Columnist Jeff German: How the Nevada Resort Association became larger than ever just in time for campaign season

Sunday, Jan. 8, 2006 | 9:21 a.m.

Jeff German's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

Two and a half years ago, political insiders were predicting the breakup of the Nevada Resort Association, the influential lobbying arm of the casino industry.

Following the NRA's miserable legislative session in 2003 -- it failed to persuade lawmakers to pass a broad-based business tax that would have lightened its financial burden -- the organization's biggest member, MGM Mirage, pulled out in disgust.

And there was talk that other companies might follow suit.

But a funny thing happened.

The industry went through a massive transformation in 2005 -- a consolidation brought about by the megamergers of MGM Mirage and Mandalay Resort Group and Harrah's Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment.

And, as scary as it might sound to elected officials who have to deal with gaming, the NRA became larger than ever, just in time for this year's crucial campaign season.

The behemoth MGM Mirage is back in the fold, and so is Boyd Gaming Corp., a neighborhood casino giant that left the NRA several years ago.

"We're a stable and growing organization," says NRA President Bill Bible, a former state budget director and state Gaming Control Board chairman. "Over the last year, we've solidified our membership."

Actually, the NRA has done more than that.

It has reached out to its natural political allies, its vendors and related businesses, to create a separate organization, the Nevada Tourism Alliance, which has potential to further expand the industry's influence.

"I think we're really in a very good position," says Mike Sloan, a seasoned political operative who represents MGM Mirage at the NRA. "What we find out generally over the long term is that we do better together than apart."

But the challenge is staying together, which the industry, with its competing egos and diverse business goals, has had a hard time doing over the years.

This inherent divisiveness has always been gaming's Achilles' heel in the political arena.

Today the NRA may look impressive on paper. But the association has yet to test its clout at the Legislature, which, in a fiscally conservative atmosphere, could make gaming lobbyists earn their keep in 2007.

And the casinos won't have an easy time putting up a united front during contract negotiations in 2007 with the new and improved Culinary Union, which also happens to be embroiled in a stepped-up organizing campaign at key NRA resorts.

The odds, frankly, are against the industry's ability to stay together.

Although MGM Mirage has returned to the NRA, some of its executives still have doubts about the group's effectiveness.

"I don't know whether the industry can speak realistically with one voice," MGM Mirage Vice President Alan Feldman says. "It's too fractured."

About the only thing the casinos can agree upon is that they don't want to pay more taxes. There is no consensus on such big-money issues as venturing into gambling over the Internet or on Indian reservations or even in local neighborhoods.

This is why insiders such as Feldman believe the NRA needs to figure out its true mission.

"It needs to go through a process of self-evaluation and self-definition," Feldman says. "I don't see the NRA playing the role it did politically in the past."

Sometimes, as the NRA learned 2 1/2 years ago, just having the numbers on your side isn't enough.