Nola.com: La State senator seeks to lift ban on casino campaign contributions

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For nearly 30 years, Louisiana’s casinos have been prohibited from contributing to political candidates to prevent possible corruption, but an amendment slipped onto a legislative bill this week with no public attention would lift that ban.

State Sen. Thomas Pressly said in an interview that he sought the change at the behest of an attorney for Penn Entertainment, a major gambling company with five riverboat casinos in Louisiana. Pressly, R-Shreveport, would not identify the attorney.

“I believe it’s a clean- up bill that’s dealing with allowing a corporation to give contributions that are fully disclosed,” he said of the amendment, which was narrowly approved by the Senate Finance Committee Monday.

But Ronnie Jones, a former chair of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, said the ban on contributions from casinos and their key employees ought to remain.

"We don’t want to ever live through what we did with the rollout of gaming during the Edwin Edwards administration," Jones said. "It’s taken us years to get past that and improve our reputation among other gaming states and gaming companies."

The legalization of gambling under Edwards in the first part of the 1990s generated reams of negative headlines.

The bill legalizing the Harrah’s casino in 1992 was passed with legislative trickery, as the governor’s children sought to cash in by forming companies that got hired and the Senate president handed out campaign checks to senators on the Senate floor from a riverboat casino owner.

Edwards eventually was convicted of taking payoffs from companies wanting one of the state’s 15 riverboat licenses from a board he appointed.

The Legislature imposed the ban on casinos and their key employees in 1996 just after Edwards left office. Other states have a similar contribution prohibition.

The prohibition included contributions from video poker interests, but that industry won a court ruling to overturn the ban on them.

Ban is constitutional
Pressly cited that ruling in telling members of the Senate Finance Committee that the prohibition is unconstitutional following the 2010 Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down campaign spending limits on corporations.

Pressly called his amendment “a correction of an unconstitutional act of a First Amendment limitation.”

“It would simply put them in line with every other organization and entity in the state and allow them to participate in the political process by giving contributions to us,” he said.

Pressly failed to mention a 2002 Louisiana Supreme Court ruling that upheld the constitutionality of the 1996 ban on donations by casinos, their employees and the employees’ spouses.

The court said a distinction exists between video poker and casinos because anyone can apply for a video poker license while there are a limited number of casino licenses.

“Given the history of the gaming industry and its connection to public corruption and the appearance of public corruption, it is completely plausible, and not at all novel, for the Louisiana legislature to have concluded that it was necessary to distance gaming interests from the ability to contribute to candidates and political committees which support candidates,” the court said.

Pressly said later he was unaware of that ruling. He also acknowledged that no court has subsequently struck down the 1996 prohibition that he called unconstitutional.

The vote
Pressly amended House Bill 906 by Rep. Mark Wright, which would raise the limit on campaign contributions in Louisiana for the first time since 1988 and had been sailing through the Legislature.

Wright, R-Covington, told his colleagues that he would accept Pressly’s amendment only to advance his bill. He added that he didn’t know the details of what Pressly was trying to accomplish and had learned about the amendment just before the committee hearing began.

Wright said later he would probably try to strip the amendment off the bill if HB 906 passes the Senate with it on.

Pressly attached his amendment only after a 5-4 vote. Voting in favor were Sens. Jeremy Stine, R-Lake Charles; Katrina Jackson-Andrews, D-Monroe; Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette; Jimmy Harris, D-New Orleans; and Pressly. Voting no were Sens. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia; Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge; Mike Fesi, R-Houma; and Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek.

Jackson-Andrews has been a strong gambling opponent but said she saw no reason to limit their contributions. Stine, who cast the tie-breaking vote, said he wanted “to level the field” for contributors.

Pressly defended changing a law by offering an amendment that was approved after only 12 minutes of discussion.

“This is the legislative process,” he said. “The rules allow for amendments.”

Former Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, who as a state senator from Baton Rouge sponsored the bill that imposed the ban 28 years ago, said any change to that law ought to be by a separate piece of legislation that the public and lawmakers can properly vet.

When presented with this view, Pressly said Penn had only recently requested the change, long after the bill filing deadline.

“Louisiana law currently allows every other gaming stakeholder – including casinos from neighboring states, sports betting licensees, lottery suppliers, and video poker companies – to exercise their first amendment rights to participate in the political process in Louisiana, and many have done so," said Jeff Morris, vice president for public affairs and government relations. "We’re simply asking for a level playing field for the Louisiana casino gaming industry, which supports roughly 32,000 jobs in the state and provides billions in annual tax revenue and economic impact.”

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