News

November 19, 2009

Statewide grand jury eyes Pennsylvania’s casino licensing

License for Louis DeNaples of Dunmore one of those being examined by panel.

By BRAD BUMSTEAD The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

HARRISBURG -- A statewide grand jury in Pittsburgh is investigating whether casino licenses in 2006 were steered to some applicants, but the former chairman of the Gaming Control Board on Tuesday called the inquiry “a total waste of taxpayers’ money.”

The grand jury under Attorney General Tom Corbett is examining decisions to award licenses to Don Barden of Detroit, who couldn’t finance a North Shore casino, and to Louis DeNaples of Dunmore, who was charged and later cleared of perjury for allegedly lying to get his license in the Poconos.

“While we have been requested by the attorney general to not comment on particulars of his ongoing investigation, I can say that this agency to date has been cooperating in all respects of the AG’s requests,” board spokesman Doug Harbach said in an e-mail. “We have made available a significant number of documents created by board staff in the course of our business of investigating and vetting applicants for gaming licenses.”

The investigation focuses on the actions of agency officials, not necessarily the licensees, according to sources inside and outside the gambling agency. The grand jury, whose proceedings are secret, has been looking into gambling for at least six months.

Gambling board member Kenneth McCabe, a former FBI supervisory agent in Pittsburgh, declined to comment on anything related to a grand jury investigation, but he defended the board’s actions in awarding the licenses.

“We made all of our determinations based on the merits and strengths of the individual applications,” said McCabe of Cranberry. “I did what I thought was right for the people of Pennsylvania ... what I thought would bring in the most revenue for the state.”

Barden and DeNaples could not be reached for comment.

Sanford Rivers, who resigned from the board Friday, said: “There were no shenanigans, no (backroom) deals. No one was promised anything. Everything done was done in a very transparent way, to the extent we were allowed to do it” in public.

Rivers, of Churchill, left the board after a five-year stint as Gov. Ed Rendell’s appointee.

Tad Decker, the board’s first chairman who returned to head the Philadelphia law firm Cozen O’Connor, said he hasn’t “heard anything about” a grand jury, but said there would be nothing for one to uncover.

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