Tony Hope

ANTHONY J "Tony" Hope, the former head of the United States National Indian Gaming Commission and a son of comedian Bob Hope, has died. He was 63. Hope, who made an unsuccessful run for a California congressional seat in 1986, died less than a year after his father died of pneumonia at the age of 100.

Appointed by President George Bush snr in 1990 to serve as chairman of the new National Indian Gaming Commission, Mr Hope held that post through the early years of the Clinton administration, leaving in 1994. As head of the commission, he oversaw a panel that regulated and monitored the lucrative industry of bingo and other gambling on Indian reservations.

His role on the commission was not free of controversy, however. He encountered resistance from most tribes, which thought the commission was a violation of tribal sovereignty. Supporters of the legislation that created the commission contended that, without outside monitoring, the tribal gaming industry was a potential haven for criminal activities. Mr Hope himself added some fuel to the fire in 1994, after managers of Casino Morongo, on the Morongo Reservation near Banning, were indicted for alleged money laundering and racketeering in a federal investigation. Responding to the indictment, Mr Hope was quoted as saying: "I look at this indictment the way you look at finding cockroaches in your kitchen. You know you’re going to find a lot more before you’re finished."

Several tribal leaders took offence at the remark, saying that Mr Hope was equating members of the tribes with cockroaches.

The post was his fourth presidential appointment to a government commission, but by far his most important. Gerald Ford appointed him vice-president of finance for the Overseas Private Investment Corp, and Jimmy Carter named him to the government management improvement council. In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Grace Commission, which was formed to find waste and fraud in the federal government.

Mr Hope’s single run for elective office came in the 1986 Republican primary race against the mayor of Simi Valley, Elton Gallegly, for the seat vacated by Representative Bobbi Fiedler. Despite the presumed advantage in name recognition and funding, he was defeated by Mr Gallegly in what was viewed as a major upset.

Born in Chicago, Tony Hope was adopted by the comedian and his wife, Dolores, shortly after his birth in 1940. The family soon moved to Los Angeles, where Hope graduated from Loyola High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Georgetown University and a law degree at Harvard.

After service in the air force, he worked as director of business affairs at 20th Century Fox Studios before moving to Washington in 1975 where he worked as a consultant and lobbyist representing the Touche Ross accounting firm and Mutual of Omaha in their Washington relations.