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Rev. Grey For Las Vegas Spokesman20 March 2002LAS VEGAS –As reported by the Las Vegas Review Journal: “For a man whose name is synonymous with America's anti-gambling movement, the Rev. Tom Grey appeared surprisingly at ease behind enemy lines in Las Vegas recently. ”Which made me think he might make a great spokesman for our town. ”…Recent gaming industry surveys suggest that the vast majority of Americans see legalized casinos in an acceptable light. Most citizens, they find, don't look down upon gamblers as hell-bound sinners, but instead as fellow countrymen out for a good time. ”…Grey, now 62 and as wiry and energetic as ever, just shrugs when he hears those lofty representations. He sees the world of dice and cards very differently. Outside Nevada, which he regards with a begrudging acceptance, he likens the spread of gambling as more virus than virtue. ”…It's not that Grey likes Las Vegas. Its blighted areas make him angry and sad. For the record, he attributes only part of the problem to the ills wrought by the gambling culture. But Grey accepts Las Vegas for what it is: a grand, gaudy experiment that, in sheer economic terms, has been successful. ”…It's everything outside America's hedonistic Main Street that makes him fighting mad after a decade of brawling with Gaming Inc. ”…As a Las Vegan, I think he has a point. The industry's relentless expansion plans have hurt Nevada in several ways, not the least of which is the apparent abandoning of downtown Las Vegas and Reno by many of the major corporations. While downtown founders and frays, Mandalay Resorts, Park Place, Harrah's and MGM Mirage roll the dice in distant lands. ”Argue all day that healthy publicly traded companies must continue to expand or face certain doom, and that means moving outside Las Vegas and Atlantic City. It still stinks to see so many corporations slipping into California to cook up agreements with Indian reservation casinos when there are plenty of local properties hurting. ”By pounding away outside Nevada, Grey actually might be helping locals. ”Casino executives will bristle at the notion. But, you know, I like the idea. Even Grey, whose recent visit to Las Vegas was to testify before the Gaming Control Board and tour the city with political kamikaze pilot Steve Miller, thinks there might be something to it. ”`My zeal is about a product that has a place, but they've taken it out of the box that it was in and marketed it across the nation,’ he said…” |