HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell says he's confident that a grand jury will find nothing inappropriate in the way the Gaming Control Board awarded slots licenses in 2006.

"The Gaming Control Board did a solid job" in granting the slots licenses for racetrack/casinos and stand-alone casinos, such as the Rivers Casino on Pittsburgh's North Shore, Mr. Rendell said yesterday. "There wasn't any political influence."

He said the awarding of the licenses has already been investigated by "the FBI, the U.S. attorney and everybody under the sun" and nothing has been found.

He recalled former Mayor Tom Murphy's claim in early 2006 that "the fix is in" regarding the awarding of the Pittsburgh casino license.

Some people thought Station Square would get the license because Forest City Enterprises officials had contributed to Mr. Rendell's gubernatorial campaign. But instead the license went to Don Barden of Detroit, a minority businessman who had selected a North Shore location.

Mr. Rendell, who appointed three of the seven gaming board members, said he never told his appointees what to do, and neither did the four legislative leaders, each of whom named one board member.

"I wanted them to pick the best applicant," he said. "The licenses were handed out based on the qualifications of the applicants. This has already been looked at. There isn't the slightest problem at all."

Nonetheless, the Gaming Control Board is providing information requested by the grand jury, which is sitting in Pittsburgh and believed to be looking into how at least two licenses, the one in Pittsburgh and one in the Poconos, were awarded.

"This agency, to date, has been cooperating in all respects with the attorney general's requests" for data, gaming board spokesman Doug Harbach said, adding that Attorney General Tom Corbett has asked the board "not to comment on the particulars of his ongoing investigation."

There has been controversy over the board's decision in December 2006 to award the Pittsburgh slots license to Mr. Barden, who ultimately was unable to develop sufficient financing. In mid-2008, he brought in additional investors, led by Chicago businessman Neil Bluhm, who basically took over the project. The Rivers Casino opened in Pittsburgh in August.

Former Barden spokesman Bob Oltmanns said the process of awarding the license was fair and called the grand jury investigation a "political witch hunt." He said Mr. Barden's firm, PITG Gaming, won the license "on merit, under the law, and within the rules."

He said Mr. Barden's inability to secure permanent financing was due to the "historic collapse of the global credit markets" in 2007 and 2008.

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