The Gambling Blues

Tough times apparently have hit Capital Gaming, the gambling company behind the proposed West Warwick, Rhode Island casino. According to a WJAR-TV news report May 3, 1999 by Jim Taricani, the most recent Securities and Exchange filing by the company shows earnings off "nearly 26 percent" over the last six months of 1998. The financial documents warn there is "no assurance" that Rhode Island will approve the casino and "no assurance that financing will be available" for the West Warwick casino.

Gambling has been a complete fiasco in New Orleans, where a sparkling new facility now lies vacant. Indeed, former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards is under indictment "for accepting bribes in exchange for casino licenses" in that city.

If that were not sobering enough news on the gambling front, Channel 10 reporter Dan Jaehnig also reported that night that a state police report found evidence that a heavy gambling addiction drove Central Falls Police Chief Thomas Moffatt to borrow over $70,000 from 26 subordinate officers, some of whom were under consideration for promotion. In addition, Moffatt is accused in the police report of stealing money from public accounts in order to finance his gambling addiction. Moffatt committed suicide last Fall.

The next night, Dyana Koelsch did a follow-up piece to Taricani's story, reporting that of the four Indian tribe casinos managed by Capital Gaming, one contract already has lapsed (the Muckelshoots tribe in Washington) and two more are expected to come to an end next year (the Tonto Apache casino in Arizona and the Umatilla tribe casino in Oregon). That will leave Capitol Gaming with management over only one Indian casino, that of the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico, which just opened.

Koelsch noted that the company has an $18.5 loan note due on May, 2001 and according to company financial reports, this is "money ... it doesn't have."

"How can a company like this finance the proposed $250 million Narragansett Indian casino," Koelsch wanted to know.