From the Archives
Nevada High Rollers Bet on McCain
BY Sarah Laskow | January 09, 2008
In the 2000 edition of The Buying of the President, the Center examined Republican John McCain’s financial connections in Nevada, which holds its caucuses this year on January 19. Here is an excerpt:
In February 1999, McCain took a testing-the-waters trip for a presidential bid. But he didn’t trek through the snowy fields of Iowa or the meeting houses of New Hampshire. Instead he headed straight for Las Vegas.
Within days of his visit, Terrence Lanni, the chairman of MGM Grand, Inc., and Steve Wynn, the chairman of Mirage Resorts, Inc., each wrote out $1,000 checks, as did their wives, to McCain’s presidential campaign.
It wasn’t the first time the gambling industry has put money on McCain. McCain has collected more than $100,000 in contributions from gambling interests since 1993, and he’s returned the financial favors in ways big and small. In June 1998, McCain voted for legislation to overhaul the Internal Revenue Service that included a tax exemption for the casino industry for free meals it gives to workers. The exemption is projected to cost the U.S. Treasury $316 million from 1998 to 2007. In 1995, McCain supported legislation that paved the way for gambling “cruises to nowhere.” Even during his battle to pass tobacco legislation, McCain found a way to help the gambling industry: At the urging of the American Gaming Association, he agreed to exempt gambling establishments from his bill’s ban on indoor smoking.
In the summer of 1999, as legislation vital to gambling interests made its way through Congress, McCain tapped into Nevada and Native American gambling interests for contributions to his presidential campaign. On June 10, for example, he returned to Las Vegas for a fundraiser organized by Lanni, where he rubbed elbows with Peter Boynton, the chairman of Caesar’s World/Inc.; Sheldon Adelson, the chairman of Las Vegas Sands, Inc.; and David J. Thompson, the chairman of Mikohn Gaming Corporation, a Las Vegas company that makes slot machines and other gambling equipment. The event netted McCain $51,150.
A few weeks later, on June 30, McCain headed for the woods of Ledyard, Connecticut, to collect another $14,650 at a fundraiser hosted by the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Nation. The 155-member tribe runs Foxwoods Resort, the world’s largest casino.
McCain has opposed legislation that would halt the further expansion of gambling on Indian reservations. Under the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, Native American tribes have to reach an agreement with states about how to regulate their gaming operations. Today, 183 tribes run 263 gambling operations in 28 states, most under tribal-state compacts. But one upshot of the 1988 law is that states that want to keep Indian tribes from opening gambling operations can simply refuse to negotiate. Tribes used to take uncooperative states to court; then, however, the Supreme Court ruled that states are immune from such lawsuits. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt tried to give tribes relief by proposing that his office settle tribal-state disputes over gambling compacts. Congress didn’t like Babbitt’s idea and imposed a one-year moratorium on any new Indian gambling operations outside of state compacts.
Nevada gambling operators, who see the tribes as competition, prefer leaving the states in charge. In September 1998, at the industry’s behest, Senators Harry Reid of Nevada and Mike Enzi of Wyoming introduced a measure to stop Secretary Babbitt from stepping into tribal-state disputes.
The prospect of letting states keep their veto power over Indian gambling sent some tribes running straight for their checkbooks. From September 22 to October 6, 1998, the Mashantucket Pequots gave McCain $9,500. McCain opposed Reid and Enzi’s effort, calling it “unwarranted” and “ill-advised.”
UPDATE: Both Terrence and Deborah Lanni have donated the maximum $4,600 to McCain’s 2008 bid for the Republican nomination. Steve and Elaine Wynn each donated $4,600 to Democrat Joe Biden’s campaign.