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Casino Lobbyist Touts Industry

LAS VEGAS, Nevada –– The casino industry is in good shape despite ominous national economic forecasts and continuing fallout from the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings, the industry's top Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist said Monday.

As he does every year at casino industry convention time, American Gaming Association President Frank Fahrenkopf spun his feel-good message about the casino business as the gambling industry gathered in Las Vegas at the AGA's inaugural Global Gaming Expo.

"The casino industry is in good health," Fahrenkopf said. "There used to be a lot of misperceptions about the casino industry. People based their ideas about industry ownership on old movies and gambling opponents said 10 percent to 20 percent of casino visitors were pathological gamblers."

The AGA and its member companies have reversed those perceptions, he said.

After six years leading the AGA through the minefields of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, federal casino tax proposals and congressional bills targeting the gambling business, Fahrenkopf said the industry is in much better shape, and its public perception has improved.

"Many of our companies are publicly traded. We're regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the states and our opponents have been proved wrong," he said. "They don't cite the numbers (of problem gamblers) they used to. Casinos don't increase crime, don't increase bankruptcies, and we have the studies that prove that."

Fahrenkopf discussed the AGA's third annual casino gambling survey, which this year focused on residents of casino communities.

He noted answers to two key survey questions that were posed to residents of casino counties.

Asked how they would vote if a referendum were held asking them to vote "yes" or "no" on keeping casino gaming, 68 percent of casino neighbors said they would vote "yes," while 26 percent would vote "no."

About 70 percent of casino county residents said they thought casinos had a positive or somewhat positive impact on the job market and economy in their area.

About 14 percent said the impact was negative or somewhat negative.

The AGA's glossy 26-page pamphlet touting the survey results noted one question posed to casino customers that Fahrenkopf said shows that casino gamblers practice responsible gaming.

About 70 percent of casino customers said they always set a budget before visiting a casino, while 11 percent said they usually do.

Fahrenkopf downplayed the 10 percent of customers who said they never set a budget before visiting a casino.

"Some of those people could be betting only a dollar or two, but they don't set a budget," he said.

He acknowledged that the survey didn't reveal what percentage of the people setting a budget were nevertheless gambling more than they could afford to lose.

Asked if any AGA member companies have run a media advertising campaign advocating setting a budget before gambling, association spokeswoman Naomi Greer said she wasn't aware of one.

Fahrenkopf said the impact of the Sept. 11 terror strikes on the nation's economy remains to be determined.

"The general economic picture is the greatest storm cloud on the horizon," he said. "Who knows what's going to happen."

The association president also downplayed a developing rift over the industry's participation in Internet casino gambling.

AGA member company MGM Mirage strongly supports the move, and was recently licensed to open a Web casino from a small, semi-independent island off the English coast.

MGM Mirage plans to spend as much as $30 million to open the site by September 2002.

Park Place Entertainment and Harrah's Entertainment executives have argued in favor of a more cautious approach.

Fahrenkopf said the differences on the issue won't turn into a schism, noting that MGM Mirage's Terry Lanni, the industry's most prominent Web casino advocate, abstained from voting when the association's board of directors recently voted to affirm the AGA's opposition to Internet casinos.

The association's membership is currently voting on a code of conduct for land-based companies operating cybercasinos, with the final code expected to be released in a few weeks, he added.

The lobbyist said that the AGA's Global Gaming Expo is already wildly successful, with its numbers far surpassing the group's expectations one year ago when it decided to create its own industry conference to compete with the World Gaming Congress.

About 10,000 people had registered for the first-ever show, which runs through Wednesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The event has 375 exhibitors and 138,330 square feet of exhibit space

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