And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1999 01:26:05 EDT Subject: Conservatives, Casinos Square Off Conservatives, Casinos Square Off .c The Associated Press By JONATHAN D. SALANT WASHINGTON (AP) -- Now that a national study commission has ended its work with recommendations for new controls on gambling, the action shifts to Congress and state governments -- and the lobbies that will fight for and against the changes. Rep. Frank Wolf, the Virginia Republican whose bill created the commission, says he'll introduce legislation based on the panel's call for federal action. He also plans to write to the governors and urge them to approve the recommendations for state and local governments. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission's recommendations include a moratorium on new lotteries and casinos, bans on gambling on the computer Internet and on college sports and increased help for problem gamblers. The report is scheduled to be presented to President Clinton, Congress, American Indian tribes and governors on June 18. Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, a former head of the conservative Family Research Council, has endorsed the recommendations. The Christian Coalition also is prepared to lobby on the issue, said the group's executive director, Randy Tate. But the gambling industry, which prefers the word ``gaming,'' is well-heeled and prepared to challenge its opponents. The American Gaming Association, a trade group, has taken top congressional Democrats and Republicans on behind-the-scenes tours of casino operations and held million-dollar fund-raisers for both parties. ``In Congress right now it would be a struggle to get any anti-gaming thing passed,'' said William Thompson, a professor of public administration at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. ``They've got the bucks and the opposition doesn't.'' Among the industry's champions are Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., whose state is home to a growing casino industry, and House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri, a home to riverboat gambling. Lott led a group of Senate Republicans in 1997 to the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, where they toured an employee training center before mingling with political donors. In 1998, Gephardt and other top House Democrats toured the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas before joining donors at a shrimp and lamb chop buffet. Gephardt and the ranking Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, returned last month to meet with Mirage Resorts chairman Steve Wynn and accept a $250,000 campaign contribution for House Democrats. ``They acknowledge we're going to take the House back and they're hedging their bets because they know the odds are in our favor,'' said Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Frank Fahrenkopf, the gambling industry's chief lobbyist and a former Republican Party chairman, said touring casinos and mingling with their executives helps educate lawmakers so they will better understand the business. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., a former board chairwoman of the Nevada Hotel-Motel Association, also has urged the casino industry to bring her fellow freshmen to Las Vegas. ``Gaming in Nevada is akin to cars in Detroit,'' she said. ``It is important for members to understand gaming is a business like any other.'' The American Gaming Association's lobbying expenses increased from $760,000 in 1997 to $860,000 in 1998. Besides Fahrenkopf, the group's lobbyists include former Rep. Dennis Eckert, D-Ohio, and Kenneth Duberstein, White House chief of staff under President Reagan. Since forming a political action committee in December 1995, the association has given $194,410 to federal candidates and political parties. Some of the individual casinos have given far more. Harrah's has contributed more than $1 million since 1995. Mirage boosted its giving from $159,800 in 1995-96 to $528,846 in 1997-98. ``We have a right to be heard and represented in the halls of Congress,'' Fahrenkopf said. ``We want to be players.'' This increased financial support for congressional candidates is troubling to many religious conservatives. ``The more the parties become beholden to the gambling lobby, the more our families are at risk,'' the Christian Coalition's Tate said. ``We see this is as a disturbing trend. Gambling does nothing to enhance the local quality of life but does a lot to disrupt the family structure.'' AP-NY-06-07-99 0125EDT Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press. Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&