Pa. lawmaker rips casino industry at industry conference.

HARRISBURG - Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, one of the legislature's strongest opponents of legalized casinos, said in the keynote speech at an industry conference yesterday that inadequacies in Pennsylvania's law prevented a thorough background investigation before a license was awarded to a casino owner now charged with lying about connections to organized-crime figures.

Piccola (R., Dauphin) said that after he got over the initial shock of being invited to the Pennsylvania Gaming Congress, he decided that the industry would see the benefits of his plan to overhaul state background investigations of prospective casino owners, employees and vendors.

"One of the surest ways to have it fail is to have weak regulation," Piccola said in an interview after his speech at the downtown Whitaker Center.

His comments came in the aftermath of the perjury charges filed Jan. 30 by the state police against Louis A. DeNaples, owner of Mount Airy Casino Resort. Attorneys for DeNaples say he is innocent and are challenging the charges in Dauphin County Court and the state Supreme Court.

In his speech, Piccola blasted the industry, saying it preys on the poor, breeds destructive behavior, and hurts local economies. He said he planned to introduce legislation to put background investigations under the supervision of the state Attorney General's Office, as they are in New Jersey.

Piccola, who has sought similar measures in the past, said it would prevent a repeat of what happened in the DeNaples case.

State police have said they could not share certain information with civilian agents from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, which licensed DeNaples, because the information had become part of their perjury investigation into DeNaples. Police later used that information - a transcript of a telephone call recorded by the FBI - to charge DeNaples with lying to gaming board agents only a year after the board had granted him the license.

Bob Sheldon, president and chief operating officer of the proposed SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia, said he did not mind the choice of a casino opponent to deliver the keynote speech.

"It's an opportunity to educate us," he said.

Prospects for Piccola's legislation are unclear. Calls for change have come largely from lawmakers who opposed the 2004 slots law, while leaders of the legislative majorities - Republicans in the Senate and Democrats in the House - have been quiet on the issue.

Stephen C. MacNett, the general counsel for the Senate GOP, said the charges against DeNaples made caucus leaders recognize that Pennsylvania's regulatory system needs to be reviewed and possibly changed.

He criticized state police and the gaming board for not cooperating better.

"It is a pretty sad commentary on both the management of the Pennsylvania State Police and the operations of the Gaming Control Board," MacNett said.