what we've seen is a few drops of milk from a cash cow," Grey said.

But Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said it's shortsighted to view casino donations to schools as "tainted money."

Residents of the Las Vegas Valley are less likely to donate to charities or nonprofit endeavors than their peers in similarly sized communities in other parts of the country, Schwer said. Roughly half of the population hasn't lived here for 10 years or more, which means people lack the civic and community ties found elsewhere, Schwer said.

The lack of individual involvement makes organizations such as public schools even more reliant on corporate giving, Schwer said.

"A lot of businesses engage in products and services that may not be directly applicable to children, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't donate to causes that help youth," Schwer said.

Station Casinos spokeswoman Leslie Pittman said partnering with the schools is "sound corporate philosophy."

"We have been very successful because our employees and our customers come from surrounding communities," Pittman said. "Supporting public education is an ideal way to give back."

The partnership also allows Station to solidify its brand as the "locals' casino," Schwer said. Television commercials, billboards and even buffet placemats showcase the company's involvement in school activities.

While Station officials are conscious of concerns about improperly exposing children to gambling, it would be "ludicrous" for a casino in Las Vegas not to support youth activities in some form, Pittman said.

"If the gaming industry wasn't involved, there would be many nonprofit organizations in this town that would be hard-pressed to operate," Pittman said.

School district officials have had little success recruiting other casino companies to follow Station's lead, Woodhouse said. Some companies have said they are reluctant to get involved because they do not want to be seen as targeting future customers, Woodhouse said.

Not giving to the school district doesn't mean a casino isn't giving back to the community in some fashion, said George Togliatti, vice president of community relations for Harrah's Entertainment. Harrah's charitable giving program focuses on "senior citizens, not seniors in high school," Togliatti said.

Harrah's sponsors the Meals on Wheels program for the homebound elderly, and has also pledged funds for a new senior center in Las Vegas.

"We were looking for an area where we could make a real impact, as opposed to throwing money at one event," Togliatti said. "We saw there weren't a lot of companies involved with seniors, which meant we could take a leadership role."

When it comes to school giving, the leadership role clearly belongs to Station Casinos, district officials said. Station employees volunteer time as classroom aides, tutors and mentors, and each casino has "adopted" a particular school, company officials said.

At Laura Dearing Elementary School in Las Vegas, about a third of the students have parents working at Boulder Station a few blocks away, Principal Vicki Arthur said. Since the casino began sponsoring a reading incentives program two years ago, the number of books checked out of the school library has soared from 20,000 in 2000 to 50,000 last year, Arthur said.

"Our parents are the cocktail waitresses, the chefs, the cage cashiers," Arthur said. "It's logical that a company would want to support the education of their employees' children."