Group against the Gambling Expansion

A group of New Yorkers intend to fight against MGM Mirage's association with a Chinese businesswoman with Macau casino plans. The coalition's leader, the Rev. Gary Kellner criticized the Gaming Control Board's unanimous suitability recommendation of the relationship between MGM Mirage and Pansy Ho in the $1.1 billion MGM Grand Macau.

In the meantime, Nevada gaming regulators rejected the 300-page packet of documents provided by Gary Kellner, as material that had already been investigated by state gaming agents. Also, it was suggested that the group might have gotten its information from a rival casino operator.

Pansy is the daughter of controversial Chinese billionaire Stanley Ho, on which businesses were made accusations for years that his Macau gambling halls have been involved with organized crime groups engaged in money washing, credit sharking, drug trafficking and prostitution.

The Nevada Gaming Commission will meet later this month to act on the control board's recommendation. But Kellner concluded that he believes it's a predetermined decision the commission will accept the result. Also, he said the packet of information was also given to New Jersey gaming authorities. From here he expects to hear a favorable decision. “This is a matter of national security. It’s not about building another casino in Nevada”, Kellner mentioned.

Kellner's group, Family Focus, disseminated the 300-page document to gaming regulators and the media, the day before the five-hour hearing by the Gaming Control Board in which Pansy Ho told regulators her father does not influence her business choices. Sources on the Internet showed that Kellner, who has worked with several evangelical and Pentecostal Christian ministries, said his group was created to fight a pitch by New York's Seneca Indian tribe, which intended to build a casino near Buffalo, N.Y.

In a statement Kellner contradicted the remarks, saying he formed the group to contest MGM Mirage. In addition, Kellner sustained his organization has not received financial support from anyone including MGM Mirage's rival casino operators. There was a confusion between Kellner’s group name Focus Family and similar that of Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based national conservative association that also combat casino gambling. Moreover, none of the two organizations has heard of one another.

Kellner assumed his group is contesting all casino expansion, "but we understand is not possible to shut down Las Vegas and stop Indian gaming all together." He declared that the 300-page material was provided by a salient person from U.S. gaming regulatory body. The packet included national and international newspaper articles on Pansy Ho and Stanley Ho and two suspected "confidential investigative reports" on the business between Stanley Ho and Pansy Ho.

Kellner said his alarm was given by a 2005 Wall Street Journal article that claimed a Hong Kong bank controlled by Stanley Ho was being investigated by U.S. authorities. Gaming Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander said he was given a copy of the 300-page packet and he was assured by staff that gaming agents were familiar with the materials, but wouldn't disclose who produced the documents.

Gaming regulators were not interested by Stanley Ho press during the hearing. They concentrate the investigation only on Pansy Ho and her business associate and sister, Daisy Ho. The two sisters told gaming regulators the size of their initial investment into the MGM Mirage casino came through money provided by their father in the form of a trust fund.

After the hearing, MGM Mirage Chairman Terry Lanni said the two investigative reports were financed by a "rival casino operator" but he didn’t name the company.