Bible's legacy secure despite leak of Harris tapes

It was late in the afternoon of retiring Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible's last board meeting earlier this month.

As Bible re-entered the room at the end of a break, gaming consultant Ray Koon baritoned: "All rise."

The smattering of staid gaming executives and attorneys still in attendance broke out laughing, a rare moment of levity amid a full agenda of stern and serious hearings on a variety of gambling license applications.

They all got it.

As chairman, Bible was chief regulator of the Nevada gaming industry during its period of greatest expansion.

Like a judge, Bible presided over monthly hearings in which gaming applicants often did not see eye-to-eye with board investigators. The hearings sometimes turned tense. Anyone familiar with the board is used to the sight of members questioning applicants at length about dubious behavior or nefarious episodes from their past.

Today is Bible's last day at the agency he joined in 1989. Ironically, today's biggest local story is the death of gaming figure Ted Binion -- whose gaming license Bible and his colleagues helped suspend.

Bible is described by colleagues as, well, judicious. The high esteem in which he is held is most evident among those who regularly argued -- and sometimes lost -- applications before him.

"He is very thoughtful in his positions," said Barry Lieberman, general counsel of Coast Resorts Inc. "I did not always agree with him in his positions, but when we had our discussions, he was always very polite and courteous and would take time to listen to our point of view."

"I've never observed politics entering into any decision that was made," said gaming attorney and former board member Jeff Silver. "I always knew my clients were going to get a fair shake."

The respect for Bible was clear at his last board meeting. Almost without exception, each attorney or executive concluded their appearance with accolades and congratulations for the chairman.

"Thank you for ten years of extraordinary leadership," said Frank Schreck, one of the state's most prominent gaming attorney and a former state gaming commissioner.

"I think Bill Bible has been the finest gaming regulator in my experience," said Schreck in a later interview.

As congratulatory as his colleagues and sometime adversaries may be, Bible is clearly uncomfortable with all the attention. Early in the meetings, he joked that attorneys would be charged transcription fees for their congratulatory comments.

"I appreciate all the accolades, but I was really just doing a job," Bible said at one point.

He continued his self-effacement in an interview this week, describing his greatest accomplishment on the board not as successfully steering the gaming industry through an unprecedented expansion, but as "just keeping up with the workload."

And what a workload.

Bible was appointed to the board by Gov. Bob Miller in 1989, the year the Mirage hotel-casino opened. He has presided over the Las Vegas mega-resort era, working on applications for resorts like the MGM Grand, Excalibur, the Luxor, Treasure Island and the Silver Legacy in Northern Nevada.

At the same time, the board dealt monthly with hundreds of applications for smaller properties, even passing judgement on applications submitted for five-slot convenience stores.

"Just keeping up with the day-to-day work load will be my legacy," Bible said.

Steve DuCharme, a eight-year veteran board member and Bible's replacement as chairman, said Bible's "personal discipline and his dedication to the work," are the most important lessons he has learned from the departing chairman.

Without Bible's work ethic and commitment to getting though the board's massive work load, the flood of gaming applications could easily have backed up, delaying time-sensitive approvals and hurting applicants, DuCharme said.

Bible, 54, began his career in state government in 1971, when he became a top budget aide under Gov. Mike O'Callaghan. Bible was promoted to state budget director under Gov. Richard Bryan, and later ran Bryan's successful U.S. Senate campaign.

Colleagues attribute Bible's firm grasp of corporate structure and finance to his years in the state budget department.

"Bill, having experience coming from the state budget office, ... was able to bring that background and knowledge to the Gaming Control Board and then expand on it with his great work ethic," said Schreck.

But not all of Bible's initiatives have been well-received by the industry, and not everything during his tenure as chairman has been rosy.

Bible has led the board into uncharted territory for a regulatory agency, proposing new regulations to limit messenger and Internet gambling, and holding hearings on problem gambling.

Many in the gaming industry have faulted Bible's attempts to eliminate messenger betting as micro-management of industry business practices.

"If my disagreement with them is anywhere, I've seen the board get involved with more issues than they need to get involved with, such as business issues as opposed to just policing the gaming industry," Lieberman said.

The board has faced internal problems under Bible, as well. Early in Bible's term, acting enforcement chief Ron Hollis was found to have allowed an informant, Matis Marcus, to run an illegal bookmaking operation for three years. Bible disciplined Hollis -- who later resigned -- and pushed for the prosecution of Marcus.

A more recent controversy erupted after Bible's 1995 criticism of the legal representation the board received from Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa. According to Mike Anzalone, an investigator for the attorney general who later sued Del Papa, the attorney general retaliated against Bible by widening a probe of board electronics expert Ron Harris to include the behavior of board members Bible, DuCharme and C. Brian Harris.

The controversy climaxed with the leaking to ABC News of a video tape of Harris making sensational allegations about internal board procedures. The allegations were never substantiated, but ABC aired the tapes to Bible's great embarrassment.

"The agency had some problems during my tenure," Bible said this week. "I wish that instance had never happened."

Harris, said Bible, was paid by the board to ensure slot machines could not be tampered with.

"Instead of telling us about those weaknesses, he exploited them for his own gain," said Bible.

Harris is now in prison. Anzalone's case against Del Papa continues.

Aside from these high-profile incidents, colleagues credit Bible for running the board with an even keel.

"I think the most impressive thing was that the level of rancor or acrimony at the meetings was greatly toned down," said Lieberman. "He ran a civil, polite and courteous meeting ... whereas other previous chairmen had sought to publicly embarrass people or yell at people."

Silver credits Bible with keeping the board bureaucracy to a minimum during a period when it could have grown out of control, while Schreck notes Bible's ability to change with the times.

"He understood the regulations well and how they needed to be applied and he was not afraid to try something new," said Schreck.

It was ultimately Bible's sharp intellect and work ethic that kept him ahead of the work flow, said Silver.

"He was always two steps above and beyond any lawyer that appeared before him," said Silver. "I think he's probably on the short list of being one of the best chairmen that we've ever had."

Bible has said he wants to take time off over the next year to hike and relax -- some "personal time," as he puts it. But there's no doubt he'll remain involved in gaming.

Bible is a member of the National Gaming Impact Study Commission, the federal panel studying the impact of gaming on American society. He says he has other irons in the fire, including possibly helping New Mexico start its gaming regulatory agency.

Bible is prohibited from working in the gaming industry for a year. But it's pretty clear he has plenty to do in the mean time.

"I intend to stay active," said Bible.

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