CREW Requests Senate Ethics Committee Investigate Sen. McCain's Failure to Disclose Gambling Winnings

Business Wire, Oct 9, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether Senator John McCain (R-AZ) violated federal law and Senate rules by failing to disclose gambling winnings on his Senate financial disclosure reports.

According to a recent article in The New York Times, Sen. McCain is an avid gambler, who frequents casinos as often as once a month. The article states that in the winter of 2000, at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, "[Sen. McCain] and his entourage emerged with thousands of dollars in winnings." Sen. McCain also reportedly spent a weekend at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2007, playing craps while there.

In July, Time reported that over the past decade, Sen. McCain has gambled on Mississippi riverboats, on Indian land, in Caribbean craps pits and on the Las Vegas strip, allegedly playing "for a few thousand dollars at a time." In 2005, The New Yorker reported that while in New Orleans in the spring of that year, Sen. McCain gambled at Harrah's Casino.

Federal law and Senate rules require all income to be reported on annual financial disclosure reports. The Senate Ethics Manual states that winnings, such as those derived from a lottery or a game show, are gifts that must be reported as income. Knowingly filing a false report is a crime punishable by up to five years in jail.

Nevertheless, Sen. McCain reported no income derived from gambling on the personal financial disclosure reports he filed with the Senate between 2000 and 2007.

In contrast, other members of Congress, including Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) all reported winnings on their financial disclosure reports.

CREW's executive director Melanie Sloan stated, "Given Sen. McCain's long history of gambling, the fact that he never included gambling income on his financial disclosure forms suggests he is either the unluckiest gambler ever or, more likely, he failed to report the income."

Sloan continued, "The Senate Ethics Committee should investigate whether Sen. McCain deliberately failed to report gambling winnings, and if so, the matter should be turned over to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation."

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions. For more information, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact Peter Bjork at 202.408.5565/pbjork@citizensforethics.org.