GOP Struggles With Issue of Gambling : Politics: Contributions and support from gaming interests clash with the strong conservative current now running through the party.

Political high rollers attending the Western States Republican Leadership Conference here last week laughed when Las Vegas’ mayor cracked a gaming joke. But many of those laughs sounded nervous.

“I have worked with all of the casinos,” Mayor Jan Jones deadpanned in her welcome speech at the MGM Grand Hotel. “They have decided that if you don’t regulate us at the federal level, we will fix our slots. . . . What that means is, none of you can lose if you decide to play.”

For some conservatives, though, gambling is no laughing matter.

As both political parties and some presidential candidates rake in a growing jackpot of contributions from sources connected to the gaming industry, critics worry that the fix may indeed be in.

“I think it’s a mistake for either political party to be taking money from gambling interests,” Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) said, pointing to cases of local politicians caught up in corruption scandals in Louisiana and other locations that have recently embraced gaming.

Then there is the question of how Republicans can push so hard for family values, personal responsibility and the work ethic and then hold a major conference in a town once known as Sin City.

The debate about gambling got shoved into the GOP presidential campaign when, at last month’s Christian Coalition convention, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) linked it to “the moral erosion” of the United States, calling it a threat to “the fabric of family and community strength.”

But even Lugar--who is co-sponsoring legislation to set up a national gaming commission to study the issue--got a reminder recently of how widespread the industry has become. The Indianapolis Star reported that a few days before his Christian Coalition talk, Lugar’s presidential campaign accepted $1,500 from the Pritzker family, whose Hyatt hotels--like other chains, including Hilton and Holiday Inn--now earn a big chunk of their profits from casinos.

Contributions to Lugar’s campaign, however, were penny ante compared to industry-linked largess given to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), the GOP front-runner. Dole took in $477,450 at a single June fund-raiser put together by the Mirage Resorts and its owner, Steve Wynn, figures first reported by the Wall Street Journal show.

The industry is even more generous in its contributions to the parties. The public interest research group Common Cause found that in 1993 and 1994, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of Connecticut gave a total of $465,000--mainly to Democrats.

Overall, contributions are edging toward the GOP, with industry donors ranging from Hollywood Park to Bally’s contributing $708,869 to the Democrats and $933,369 to the Republicans during that two-year period, according to the Common Cause study.

At the Republican gathering in Las Vegas--attended by GOP activists from throughout the West--national party Chairman Haley Barbour attempted to brush off reporters’ questions about whether the gambling issue might affect the 1996 campaign.

Reminded, though, that social conservatives who wield considerable clout have already declared it an issue, Barbour shifted gears and laid out the standard catalogue of benefits cited by proponents of legal gaming: The industry contributes taxes, provides employment and encourages development.

“I come from the heart of the Bible belt,” the Mississippi native said. “My state has a very large, successful gaming industry. It has very broad support in our state. And we have found that properly regulated, there is none of the negative that people want to put on it.”

Just how mainstream gambling has become was clear at the conference. The meeting’s chairman, Las Vegas businessman Tom Weisner, used the podium to praise the efforts of past national party Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf--who now heads the American Gaming Assn., where he works to promote gambling’s image.

Weisner himself offers two business cards. One is his red, white and blue Nevada Republican Committee card, the other is shaped like a bone and advertises the bars, cafes and casinos owned by his Big Dog Hospitality Group.

Weisner doesn’t tiptoe around the gaming issue. “I think it should be everywhere,” he said.

“No! No! No! No!” responded the Rev. Lou Sheldon, chairman of the Orange County, Calif.-based Traditional Values Coalition. “City after city has been saying no to legalized gambling.”

Voters have realized, he says, that gambling “has no socially redeeming value.”

In one sense, that is the issue that underlies the debate: Is gambling good for U.S. communities?

The Republican candidates who spoke at the conference--Dole, Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, former State Department official Alan Keyes, publisher Malcolm S. (Steve) Forbes Jr., Rep. Robert K. Dornan of Garden Grove and businessman Morry Taylor--scrupulously avoided the gaming issue in their talks. Local reporters and some who attended the conference pushed hard for the candidates’ positions on gambling, but with mixed results.

Dole headed off to another engagement before reporters could corner him. His campaign did not return calls from The Times seeking details of his position on the gambling question.

At a news conference after his talk, Gramm said that he doesn’t sift through contributors to determine their beliefs or the sources of their income, and that he is never swayed by any contributor’s agenda anyway--the same position taken by Dole and Lugar.

Still, reporters peppered Gramm with gaming-related questions: How do you respond to people who say that gambling brings in crime and a bad element? Will the gambling issue tear the party apart?

Gramm gave essentially the same response: “States make decisions about gambling. . . . As President, I’m not going to try to tell states how to make those decisions.”

Finally, baffled by the single-mindedness of the questioning, Gramm said: “Listen, I don’t know how you’ve gotten off on that issue, but it is not a federal issue . . . “

Thirty feet away, behind swinging doors, slot machines filled the huge MGM Grand casino with their siren song of cascading coins.