Ryan seeks to restore public faith in Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

By Suzette Parmley

Inquirer Staff Writer

HARRISBURG – The powerful board that regulates Pennsylvania's nearly $3 billion casino industry took a hit after a grand jury report questioned whether it was too cozy with the gambling operators it was supposed to regulate and less interested with protecting the public's welfare than in boosting casino profits.

The scathing 102-page report by the state attorney general, released in late May, criticized the board's use of secret meetings and suggested the agency awarded licenses to unsuitable applicants and withheld critical information that deemed them as such. It also issued a range of recommendations on how the board should change to restore the public's trust.

William H. Ryan Jr., 62, who was second in command in the Attorney General's Office during the two-year probe, finds himself in an interesting position – he was sworn in Aug. 29 as the new chairman of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

As deputy attorney general and head of the criminal law division, Ryan believed that the seven-member gaming board should not investigate itself. He testified before the House Appropriations Committee in March that the Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement (BIE) should be moved away from the board. He hasn't wavered.

"On balance, I think it's a good idea to separate the BIE," Ryan said last week in his first interview as gaming board chair. "I think it makes sense putting it with a law enforcement agency, like the AG or the State Police."

The BIE investigates and vets casino applicants, operators, employees, and vendors.

"There is an argument on the other side that you increase efficiency by keeping it where it is," he said. "But on balance, it's safer for everybody by moving it."

The issue is before the General Assembly as Ryan starts his new job. State Rep. Curt Schroder (R., Chester), chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee, sponsored legislation passed by the House in February that would remove the BIE from the gaming board's jurisdiction.

The Senate has yet to take up the bill, but Schroder is hopeful that Ryan's arrival at the board will encourage the upper chamber to act on it.

Ryan's appointment, Schroder said, "signals a promising new direction at the PGCB."