Casinos

In a move virtually certain to produce the fourth outside investigation of a Clinton cabinet appointee, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno on Wednesday asked for the appointment of an independent counsel to probe whether Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt lied to the Senate about his role in rejecting an Indian casino in Wisconsin.

Police say jealousy at seeing a former girlfriend with another man is what prompted a 78-year-old man to open fire in a crowded casino. Jesse Rosson, who uses a walker, was arrested Tuesday after the 8 p.m. shooting at the Club Cal-Neva in downtown Reno. Five people were injured, although none of the injuries were life-threatening, police said. Rosson was being held at the Washoe County Jail on two counts of attempted murder and three counts of battery with a deadly weapon.

There's a photograph that won't be appearing with this story. I do wish I had the guts to show it to you, though. It might help illustrate an odd realization this trip evoked: that sometimes fun and blinding terror go hand in hand. The photo, shot the night before, rides in my pocket as I enter Caesars Palace with my wife, Pam, our three children and (lest I have any doubts that the good old gonzo days are gone) my mother-in-law.

Top Justice Department prosecutors are advising Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to seek the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate whether Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt misled Congress over his handling of a controversial Indian casino license, department officials said Monday. Reno had not reached a final decision on the recommendation as of Monday night, the officials said. Under a statutory deadline, she has until Wednesday to decide how to proceed on the Babbitt case.

While California Indian tribes pursued litigation Wednesday to preserve their embattled gambling casinos, they also braced for a May 13 deadline to agree to play by the state's rules or face federal enforcement. Just how swiftly and aggressively the U.S. Department of Justice would move against tribal leaders is unknown. But federal authorities have promised to take action against any of the nearly 40 Indian casinos that fail by the deadline to change practices that the state deems unlawful.

Opening a new legal front in the fight over the Bicycle Club casino, a group of investors filed a $150-million lawsuit Thursday against their partners--the U.S. Justice Department and its federal Marshals Service. The suit was announced outside the Bell Gardens casino, where employees and investors waved signs saying, "Feds get out." The U.S. government has operated the casino since 1990, when it seized a controlling interest after a drug and money-laundering investigation.

There's a new sound in Las Vegas, one that's getting louder and stronger than the cling-clangs and the boop-boops of slot machines: the ka-ching ka-ching of cash registers. They're ringing at Gucci, Armani, Hugo Boss, Neiman Marcus and Donna Karan, words once as foreign to Vegas as "good taste." That's because Las Vegas isn't just a mecca for gamblers--it's also becoming a shopper's paradise.

Here's some of what Las Vegas-bound shopaholics can expect in the next few years: * The Venetian, set to open in spring of 1999 on the site of the former Sands Hotel, will boast 800,000 square feet of retail space when Phases 1 and 2 are completed. The Grand Canal Shoppes will feature a replica of Venice's Grand Canal, complete with working gondolas, arched bridges and a replica of the city's Piazza San Marco, all circa the 15th century.

The City Council on Thursday approved a $1.8-billion plan to make Detroit the largest city in the country with casino gambling, despite complaints that blacks were shut out of the project and concerns about the riverfront location. The plan to build three casinos in a warehouse district east of downtown on the Detroit River now goes to the Michigan Gaming Control Board for review.

The U.S. Department of the Interior on Saturday endorsed the first state-sanctioned Indian casino in California--approving a pact that most of the other gambling tribes oppose. The four-page endorsement, signed by Kevin Gover, the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs under Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, gave the federal imprimatur to a controversial compact between Gov. Pete Wilson and the Pala Band of Mission Indians, allowing the San Diego County tribe to open a reservation casino.