Gaming board unaware of DeNaples inquiry before issuing license, says former chair
BY ROBERT SWIFT
HARRISBURG BUREAU CHIEF
03/06/2008
HARRISBURG – The former chair of the state Gaming Control Board said Wednesday his agency’s investigators didn’t make a perjury referral to state police concerning Dunmore businessman Louis A. DeNaples and said the board didn’t know of an ongoing perjury investigation when it awarded DeNaples his slots license.
The response by Thomas A. “Tad” Decker, a Philadelphia lawyer, is sharply at odds with testimony by Col. Jeffrey Miller on Tuesday that gaming board investigators not only made the perjury referral, but they were aware of the resulting investigation and that one or more board members were aware, too.
It sharpens a key dispute in a controversy between the gaming board and Pennsylvania State Police over whether state investigative agencies cooperated fully in sharing information about DeNaples, owner of Mount Airy Casino Resort. He was charged in January with lying about ties to organized crime figures during the slots licensing process in 2006. DeNaples maintains his innocence.
“We didn’t send a perjury referral,” Decker said in a telephone interview. “This is just flat out not true.”
