By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 14, 2006

A gambling promoter from the U.S. Virgin Islands is launching a fresh attempt to legalize slot machines in the nation's capital, filing requests yesterday with the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics to put the issue on the November ballot.

Under his latest proposal, Shawn A. Scott, who owes the District $622,880 in fines for violating local election laws during his previous slots campaign, would build a gambling hall with as many as 3,500 slot machines at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Good Hope Road SE in the heart of historic Anacostia.

As in the past, Scott is proposing to split his profits with the city, paying a quarter of his earnings in taxes and keeping 75 percent of an operation that could bring in as much as $765 million a year, according to previous estimates. One version of the proposal would give Scott a 10-year monopoly on gambling in the District, and another would authorize D.C. Lottery officials to award as many gambling licenses as they choose.

"Shawn thinks there's a possibility this could work and would be a terrific thing. It's a great opportunity," said Deborah Deitsch-Perez, an attorney for Scott. Anacostia "is a place that could benefit from the money that would come in, and the people who invest could also make money. It's potentially a very good thing."

Activists who challenged Scott's 2004 slots bid were less enthusiastic about his return.

"Nothing ceases to amaze me about this," said Dorothy Brizill, executive director of DCWatch, a government watchdog group. "But with all the bad publicity and all the money they've already spent, why would they come back so soon?"

Scott, 39, is a real estate and gambling entrepreneur who operates out of St. Croix. He and his associates have bought or developed more than a dozen gambling ventures in the past decade, including hotel casinos in Las Vegas, video poker bars in Louisiana and South Carolina and horse tracks in Louisiana, New York and Maine.

Scott and his associates have since sold those properties, in many cases as state regulators pressed for more information about their complicated web of more than 140 privately held companies and partnerships. Last year, New York gaming officials denied Scott a license to operate a horse track in Upstate New York after finding that Scott lied on his application. The case is being appealed.

In early 2004, Scott proposed to build a gambling hall on New York Avenue NE at Bladensburg Road. After recruiting former D.C. council member John Ray and businessman Pedro Alfonso to serve as the public face of the initiative, Scott and his associates spent more than $2 million, much of it on attorneys' fees and a frenzied five-day petition drive aimed at collecting enough signatures to get the measure on the November 2004 ballot.

After Brizill and others challenged the legality of the campaign, the elections board found that it was marred by "systemic" violations of election laws, including D.C. residents falsely claiming on petition affidavits to have gathered hundreds of signatures that were actually collected by professional election workers flown in from other states.

The D.C. elections board levied its largest penalty ever, and Scott has appealed. Another hearing on the fine is set for May.

Scott recruited a new D.C. resident to promote his plan: Barry Jerrels, a political activist who lives downtown and works for an inventory management firm. Jerrels filed the initiatives yesterday with the elections board and is likely to head the political committee that will spend Scott's money in support of the initiative, according to those involved.

Yesterday, Jerrels denied knowing Scott and referred questions to his attorney, Jeff Robinson, who confirmed Scott's involvement.

Scott has not been able to secure land for a gambling hall. The site mentioned in the initiative is owned by MLK Commercial Development LLC, which is affiliated with the Anacostia Economic Development Corp. and is working to build a retail and entertainment development on the property. Albert "Butch" Hopkins, AEDC's president and chief executive, said Robinson approached him about leasing some space, but Hopkins said he has cut no deals.