BOPTROT felon pushing for Stumbo’s slots bill
By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com
A former Kentucky state lawmaker who went to prison for taking gambling-related bribes in the 1990s’ Operation BOPTROT scandal is working behind the scenes this winter for House Speaker Greg Stumbo’s slots bill.
Former Rep. Jerry Bronger, D-Louisville, met with Stumbo at the Capitol on Jan. 15 and discussed Stumbo’s bill to allow electronic slots machines at horse racetracks. Bronger said he strongly supports Stumbo’s bill and agreed to reach out to his old friends in the legislature and the racetrack industry to promote it.
In an interview Monday, Bronger said his interest is purely as a politically savvy Kentuckian who supports horse racing, and he is not a paid lobbyist for Stumbo or anyone else.
“I told him, I came out and said to him, ‘Greg, the only thing about this is, can you get the Senate? I don’t think you’re gonna get the Senate,’” said Bronger, now 73 and retired. “I told him all I could do is keep talking, y’know, and try to get everybody, try to see everybody that’s down there who I know.”
Bronger once was chairman of the powerful House committee that oversaw state licensing of the racetracks. He pleaded guilty in 1992 to taking $2,000 in bribes from Bill McBee, a former state lawmaker turned lobbyist, to block a proposal the racetracks opposed. The measure would have prohibited tracks from simulcasting and taking bets on races involving different breeds than the tracks ran live. Bronger served 10 months in federal prison.
The undercover FBI investigation known as BOPTROT rocked Frankfort in the 1990s and exposed 15 current or former lawmakers who sold their votes, mostly on gambling and racing legislation. Then-House Speaker Don Blandford was among the politicians sent to prison with Bronger.
Opponents of Stumbo’s slots bill on Monday called it “a bad omen” that the new House speaker is bringing in disgraced BOPTROT alumni to lobby for it.
“I would think the last thing this bill’s supporters would want is to be haunted by the ghost of gambling bills past, particularly the bills that led to the BOPTROT scandal,” said Martin Cothran, spokesman for Say No to Casinos. “With friends like this, the bill doesn’t need any enemies.”
Stumbo’s general counsel, Pierce Whites, confirmed that Stumbo and Bronger met at the Capitol last month, and “it is entirely possible” the slots bill came up during their conversation, Whites said.
However, Stumbo and Bronger are simply longtime friends who were catching up with each other, Whites said. Anything that Bronger has offered to do for the slots bill is his own idea, Whites said.
“I think Jerry Bronger is just a private citizen who thinks this is a good bill. That is the extent of it as far as the speaker’s office is aware,” Whites said. “There is no official, or indeed unofficial, role for Jerry Bronger to be playing on behalf of the speaker.”
Asked if Stumbo is wary of someone convicted in BOPTROT making calls for his slots bill, Whites said: “I understand that a cautious or a timid politician certainly would have said, ‘Oh please, leave me out of this.’ But Greg Stumbo is very faithful to his friends. He has known Mr. Bronger and his family for a long, long time, and no, he would never say ‘Don’t speak out on what you believe in.’”
On Monday, Bronger said he grew up in the racing industry, had relatives employed in racing and feels a strong empathy for the future of racing in Kentucky. It’s obvious that the state’s racetracks need expanded gambling in order to compete with the full-fledged casinos operating in states north of the Kentucky border, Bronger said.
“When you see every damn car going in these places, 90 percent of them are from Kentucky,” Bronger said. “You see all these people going over there to Indiana and to Illinois and to Ohio to gamble. Aren’t we kind of nuts to not be getting in on this somehow?”
Updated 4:45 p.m.: Pierce Whites called several hours later Monday from the speaker’s office to “clarify” his earlier comments. Stumbo now disputes Bronger’s account of their conversation and denies that they discussed his slots bill when they met at the Capitol last month, Whites said.
About the Author: 
IMHO | Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
Can anyone honestly say they are surprised by this?
Debra | Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
The title of this article is sensationalist reporting at its worst! Most informed, intelligent people with any connection to the horse industry understand that expanded gaming would help the signature industry in Kentucky compete with the rest of the country.
Opponents of gaming are not being realistic about the fact that people in Kentucky just go elseware to gamble if they enjoy it, and Kentucky is the loser, which suits those facilities north just fine.
It’s time that Kenutcky legislators get smart and become non partisan on this issue to help this state instead of others!
Serah wier | Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
Is this the best friend Stumbo can find to support his bill? He’s in alot of trouble. Who really wants the racetracks to be supported? Probably the illegal alliens they hire.
IMHO | Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
The long-term effects of the casinos to support the race tracks is not known. It has yet to be seen how the effects of diminishing returns will impact both. Casinos are not recession proof as evidenced now and if the gist of the matter is the casinos will support the purses at the horse races, there are legitimate questions to sustainability.
Anonymous | Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
Wow, I thought the LHL had forgotten about BOPTROT…we’re going through another big federal investigation with Lawson, Nighbert, Fletcher and company…and when I heard it I remembered BOPTROT and how it helped clean out some of the trash in Frankfort at the time, and how it was about time we had another trash cleaning.
george | Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
Well that just threw the corpse in the hole. With advocates like that you do not need any enemies.
Thunder Storm | Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
Remember the earlier Lex Herald article that stated Churchill and Keenelend combined need less than $35m to compete with all states but they are willing to spend hundreds of million$ on VLT’s. Can’t understand the logic.
This whole argument is bogus. Horse tracks don’t need money to attract horses, their ego’s dictate they want the best horses.
Gamblers don’t give a darn about the quality of horses, they just want to gamble. In last nights Super Bowl Las Vegas betting, there was a betting line on how long the girl would take to sing the national anthem. The line was 2 minutes. She took 2 mins 13 secs.
People just want to gamble, we have Kentuckians who go to WV to bet at the dog tracks, we have cock fighting for gamblers. We have the lottery and bingo.
The gambling bill for casinos is so our elected politicans can line the pockets of rich horse owners and rich casino owners in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. It is not for the benefit of regular Kentuckians.
I don’t want to hear horse farms create jobs, it does but for mostly for non-americans.
This is the typical rich taking care of the rich on the backs of a predominately poor and underemployed populace. Rich people do not gamble at the tracks on a day to day race meet schedule. They are at their job working.
Build them, I don’t care because I’ll never darken the door of a racino and I hope no one else does.
Thunder Storm | Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
This makes me so mad. Wouldn’t it bring in the same money to state government if we just raised our sales tax a penny, gas tax, 15 cents a gallon, cigs, a dollar, and liquor, 25%.
Then we wouldn’t have to deal with all the problems racinos bring with them and ALL THE MONEY WOULD STAY IN KENTUCKY and not go to Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
Do YOU want to fund the oppulent lifestyles of Donald Trump, Steve Wynn and their friends?
Commonwealth Progress | Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
Informed, intelligent people? How many books have you read about slots? How much have you studied how much slots have been a long-term help to racing? How much do you know about how slots have helped state budgets? Informed and intelligent? Please.
Commonwealth Progress | Feb 2, 2009 | Reply
My point is that people who advocate for slot machines as an “informed and intelligent” solution to the horse industry’s woes and state government’s budget problems literally don’t know jack.
Bleu | Feb 3, 2009 | Reply
Another Stumbo lie; To every Representative who voted for Stumbo as speaker. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself.
T Stone | Feb 3, 2009 | Reply
Maybe Pierce Whites can indict Cheves for some trumped up charges for daring to impugn the Gregster. Has Bronger registered as a lobbyist?
Bleu | Feb 3, 2009 | Reply
The scary thing T Stone is that your right. No doubt Stumbo has had his thugs go and shut Bronger up.
And every Senator, Representative and Judge needs to take note that there has already been documented and filed against the OAG allegations of computer hacking by the cyber crimes unit. It’s just not computers they are getting into, but blackberry phones.
It seems that they are exploiting vulnerabilities in Yahoo mail and messenger which allows them to program pings which let the hackers know who you are calling, and who is calling you. In addition to forwarding the text messages.
RayC | Feb 3, 2009 | Reply
If my memory serves me right, McBee was still a legislator, not a lobbyist when BOPTROT happened. The lobbyist, whose name I can’t recall, lobbied for the Utily Companies. He also was a big-shot lobbyist in DC at the time.
John Cheves | Feb 3, 2009 | Reply
RayC: Bill McBee left the House of Representatives in 1990 and returned to Frankfort as a lobbyist in 1991. Operation BOPTROT happened in 1992.
Blast from the past | Feb 4, 2009 | Reply
So when will Kent Downey and Joe Barrows make their appearances in this carnival of crooks & liars?
Cheap Jordans | May 5, 2011 | Reply
Clothes, shoes, wholesale and retail football team under a single large concessions standard welcome!