DAVID KIDWELL / Pocono Record
Louis A. DeNaples (center), owner of the Mount Airy Casino Resort, speaks to reporters after appearing before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. He testifiedin April. The board, using its own investigators, cleared DeNaples for a license. Now prosecutors, working with state police, are going over his background again.
Page: 2 of 5 View All
Probe tests Pa. casino oversight
A grand jury is considering whether a slots owner misled the state about alleged mob ties.
Sometimes giving in his own name, sometimes through his partnerships, DeNaples and his partners have contributed about $1 million since 2000 to state politicians and political committees, both Democratic and Republican. Gov. Rendell received $140,000.
Rendell defends DeNaples as "the salt of the earth" and said he was unconcerned about the investigations.
"Grand juries investigate virtually everyone," he said in an interview last week. "It doesn't mean a bloody thing."
Rendell brushed aside criticism of the gaming board.
"The selection process was done exactly the right way. No credible evidence of any connection to organized crime was found, and DeNaples had by far the best application," he said.
"Wait until you see the job he does and the class operation it's going to be."
Still, Rendell said he was sure the gaming board would act swiftly if the grand jury turned up solid information against DeNaples.
"If, in fact, a tie is found between Louis DeNaples and organized crime," Rendell said, "I am confident that the gaming commission will strip him of his license."
Even before the legislature approved casino gambling for Pennsylvania, DeNaples was considered a shoo-in to win a license. Soon after the bill passed, he moved to buy the defunct Mount Airy Lodge - famous for its heart-shaped tubs for honeymooners - and promised to build a hotel and open a gaming parlor with 2,500 slot machines.
To obtain a license, all applicants had to meet the provision of the law requiring casino operators to be "of good character."
DeNaples cleared the hurdle and got a license in December - a decision upheld by the state Supreme Court - after three days of closed-door hearings and a background check by the gaming board's Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement.
First, the board had to discount a criminal case from DeNaples' past.
A fraud conviction
In 1977, DeNaples and three other men were charged with bilking the federal government out of $525,000 set aside to help the area recover from Tropical Storm Agnes.The trial ended in a hung jury. Afterward, the four made a plea bargain; they pleaded no contest, and were placed on probation and fined.
But the case had another twist: Four other men, including a member of the crime family once led by Russell Bufalino, were later convicted of bribing a juror during the trial. DeNaples has said he knew nothing of the bribery attempt.
Because the case is so old, the conviction alone didn't bar DeNaples from getting a Pennsylvania casino license.
Legislators decided felonies didn't disqualify applicants, provided they had finished their sentences at least 15 years ago.
While DeNaples never again faced criminal charges, rumors of mob ties have followed him ever since.
Most of those whispers include D'Elia, 60, of the Wilkes-Barre area.
Authorities and mobsters have long identified D'Elia as a leader the Bufalino family.
