Counsel OK’d lawmakers’ trips paid by poker firm

CARSON CITY -- Legislative Counsel Brenda Erdoes said Monday she advised three legislators that it was appropriate for them to take "educational, fact-finding" overseas trips last year at the expense of an Internet poker company.

Erdoes said she told Democratic Assembly members Kelvin Atkinson of North Las Vegas and William Horne of Las Vegas and Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, also of Las Vegas, that the trips paid for by PokerStars were permissible because of the likelihood of online poker becoming a legislative issue.

Horne and Atkinson spent 2½ days in London to be shown the company's products. Horsford was flown to the Bahamas for a meeting with the company.

Horne, chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, has introduced Assembly Bill 258, which would authorize the Nevada Gaming Commission to adopt regulations for online poker.

None of the legislators was required to report the trip as gifts on their annual financial disclosure statements, Erdoes said.

Atkinson said Friday that the trips had been approved by Erdoes and that taking them violated no ethics laws.