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The GOP's Gambling Problem

Come with me, dear readers, on a trip down the fascinating GOP hall of shame:


Let's begin with Reagan Greer, who is accused of inflating jackpot numbers to cover up dismal ticket sales. Greer is a crony of Texas Governor Rick Perry

who allegedly changed the official requirements for the TLC Executive Director so that he could appoint Greer - who does not have a college degree - to the position. Mr. Greer, of course, is the Executive Director of the Texas Lottery. His boss is Lottery Commissioner James Cox

who worked in Las Vegas during the 1970s and 1980s and made a $1,000 campaign donation to Governor Bush in 1999. He recommended that the state contact the law firm Lionel, Sawyers and Collins to develop legislation that would effectively legalize a form of casino gambling. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott

went along with this recommendation which resulted in a lawsuit filed by Russ Verney of the national watchdog group Judicial Watch which contends that "the state exceeded its authority when it agreed to spend lottery proceeds to pay the firm." Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn has announced that she won't be paying the bill "unless she gets the expressed go-ahead from legislative leaders."

It's worth noting that the Texas Lottery Commission was formerly mismanaged by the current White House Counsel, Harriet Miers

during the interesting era when the Commission contracted with a firm called GTech:

By 1998, Barnes was on top again, as a millionaire lobbyist working for GTech, the company operating public lotteries in 37 states. But lottery revenues were plummeting, and lottery-commission chair Harriet Miers (who was also Bush’s personal lawyer and once was paid $19,000 to look into the National Guard story for a gubernatorial campaign) re-bid GTech’s contract. GTech sued, threatened to shut down the Texas lottery for a year, and hired a new lobbyist — after providing Barnes a $23 million severance package. Miers fired one lottery director who sued and settled. Then the second lottery director fired by Miers filed suit. He claimed he was taking the fall for GTech, which, he alleged, kept its contract and bought out Barnes because he had the story on Bush.

President Bush

naturally, has his own interesting connections to gambling:

George W. Bush gave the nation's gambling industry plenty of reason to fear his presidency.

He moved to shut down an Indian-run casino while governor of Texas. He declared in a widely circulated state report that ''Casino gambling is not OK. It has ruined the lives of too many adults, and it can do the same thing to our children." He wooed religious conservatives by boasting in a presidential debate about his ''strong antigambling record."

But as president, Bush has not spoken out against gambling. After promising not to take money from gambling interests, Bush's campaign fund accepted large contributions from gambling-related sources. His 2001 inaugural committee raised at least $300,000 from gambling interests, including gifts from MGM/Mirage, Sands, and a leading slot-machine maker. Bush later appeared at a Las Vegas casino for a fund-raiser for his reelection campaign.

In fact, according to the Boston Globe, President Bush "met with Indian gaming leaders at the White House in annual sessions over a four-year period that were arranged by antitax crusader Grover Norquist...

...in some cases after tribes contributed to Norquist's organization." Mr. Norquist, whose organization "received $1.5 million from tribes and fought a tax on Indian casinos" is under investigation by the Senate and Justice Department along with his friends Ralph Reed,

the former Christian Coalition director (who "allegedly used some money from Indian gaming tribes to fund his efforts to close down rival casinos and lotteries" and served as Southeast regional chairman to the Bush re-election campaign) and Jack Abramoff,

"a top Bush fund-raiser who earned millions of dollars in fees as a consultant to gaming tribes." Mr. Abramoff, of course, is one of the "closest and dearest friends" of House majority leader Tom DeLay,

who has said he is strongly antigambling yet has drawn media scrutiny because of his opposition to an Indian gaming tax. Former DeLay spokesman Michael Scanlon

is under investigation for "allegations that he...misused up to $66 million in fees paid to them by six Indian tribes made wealthy by gaming revenue." You will probably recall that DeLay himself is under investigation for his role in allegedly illegal financial activity by Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), a case which has led to the subpoena of Mike Toomey

(the former Chief of Staff to Governor Perry)

along with the subpoena of his colleague, Ellen Williams,

who is rumored to be dating gambling expert William Watson who was (bringing us full circle!) hired by Las Vegas firm Lionel, Sawyer and Collins at the recommendation of Lottery Commissioner Greer

who said the idea was recommended to him by Mike Toomey!

What a soap opera.