September/October 1996 Issue

Betting with the House

He’s been making the country safe for the growing casino industry.

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Politics and big business usually go hand in hand, and as the freshman congressman from Las Vegas, John Ensign (R-Nev.) represents a truly big business.

As an industry, casino gambling pulled in $470 billion in wagers last year, an increase of 15 percent over 1994 and roughly 20 times what Americans spent on movies, sporting events, concerts, and theme parks combined. Nevada alone accounts for half of all casino betting in the country.

Ensign’s ties to gambling go beyond politics. His father, Michael S. Ensign, is a former casino owner and current vice chairman of Circus Circus Enterprises, one of the nation’s largest hotel and casino empires. The younger Ensign even managed two of his father’s casinos before they were sold to Circus Circus.

So it was a sure bet Ensign would be a major player on the Hill. It didn’t take him long to hit the jackpot: a seat on the House Ways and Means Committee. As Ensign faces re-election, the money is rolling in. According to FEC records, he has topped all other House freshmen in 1995-96 so far, raising more than $319,000 from PACs. Add another $454,000 from wealthy individuals, and, with other monies, by July 2 of this year, Ensign had reported raising $819,654.

Jon Ralston, who publishes “The Ralston Report,” a biweekly newsletter on Nevada politics, estimates Ensign will raise about $1.5 million to defend his seat this year, a fifth of which may come from the gambling industry.

Ensign represents these donors well. This year he strongly opposed a bill to create a national commission to investigate gambling, and last year he backed an amendment to levy corporate income taxes against Indian casinos, traditionally the gaming companies’ biggest rivals.

Bob Coffin, Ensign’s Democratic opponent this November, intends to make Ensign’s PAC money a campaign issue. He also claims that several Las Vegas contractors have told him they can’t donate to his campaign, for fear Circus Circus might use its economic clout against them.

Says Coffin, “[Ensign’s] family has a lot of power in this town, and they’re putting a lot of pressure on people.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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