Gamers at odds with LV chamber

Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2003 | 11:05 a.m.

Mandalay Resort Group executive Mike Sloan said his gaming company and others are considering whether to leave the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce in a dispute over possible new state taxes.

The gaming industry supports the proposal made Monday by Gov. Kenny Guinn to establish a new one-quarter of 1 percent tax on gross business receipts, something the chamber opposes.

At least one other large gaming company, Station Casinos Inc., said it is reviewing its chamber membership. But spokesmen for MGM MIRAGE, Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and Boyd Gaming Corp. said they will retain their memberships. Park Place Entertainment Corp., another large multi-property gaming company, is not a member of the chamber.

Sloan, Mandalay's senior vice president, was a member of the Governor's Task Force on Tax Policy in Nevada that recommended to Guinn that he adopt the gross receipts tax to help the state solve its projected budget crisis.

As recommended by Guinn, the tax would apply to all businesses that gross more than $450,000 annually and would be implemented in 2006 if approved by the Nevada Legislature. The gross receipts tax would also include a one-quarter of 1 percent increase in the gross gaming tax and a new one-quarter of 1 percent tax that casinos would pay on nongaming revenue such as through food and retail sales.

Sloan said properties overseen by Mandalay Resorts Group paid at least $500,000 in chamber dues over the past five years. Mandalay properties that are members include the Circus Circus, Excalibur and Luxor hotel-casinos.

"We periodically review our membership in a number of organizations to make sure their objectives are equal to ours," Sloan said.

As for chamber membership held by individual Mandalay properties, "we haven't made any decision," Sloan said.

Station Casinos spokeswoman Lesley Pittman said on the subject of retaining chamber membership that "we're going to keep that option open."

"We've been members of the chamber for a long time and have seen the benefits the chamber gives to its members," Pittman said. "We favor a broad-based business tax but it's very early on in the tax debate."

Chamber President and Chief Executive Officer Kara Kelley said that although she had heard concerns from Sloan about the chamber's tax position, she did not anticipate massive defections from the gaming industry.

"I'm not that concerned at all," Kelley said. "The tax debate hasn't even started. My members have agreed to disagree."

Her confidence that the chamber would not suffer a massive pullout by the gaming industry was based on numerous conversations she said she had with gaming executives, including MGM MIRAGE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Lanni and Jan Jones, senior vice president of government relations for Harrah's.

"Annual reviews of dues you pay to any group are part of what a business goes through," Kelley said. "It's a business decision and I understand that."

MGM MIRAGE, Boyd and Harrah's spokesmen said they had no plans to pull their memberships.