Agency seeks info on lawmakers’ visits to Caesars’ properties

Marc Humbert

Wednesday, March 17, 2004 | 9:07 a.m.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York's Lobbying Commission has asked Caesars Entertainment to review hotel records to determine which legislators may have visited the gambling giant's Las Vegas properties, sources said Tuesday.

Two sources familiar with the commission's probe, and speaking only on condition of anonymity, said Caesars' officials were given a list of current members of New York's Senate and Assembly to compare against the company's hotel registration records.

The commission has asked for details about the stays including the rates the lawmakers were charged, the sources said.

The broad-brush nature of the commission's investigation came to light the day after word broke that state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had stayed in a suite at Caesars' Paris Las Vegas hotel in January 2002 for $109 a night.

Caesars is trying to break into New York state's expanding gambling market by joining forces with the St. Regis Mohawk tribe to open a casino in the Catskill Mountains just north of New York City.

"We are cooperating fully with the Lobbying Commission and providing them with any information that they request," said Robert Stewart, a senior vice president for Caesars.

Questions about the treatment given Silver began after the New York Post reported Monday that the state Lobbying Commission had unearthed information about the Assembly speaker's two-night Las Vegas stay during an audit of Caesars' lobbying activity in New York.

Commission spokesman Kris Thompson has declined comment on the probe, saying only: "This is a random audit that has not yet been completed."

Meanwhile, Caesars' Stewart said Silver didn't get such a great deal during his two-night stay at the Paris in January 2002.

The company executive said a check of the rates charged for identical suites at the Paris on the same weekend Silver was there found 18 guests paid less and 13 paid more.

Seventeen guests paid $90 or less per night for the suites, including three who paid just $69, according to information provided by Stewart.

Three guests paid $350 for suites identical to the one provided to the Manhattan Democrat and one was charged $450 a night, Stewart said.

"These records clearly show that Speaker Silver did not receive any special favors from Caesars Entertainment," Stewart said.

Silver said he has not been contacted by the Lobbying Commission and, as far as he knows, he is not under investigation.

"I didn't ask for any special treatment" from Caesars, the Assembly leader said.

Silver's stay at the hotel came less than three months after the Legislature and Republican Gov. George Pataki approved a measure to permit six new Indian-owned casinos, including three in the Catskills. Thus far, only one -- in Niagara Falls -- has been opened.

Caesars is looking to be involved in one of the Catskills ventures and top Albany lobbyist James Featherstonhaugh is being paid $180,000 a year by the company to press its case.

New York has two other Indian-owned casinos -- the Oneida-run Turning Stone facility near Rome and a Mohawk-owned casino in northern New York near the U.S.-Canadian border -- that were approved earlier and continue to operate.

Stewart has said it is customary for Caesars to provide suite upgrades to government officials, high-spending casino customers and those who might bring business to the hotel.

The Lyon suite that Silver stayed in with his wife has rented for $1,500 a night five times over the past five years, according to Stewart. The Caesars' executive said the rates are based on hotel demand.