ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 TAG: 9702180064
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
PRESIDENT CLINTON has a chance to make sure that a study of the effects of legalized gambling is objective and credible, or to help produce a sham.
The country will know soon - perhaps within a few days - if the National Gambling Impact and Policy Commission will be playing straight or rolling loaded dice. Clinton may make his three appointments to the panel by the end of the week. Gambling opponents have little hope that the selections will amount to anything more than political paybacks for gambling-industry campaign contributions.
So far, the congressional appointments to the nine-member commission stack up this way:
*Terrence Lanni, chairman of MGM Grand Inc., a Las Vegas-based casino company.
*John Wilhelm, secretary-treasurer of the International Hotel and Restaurant Employees union, which represents casino workers.
*James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group.
*Kay James, former Virginia secretary of health and human resources and now dean of the Robertson School of Government at Pat Robertson's Regent University.
*Paul Moore, a radiologist and a neighbor of Sen. Trent Lott in Pascagoula, Miss.
*Leo McCarthy, a former lieutenant governor of California.
Observers regard the first two as pro-gambling, the second two as anti-gambling, and the last two as objective.
Everyone on the commission should be objective. The question is whether the presidential appointments will create a more impartial mix. The answer is: doubtful.
A spokesman for the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling says the front-runners for Clinton's nod are: Bill Bible, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, whose appointment is supported by casino owners; Tadd Johnson, a Native American attorney and member of a Chippewa tribe that owns a casino in Minnesota; and Richard Leone, a former state treasurer of New Jersey. Just where Leone stands is unclear, but friends say he opposes gambling.
If this study is supposed to reveal anything more than just how cynical politics can be, Congress and Clinton should throw out the whole lot and start over.
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