Gaming briefs for Dec. 24, 2003

Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2003 | 8:49 a.m.

Sundowner workers seek federal law changes

RENO -- Former workers at the shuttered Sundowner hotel-casino want changes to federal laws that they say don't give employees enough protections when a business shuts down.

About 50 workers and advocates delivered letters Monday to congressional representatives.

They won a promise from U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons' staff to turn over a report on the loopholes in two laws to the U.S. General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said Kathy Stoneburner, a paralegal and advocate for the Alliance for Workers Rights.

About 300 full-time and 75 part-time workers received only five weeks notice when the Sundowner closed Nov. 9. Officials said it couldn't afford to stay open any longer.

Former mayor joins opposition group

MADISON, Wis. -- A former mayor is joining efforts to stop the Ho-Chunk Nation from expanding a bingo hall into a casino in the city.

Paul Soglin said Monday he was joining the No Dane Casino campaign's steering committee. The group recently organized to fight the proposed expansion of the DeJope bingo parlor.

"I've been to Ho-Chunk and Vegas and I've been to racetracks," he said. "My personal feeling is I like them far away. Let others deal with it."

Soglin, who served as mayor in the 1970s and again from 1989 to 1997, said his opposition was rooted in the lack of consumer protection for would-be casino gamblers and Madison taxpayers.