Keith Smith, Las Vegas

Wed, Nov 12, 2008 (2:02 a.m.)

I am writing to express Boyd Gaming’s extreme disappointment with three recent columns by sports columnist Jeff Haney, printed by the Sun on Aug. 23, Sept. 23 and Oct. 2. In each piece, Haney leveled inaccurate, misleading and unfair criticisms of Boyd Gaming, apparently to advance a personal agenda regarding sports wagering in Nevada.

These columns have the potential to do lasting, long-term damage to the reputation of our sports books, our casinos, our company and Nevada’s casino industry. In spite of the gravity of his accusation, Haney went out of his way to avoid telling our side of the story. He withheld key details, failed to call us for comment, avoided our efforts to discuss his claims, and made false and misleading statements under a self-created guise of an average bettor engaging in a few harmless parlay bets at local sports books.

We were particularly disturbed by Haney’s Oct. 2 column, in which he calls for “state or federal lawmakers” to consider “doing away with legal sports betting in Nevada.” He claimed he was forced to come to this conclusion after an unidentified Boyd Gaming sports book refused to take several of his parlay card bets.

“Their cowardly actions, their lack of integrity and their irresponsibility reflect so poorly on the state’s biggest industry that it might be time to take such a drastic step,” Haney writes, suggesting it could be time to do away with sports books altogether.

Haney’s hyperbole is bad enough. But he did not allow us a chance to comment on his allegations and did not return our calls following the column’s publication, thus denying us an opportunity to challenge his claims and tell our side of the story. Haney may be a columnist, but we believe this does not exempt him from the basic ethics of journalism.