email this
print thisSAVE AND SHARE
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pa. lawmakers want tighter scrutiny of slots
HARRISBURG - Legislators signaled greater scrutiny for Pennsylvania's slot-machine law as they pressed for answers yesterday after a casino owner was charged with lying to gambling regulators to win his license.
In a pair of hearings in the Capitol, House Republicans criticized what they called weaknesses in the law, while the Senate Appropriations Committee called on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to defend its performance.
Some lawmakers who opposed the 2004 legalization of slot machines said the perjury charges filed last month against Mount Airy Casino Resort owner Louis A. DeNaples had confirmed their objections. Attorneys for DeNaples say he is innocent and are challenging the charges, which have led to the wealthy Scranton businessman's suspension from Mount Airy.
The gaming board voted unanimously in December 2006 to issue a casino license to DeNaples after its agents vetted his background. At the same time, state police were investigating whether he had lied to the board's agents about his ties to members of organized crime and targets of a 2003 federal corruption investigation involving Philadelphia City Hall.
"We all look funny with this," Sen. James J. Rhoades (R., Schuylkill) told gaming board members and staff. "Dealing with gaming, we have to be beyond any reproach."
Sen. Pat Browne (R., Lehigh) referred to a "black mark" as he and other senators asked board officials what changes should be made.
A major point of dispute is whether state police should have furnished the board with more information about DeNaples - or at least cautioned against a vote - before the license was awarded.
Gaming board officials told senators yesterday that signed agreements with state police should have guaranteed them more information, and that two top state police officials - Col. Jeffrey Miller and Lt. Col. Ralph Periandi - had not lived up to those agreements.
"I believe I was misled, because I trusted those people," said board member Kenneth McCabe, a former FBI agent.
On the other side of the building, Periandi, who retired last year, told a House Republican policy panel that state troopers could not reveal their suspicions about DeNaples for fear of violating federal laws against disclosing investigative information.
"Our position was . . . that they knew that because they referred it to us," Periandi said, referring to a transcript of a DeNaples deposition that the gaming board's civilian agents gave to state police in October 2006 to review.
