Gambling Politics

• "Two recipients of Griffin's $16 million demand from the casino are attorneys from Las Vegas who are best known for representing clients alleged to be involved in organized crime..."
  - St. Louis Post Dispatch 7/22/94
   
• All 4 members of the St. Louis Election Board resign after it is learned that they have ties to casino companies, raising questions of conflicts of interest-should riverboat gambling be placed on the ballot. 
  - St. Louis Post Dispatch 2/15/94
  
  
•  Gephardt has more than $121,895 from gambling contributions.
  - Southeast Missourian 4/3/95
  
  
• The Missouri Democratic Party accepted $83,000 in money from gambling interests.
  - St. Louis Post Dispatch 11/1/96
  
  
• Bob Dole's Las Vegas fund raiser netted him $478,000.
  - Springfield News-Leader 2/23/96
  
  
•  The casinos hired the chief strategist for House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, paying her company $218,750 to help pass the 1994 referendum. Gephardt himself got a $50,000 donation for his PAC.
  - Springfield News-Leader 2/23/96
  
  
• Over the past 5 years, the gambling industry has spent more than $100 million in contributions and lobbying to influence state governments.
  - Mother Jones July/August 1997
   
• Senate leader Lott and Senators McConnell of KY & Frist of TN flew to Las Vegas on gambling mogul Steve Wynn's corporate jet.
  - Wall Street Journal 11/21/97
  
  
• In the last presidential race, Mirage Casinos donated $286,500 in soft money.
  - Las Vegas Review Journal 9/14/97
  
  
• Indian gambling tribes in N.M. spent $790.000 on lobbyists in Washington in 1996 and 1997.
  - Albuquerque Journal 7/20/98
  
  
• A Missouri state senator whose committee has recommended lifting loss limits and boarding restrictions at casinos received $1,500 in political contributions from casino executives last fall.
  - St. Louis Post Dispatch 3/14/98 
   
• Hilton executives resign over a $1,000,000 bribe of the Kansas City Port Authority. (The Port Authority official was convicted on bribery in another case, but faces no charges over the Hilton bribery.) Federal investigators had a very "indictable" case against the $11 billion company but Hilton was only fined $655.000 and required to teach their executives "ethics" in exchange for the government closing the investigation.
  - AP 8/12/98 & Las Vegas Journal Review 8/13/98
  
  
• Casino interests donated $7 million to campaign war chests in 1995 and 1996. The industry has also spent $13.5 million on lobbying since January,1996. Since 1991, gambling interests have donated $13.7 million to the Democratic and Republican National Committees. In the 1996 presidential race, Wynn (Mirage Casino) personally raised more than a million dollars for Bob Dole's candidacy, only to later aid in raising money for President Clinton. Also underscoring the industry's pragmatic approach to campaign giving, the Democratic National Committee received $1.7 million from casino interests in 1996, while the Republican National Committee received $1 million.
  - New York Times 3/27/98
  
  
• Executives at the Cabazon Indians' gambling casino were accused in a federal indictment of laundering thousands of dollars in illegal contributions to six Democratic candidates, including President Clinton.
  - Los Angeles Times 6/19/98