Opinion: Romney no gambling man

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As The Times noted yesterday in Dan Morain’s fascinating piece on politics and Nevada’s gambling industry, Mitt Romney, a Mormon, is one of the few politicians who has ventured to Las Vegas this year and not accepted significant sums from the state’s powerful gambling industry. What are the odds of that?

He did tap into the Silver State’s developers, business owners and others to the tune of $400,000, with only one donor listing a casino as his employer.

However, last year during the former Massachusetts Governor’s tenure as chairman of the Republican Governors Assn., gambling interests (in Nevada it’s called gaming) poured $1.8 million into the RGA’s campaign account. Harrah’s Entertainment alone contributed more than a third of that total, $665,000, according to a Times review of finance reports.

Between 2002 and 2006, casino companies, tribes that own casinos, lottery companies and other casino-related businesses gave $8.24 million to the RGA.

— Andrew Malcolm