Suit asks that payments to Las Vegas firm stop

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004 | 10:52 a.m.

AUSTIN -- A watchdog group is suing to block the state from making more payments to a Las Vegas law firm hired a year ago to draft legislation to legalize video slot machines.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by the national group Judicial Watch, contends that the state exceeded its authority when it agreed to spend lottery proceeds to pay the firm Lionel Sawyer & Collins.

"We're convinced that this money spent for the Las Vegas law firm is totally illegal," Russ Verney, who heads Judicial Watch's southwestern regional office in Dallas, said today. State officials essentially used taxpayer money "as their own private piggy bank," he said.

The Texas Attorney General's Office hired the firm to develop legislation that would effectively legalize a form of casino gambling.

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