Columnist Jeff German: Lobby probe a waste of FBI’s time

Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2003 | 11:06 a.m.

It turns out it was a whole lotta nothing.

I'm talking about the two weeks of publicity devoted to the FBI's preliminary investigation into alleged strong-arm lobbying by the casino industry this past legislative session.

Officially, the FBI is declining comment. But I'm told agents have found no cause to proceed any further with the probe.

This story was blown out of proportion from the day state Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, and other anti-tax zealots at the Legislature spoon-fed it to the media.

On Oct. 9 Amodei said he was interviewed by the FBI about the industry's lobbying practices. Someone, it seems, had filed a complaint with the bureau stemming from the rumors being spread by the anti-tax crowd in Carson City. The FBI was obligated to investigate.

Amodei said he told the FBI that something smelled fishy about the fact that beer distributor Kurt Brown had lost a contract with two Harrah's casinos at Lake Tahoe. Brown had voiced opposition to the ill-fated gross receipts tax, which was pushed by the casino industry.

But now that the FBI has moved swiftly to close out the case, there's a lot more that smells fishy here.

Who wants to bet that this was a bogus complaint from the very beginning aimed at dragging the FBI into the bitter tax debate?

Our libertarian friends at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which editorialized against the Legislature's $836 million tax increase this session, certainly took the bait. They were among the most eager to keep the FBI story alive.

One Review-Journal headline even speculated that the inquiry "may signal (a) new direction" in the FBI's much-publicized political corruption probe in Las Vegas.

Well that's not going to happen.

And though it is no news flash that gaming carries a big stick at the Legislature, it also is obvious that Harrah's was within its rights to terminate its business relationship with Brown's beverage company.

All you have to do is look at a July 8 letter Harrah's Chairman Phil Satre wrote to Brown to see that there was no strong-arming here.

"You are certainly entitled to hold and express your own political views," Satre wrote. "Harrah's also has the right to hold and express its political views. That expression can take various forms, including an economic one by deciding with whom we will and will not do business."

Satre said Harrah's simply did not want to do business with someone who supported a "course of action" that was detrimental to his company's interests.

Living in a capitalist society affords all of us an opportunity to make decisions like this.

Some people don't like the way Wal-Mart treats its employees, so they don't buy anything from the department store giant. Others won't purchase wine or vodka made in France because of that country's stance against the American campaign to remove Saddam Hussein.

We may not agree with these decisions, but we tolerate them.

What we shouldn't tolerate is wasting the time of a federal agency like the FBI, which has more important things to do than allow itself to be used to stir up public opinion in the bitter tax debate.