Casino industry faces battle royal in Chicago

The casino industry is bracing for the worst next week in Chicago, as the National Gambling Impact Study Commission meets for the third time on the road this year.

"We're going into the heart of the opposition," Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, said Tuesday from Washington.

"We realize that we're going to hear a great deal of anti-gaming rhetoric, and we're hopeful that we'll be able to make our case to the media outside the actual meeting room."

Chicago is regarded as the home turf of the Rev. Tom Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.

Grey, who is scheduled to address the nine-member commission, has been at the forefront of a national effort to stop the spread of gambling across the country.

"We will be well-represented in Chicago," Grey said. "They will see that gambling crapped out in the Midwest."

Grey, a Methodist minister from Illinois, said his supporters will hold public events during the May 20-21 meeting that will show the "depth and breadth" of the opposition to gambling.

The main focus of the meeting will be the impact of riverboat gambling on small communities in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri.

Fahrenkopf said the commission's riverboat agenda is stacked with industry critics.

Casino representatives registered a similar complaint in March at the panel's last meeting on problem gambling in Boston.

That meeting, they charged, was heavily influenced by James Dobson, the leading industry critic on the commission.

Dobson, president of the conservative Focus on the Family, is said to have figured prominently in setting next week's agenda, as well.

He is considered an emerging leader in the politically active religious right, which is spearheading the anti-gaming movement.

In recent weeks, Dobson, host of a syndicated radio talk show with millions of followers, has attracted much national attention by threatening to pull out of the Republican Party because of its reported failure to stick to its conservative principles.

He met all last week with Senate and House leaders to voice his concerns.

Dobson, sources close to the commission said, arranged for a group of his supporters to address the panel during its examination of riverboat gambling.

Several of the anti-gaming movement's leading economists also are scheduled to give presentations next week.

The economists, based at the University of Illinois, believe the social costs of gaming ultimately exceed its economic benefits -- a claim the casino industry disputes.

"I hope that the members of the commission will look very closely at the testimony of the so-called economists whose theories have been proven false, not only by other academics, but by the actual results of gaming in Midwest riverboat communities," Fahrenkopf said.

Grey said he expected next week's testimony will show the growing backlash against gaming in the Midwest.

"Governors used to cut ribbons and bands played when gambling opened here in 1991 and 1992," Grey said. "Now we've got candidates running against gambling's expansion."

Wayne Mehl, chief Washington lobbyist for the Nevada Resort Association, acknowledged the Chicago meeting isn't likely to put the industry in its best light.

But he said Nevada, which doesn't have riverboat gambling, won't be hurt at all.

The commission also will take up the subject of Internet gambling and its lack of regulation, an issue that concerns both the AGA and NRA.

Las Vegas attorney Anthony Cabot, one of the nation's experts on Internet gambling, is among those expected to testify.

The Justice Department recently launched a crackdown on Internet gambling with criminal indictments in New York.

Prominent Nevadans, meanwhile, are considering attending the Chicago session.

NRA President Richard Bunker and Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Director Manny Cortez are among those mulling a trip.

However, Gov. Bob Miller has opted, because of scheduling reasons, against sending a delegation to Chicago.

Miller had sent three ranking staff members, including Chief of Staff Jim Mulhall, to Boston.

The governor is putting together a special committee to help Las Vegas prepare for the commission's Nov. 10-11 visit.

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