The Wall Street Journal

Dear Mr. Crabb:

After reading your May 13 editorial “Casino Nation,” I can only conclude that your editorial page writers relied on movies such as “Bugsy” and “Casino” to research the “facts” about today’s gaming industry.

The American Gaming Association does not take a position on gambling expansion efforts or on Indian gaming issues, but it does take issue when stereotypes about the gaming industry are perpetuated by the media. Sparked by a colorful history, these stereotypes were long ago put to rest by the conclusions of not one, but two federal commissions, one in 1976 and the other in 1999. What those commissions found was that the commercial casino industry is made up primarily of publicly traded companies that are tightly regulated, answering to state regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and their shareholders. The commissions failed to find any links to organized crime, drugs or any of the other social ills that you attributed to gambling.

On one point we can agree: Ultimately, it should be up to the citizens of these communities to decide whether or not they want to have a casino. But their decisions should be based on facts, such as the jobs created and state and local taxes generated by casinos, not the story line from the latest Hollywood movie.

Sincerely,

Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr.
President and CEO