GOP proposes Pa. slots-law overhaul

HARRISBURG - Republicans are introducing proposals in the House and Senate that would overhaul the way prospective casino owners are investigated and how casino licenses are awarded.

One element would designate the Attorney General's Office, instead of the Gaming Control Board's investigative division, to handle background investigations of would-be casino owners, employees and vendors.

Some aspects of the legislation have been pressed before, without success, by legislators who opposed the 2004 law that legalized slot-machine gambling.

The ideas resurfaced after perjury charges against Mount Airy Casino Resort owner Louis A. DeNaples and subsequent finger-pointing by the gambling board and the state police over how DeNaples received a license.

"The current gaming law is flawed, and it's flawed in ways that have proven embarrassing to Pennsylvania," Sen. Jeffrey Piccola (R., Dauphin), who is sponsoring the Senate bill, said yesterday.

Rep. Doug Reichley (R., Lehigh) is introducing the House version.

Lawyers for DeNaples, 67, say he is innocent and are contesting the perjury charges.

He was charged by state police on Jan. 30 with lying to gambling board investigators about the extent of his relationships with two reputed heads of a Northeastern Pennsylvania organized crime family and two men at the center of a federal investigation into corruption involving Philadelphia City Hall.

Asked about the proposals, the Senate's majority leader, Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware), said GOP senators have discussed various ways of improving the law, but without consensus. Others, including Sen. John C. Rafferty Jr. (R., Montgomery), said the changes would trigger a provision in the current law that forces the state to forfeit the $50 million casino licensing fees.

A spokesman for the House's majority leader, Bill DeWeese (D., Greene), did not respond to a request for comment.

The proposals would bar convicted felons from owning a casino, strengthening the current law, which bans felons from holding licenses for 15 years after completing their sentences. DeNaples pleaded no contest to a felony in 1978.

They would require the gambling board to hold a hearing on the character and integrity of the applicants, and help the board compel testimony about applicants by giving the agency the ability to grant witnesses immunity from prosecution.

Under Piccola's proposal, the gambling board, now with seven members, would become a five-member panel appointed by the governor and subject to Senate approval. The five would approve licenses by a majority vote and be unable to hold outside employment.