‘Tony’ Hope, 63; Comic’s Son Led Gaming Panel

Anthony J. “Tony” Hope, the former head of the 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 Monday at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., after a brief illness, according to a press release from Bob Hope Enterprises.

Hope’s death came less than a year after his father died of pneumonia at the age of 100 at his Toluca Lake home.

Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 to serve as chairman of the new National Indian Gaming Commission, Tony Hope held that post through the early years of the Clinton administration, leaving in 1994.

As head of that commission, Hope 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. As the first head of a newly instituted commission, Hope 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.

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 probe. Responding to the indictment, 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 offense at the remark, saying that Hope was equating members of the tribes with cockroaches. Hope responded: “My only comment on something like this is I’m a regulator and I’m doing my job.”

The post was Hope’s fourth presidential appointment to a government commission but by far his most important. President Ford appointed him vice president of finance for the Overseas Private Investment Corp., and President Carter named him to the Government Management Improvement Council. In the early 1980s, President Reagan appointed him to the Grace Commission, which was formed to find waste and fraud in the federal government.

Hope’s single run for elective office came in the 1986 Republican primary race against Simi Valley Mayor Elton Gallegly for the 21st Congressional District seat vacated by Rep. Bobbi Fiedler. Despite the presumed advantage in name recognition and funding, Hope was defeated by Gallegly in what was viewed as a major upset.

Born in Chicago, 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.

Hope, who had been in the ROTC at Harvard, served in the Air Force after earning his law degree. After leaving the service, he worked as director of business affairs at 20th Century Fox Studios.

Hope moved to Washington in 1975 and worked as a consultant and lobbyist representing the Touche Ross accounting firm and Mutual of Omaha in their Washington relations. Hope worked in New Hampshire for George H.W. Bush’s presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1988.

In addition to his mother, Hope is survived by his wife of 12 years, Paula Nickey Hope; two children, Zachary and Miranda; a sister, Linda Hope; and a brother, William Kelley Hope.

A private funeral is planned. Instead of flowers, the family suggests that donations be made to the National Institute of Transplantation in Los Angeles.