Silvio Petricciani - University of Nevada, Reno

Development of the Gaming Industry
151
police card. And the other thing is that they’ve
all been told that they should have them on
their person when they come to work here. So
consequently if they don’t have, then they’re
remiss, not me, of course I can’t run a police
card check every time somebody comes—you
know—every shift. But you remind them
once in a while. So now once in a while I pull
my own little surprise raids, but other than
that, I have no problems with the regulations
that they have. I don’t think anybody else
does either. I mean I don’t know of any other
regulations that they could impose really—
everything’s fine—I can live with it, other than
I think the taxes should be adjusted.
Now we come down to something else
[laughing], and again I’m very radical on this.
Observation on the industry associations,
the Nevada Resort Association and Gaming
Industry Association. Its purpose is good, and
that is to effectively lobby for the good of the
gaming industry, in the state of Nevada with
the government of the state of Nevada and
with the federal government. And yet I don’t
belong to it. Its origin is exactly as I stated for
the good of the gaming industry in the state
of Nevada.
When did it start?
I don’t know exactly. I’d say—I don’t
really know, I wouldn’t venture to say, five,
six years ago, something like that—may have
been earlier. I don’t know exactly when it
did start, but—. As I say, the origin of it was
the people in the city of Reno got together
and decided that they should have an
organization, and the purpose was to more or
less to protect it against any unfair laws that
might be put on by the federal government
or the state government, and to be able to
have representation in any laws that might
be passed and so on and so forth.
And as I say, the origin, the purpose was
very good, and its effectiveness—I have mixed
emotions about it. It has been effective in
some instances and others it has not. I think
it’s been more effective in the state than it has
federal, although they were able to go back to
Washington several times and argue things on
Keno and so on and so forth. Of course, by the
same token, other members of the industry
didn’t allow just the gaming industry or the
association itself to go back there. I mean
each person went back on their own, from
the different clubs and so on to Washington
[D.C.]. And I wonder sometimes as to the
effect of one or two people representing a
group before say, the state legislature or the
IRS or something else, as opposed to numbers
of people showing up. I wonder which is
psychologically more effective.
However, it has been effective in some
instances. And the reason that I didn’t join—
when they started this association, a group
of them got together and formulated the
association; and after it was all put together
and so on, then they came and asked me to
join. And, being, you might say, an “elder” in
the gaming industry in the state of Nevada,
why I said, “Well, where was I when you
formulated this association?”
And they said, “Well, when we got
together and did this thing, it was very hushhush
and secret.”
And I said, “Well, then evidently you
didn’t trust me.” So I said, “If you didn’t trust
me then, I don’t want you to trust me now, so
I’m not going to join your organization.” And
I haven’t to this day. I’m perfectly capable of
taking care of myself.
So, I don’t know why it was so hush-hush
and secret and so forth, but I guess the people
that formulated it or started it got together
and decided what they were going to do and
how they were going to do it; and they come to