Opponents claim no change needed
The Bureau of Investigations (BIE) of the state Gaming Control Board (GCB) would move to the office of the state Attorney General under legislation expected to be approved by the House Gaming Oversight Committee Tuesday.
Proponents of H.B. 262 say the measure, if passed, would put the GCB’s investigatory arm under an independent agency and improve the BIE’s ability to access criminal information. Currently, the BIE can only review and use civil legal data in its investigations of casino applicants, management, employees and others associated with state sanctioned gambling activities.
Opponents say it may only be a chance to shift 73 political patronage jobs under the umbrella of the attorney general and feel it would not increase the efficiency of the BIE. Opponents also claim the move would potentially cause another bureaucratic hurdle for gaming industry expansion and reduce the benefits derived by state taxpayers.
According to the GCB, the state’s five-year old gambling industry has reduced state property taxes by an average of $200.
At a public hearing Monday, Paul Mauro, deputy director of the BIE, said the bureau has conducted more than 44,000 investigations since slot machine gambling was approved in 2006. That is an average of about 34 investigations per work day.
Kevin O’Toole, executive director of the GCB, told the oversight committee Act 1 of 2010, which authorized table gaming in the state, closed a number of loopholes in state gambling laws and improved the BIE’s investigative operations. He made clear he would like to see the BIE remain under the supervision of the gambling board.
Under H.B. 262, the 73 BIE employees would be transferred to the attorney general’s office and after six months the attorney general would review the operation and see what changes, if any, should be made.
Over its five years of existence, the BIE has suffered a number of public embarrassments including BIE officers being arrested and attempting to use their positions for personal privileges.
The BIE also suffered when it was revealed its investigation of Louis DeNaples, who was granted a license in 2006 for the Mount Airy Casino Resort in the Poconos, was flawed and was revised six times by the GCB before it was approved. It was later proven Mr. DeNaples had been investigated for involvement with organized crime, had been convicted of a federal felony and was being investigated for selling trucks damaged by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. He was barred from the casino, which his daughter now manages.
In January of 2008, a Dauphin County grand jury involved with the DeNaples case recommended the BIE be moved from the GCB and placed under the control of the Pennsylvania State Police or the attorney general.
Mr. O’Toole took over as executive director of the GCB in June 2009, following the resignation of Anne Neeb in 2008. Ms. Neeb, hired as executive director in 2005, was being pursued by the state of Louisiana for payment of monies the state claimed she had not earned while overseeing that state’s gaming operations.
