Saturday, November 25, 2006

Dan Gustafson, a former three-term state legislator from Haslett, has always
opposed casino gambling in Detroit. Yet for the past four years he has
served in an unlikely position: executive director of the Michigan Gaming
Control Board, the watchdog state regulatory agency that oversees the $1.2
billion casino industry in Detroit. Today, Gustafson is stepping down from
that post to become president and CEO of Health Care Association of
Michigan, a group that represents some 300 senior citizen nursing homes in
the state. Many believe Gustafson, 47, is leaving the gaming board in a
better position, with new policies and procedures in place that make the
105-member department more lean and efficient. "I think he's done a great
job," said Tom Shield, a Lansing lobbyist for MotorCity Casino who has
followed Gustafson's political career for the past 20 years. "This was a
position that was regulatory in nature but required someone to use good,
common sense. Gustafson did that. He also fine-tuned the regulations to make
them work better for everyone." Gustafson announced several months ago that
he was leaving the $113,000-a-year job, two years short of the six-year
appointment by former Gov. John Engler. Gov. Jennifer Granholm has not
announced Gustafson's replacement. Gustafson said he took the Health Care
Association job to give himself and his family job security for the first
time. "For the past 20 years, I've gone from election to election to either
hold office or be appointed to an office," he said. "I wanted something more
stable so I wasn't always looking over my shoulder to see who got elected to
determine where my next job might be." Despite his anti-gambling stance,
Gustafson said he has made significant accomplishments at the gaming board.

"The agency has matured in the past four years," he said. "We have become
much more efficient."

Gustafson said when he arrived in 2002 there was a backlog of more than
2,000 casino employees who needed extensive background checks before they
could obtain a permanent worker's license. He said the gaming board now has
a system in place in which a temporary license can be issued in three days
and a permanent license within a month. There is no longer a backlog.

He has also implemented a retraining program for all employees to keep them
abreast of new rules, regulations and procedures.

And he admitted he has mellowed his position just a bit on casino gambling.
He sees some upsides.

"Detroit casinos have created thousands of jobs and are paying hundreds of
millions of dollars in taxes to the state and city," Gustafson said. "As
long as the state can stay on top of the casinos and be very effective
keeping out organized crime and keep the games fair and honest, the casinos
are an asset at this point.