Agitator pal Phil Dawdy takes on the state’s Internet gambling law in Seattle Weekly, including more details on the campaign support the bricks-and-mortar casinos have given the bill’s sponsor.

Snippet:

Prentice, first elected to the House in 1988, has been in the Senate since 1993 and is chair of the powerful Senate Ways & Means Committee and a longtime member of the gambling commission, which regulates all legal wagering in the state. That gives her wide influence over state spending and budgets as well as much power in shaping the state’s $1.7 billion a year gambling industry in legal tribal casinos, card rooms, horse tracks, and the state lottery.

Last November, a full three years before her expected re-election bid, Prentice received $2,700 from David Barnett and his wife, Christine. Barnett is tribal chair of the Cowlitz tribe, an Indian nation that is slated to construct a new casino in La Center, which would easily cater to the casino-free Portland market. Prentice also got another $1,175 from the Washington Indian Gaming Commission, a lobbying group, and two lobbyists who represent Indian interests. Combined, the two sets of contributions are about 20 percent of the $22,000 she has raised so far for her 2008 race. Within four months of Prentice receiving those contributions, her online gambling ban bill raced through both houses of the Legislature with little opposition and no press attention.

In 2004, Prentice got almost $9,000 from gambling interests.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 20th, 2006 at 11:04 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Gambling, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.