Free Republic

Casinos are not like Starbucks stores: You really can’t have one on every corner. That’s the word from David Cordish, whose company is opening a huge new casino next month in Maryland. Yet Cordish warns that the expansion of casino gambling can’t go on unchecked forever. A big problem is the attitude of politicians nationwide who view casinos as free money. “I don’t know how we can control the politicians; they certainly don’t understand the word ‘oversaturation,’” Cordish said Thursday. “They think you can have casinos like Starbucks.”If that attitude continues, Cordish said, “it’s going to implode on them.” That...

A friend forwarded me a copy of a recent cover story in the San Diego Reader, the city’s alternative newspaper, profiling several members of a purported Christian card counting ring. The tale of Will and Shirley, who held Bible classes in their home for newly married members of their San Diego church, according to the story, and Nate and Faith, who were recruited by Will and Shirley, smells to me like fiction. It brings to mind the fabricated writings of Stephen Glass, former staffer for The New Republic. Among his more infamous articles was a completely made up tale, titled...

ANNAPOLIS — The General Assembly adjourned Monday night after a chaotic closing session in which members failed to pass a set of proposed tax increases or a bill to expand gambling in the state. Lawmakers passed a balanced budget and hoped to pass accompanying bills raising income taxes and shifting teacher-pension costs onto counties, but they ran out of time before the assembly’s required midnight adjournment. The House attempted to extend the session by passing a resolution shortly before midnight, but the Senate did not address the measure in time. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said he was...

Money meant to help families on welfare provide the necessities of life are apparently being used inappropriately by some recipients.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has recently cut a deal with an obscure Malaysian Company to build a mega-casino at the Aquaduct Race Track in Queens Borough of New York City. At the same time he has put an indefinite hold on Hydro-Fracking natural gas drilling in virtually unpopulated sections of the New York State. So in other words, he wants you to become a low paid croupier, not a high paid gas driller. There has been virtually no discussion of the negative effects of gambling, increased crime, broken families and suicides. And as we’ve found out recently, for most...

Many States are scrambling to build new casinos. They mistakenly believe that this is a surefire prescription for more tax revenue and jobs. They’ve bought into the false Las Vegas Myth–that if you build it and it has a blackjack table, a roulette wheel and a craps table–they will come. However, Vegas is looking more and more like Detroit, yet another failed US city. Do politicians believe that encouraging and subsidizing these parasitic industries is going to build wealth? As libertarians we are not against citizens starting and running gambling enterprises. They’ve been doing it since the before the Babylonians...

This must be a difficult time for New Jersey. You see, in addition to finding out that they’re harboring the second most dangerous city in America (for the second year in a row), they’ve now got a traitor in their midst. His name is Joe Steinfield, and he is hilarious. Well, I guess that depends on whether or not you live in one of his satirical regions of New Jersey and/or take offense to being lumped in with “Canadians and Philly Trash” (aka Wildwood according to Steinfield’s map).

Opponents staged a last-minute protest against expanded gambling on Tuesday, saying casinos would damage the state's economy and create enormous social and political problems. The protest came as members of the state House of Representatives plan to vote on Wednesday on a bill to permit three casinos in three regions around the state including one for anywhere in the four counties of Western Massachusetts. The bill would also create a single slot house with up to 1,250 slot machines. "In the long term, the bill will only create more economic turbulence, more problems for families, and more new addiction than...

Governor Deval Patrick, who has said repeatedly and as recently as last week that he does not take donations from or meet with gambling industry representatives, has done both as he and legislative leaders begin their third attempt to legalize resort-style casinos in Massachusetts. Yet the governor insisted again last week on his monthly radio show on WTKK-FM: “I don’t take contributions from gaming interests. I haven’t engaged with any of the gaming lobbyists.’’ Asked yesterday how the $6,200 from gambling lobbyists ended up in his campaign account, Patrick said to ask the director of his political committee. “With all...

Illinois is on the verge of a major gambling expansion, and citizens are being pelted with competing claims. The advocates envision a gusher of jobs and tax revenues. The opponents brace for an epidemic of bankruptcies, crime, divorce and suicide. Which side to believe? Neither. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is now considering whether to sign or amend a measure authorizing five new casinos, including one in Chicago, and slot machines at racetracks as well as Chicago airports. The capacity of gambling establishments in Illinois would more than triple. The motive for this sudden interest is economic. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel...

On Saturday afternoon, Maryland horse racing once again will take its place in the sporting world’s spotlight with the 136th running of the Preakness Stakes at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course. The other 364 days of the year, however, Pimlico and the Maryland racing industry aren’t proving ready for their close-up. Plagued by poor planning and without the expected revenue from slot-machine gambling, Maryland’s storied racing industry has been left with fewer horses, smaller purses, aging facilities and no visible plan for long-term stability. “The state of Maryland racing is not something that happened yesterday morning. It’s been an attrition over...

Williams, who had gambled away his life's savings, sued the casino, claiming, among other things, that the "cease admissions" letter was a fraud and that Aztar broke its obligation to keep him out. But a federal appeals court dismissed the case, noting that Aztar's letter didn't say Williams would be barred from entering and gambling, just that the casino could stop doing business with him if it chose. The Williams case and others like it show that, in the eyes of American courts, casinos have no legal requirement to stop compulsive gamblers from gambling. The rulings are vindication for the...

Jihad Returns to America By: Robert Spencer FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, June 04, 2009 Jihad came once again to American soil on Monday, when an American convert to Islam, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, began shooting at soldiers who were standing outside the Army-Navy Career Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Muhammad murdered Pvt. William Long, 23, and gravely wounded Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18. Muhammad was charged with capital murder and – in a departure from authorities’ practically reflexive dismissal of terrorism as a factor in virtually any act of violence by a Muslim -- sixteen counts of committing a terrorist act. Rather curiously,...

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has been on a roll the past few weeks. While the mainstream news media has dismissed the Obama birth certificate issue, Trump has embraced it and questioned why Obama will not release his long form birth certificate. While most of the other GOP presidential candidates offer to work with China in a cooperative manner, Trump maintains the U.S. needs to get tough and slap a massive 25 percent tariff on their products. On the Fox News “O’Reilly” show, Trump promised to withdraw American troops from any Middle Eastern country that does not sell oil to the...

The State Fair Commission, whose members are appointed by the governor, had been scheduled to consider an eleventh-hour, back-room deal enabling the Downs at Albuquerque to build a new slots casino. Craig Swagerty, general manager of Expo New Mexico, the agency that runs the fair, said the meeting was canceled because he didn't expect a quorum of commissioners to attend. Maybe commissioners realized the deal just didn't look good with Richardson leaving office Friday. The Downs and its officers — including Richardson good buddy Paul Blanchard — contributed more than $300,000 to Richardson's two campaigns for governor. Blanchard also was...

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., may have beaten back challenger Sharron Angle and retained his post as the majority leader, but his campaign and one of his biggest supporters may have violated federal law to do so. As National Review reported earlier this week, the Reid campaign sent a desperate e-mail to the senior vice president for government relations at Harrah's Casinos asking the company to pressure its employees to get out and vote for Reid. The campaign even offered to have Reid call Harrah's executives to help give "the backing" needed to get the company working on this. The Reid...

California officials are cutting off use of state-issued welfare debit cards at casinos across the country and on cruise ships, in the wake of Times reports that the aid cards have been used to spend or withdraw millions of dollars in benefits at popular vacation spots including the Las Vegas strip and on ships sailing from ports around the world.

BETHLEHEM (SEP 9) – State Senator Lisa M. Boscola today announced that she is drafting legislation to prohibit the use of unemployment benefit debit cards at Pennsylvania casinos. Additionally, Boscola has sent a letter to PGCB Chairman Gregory Fajt asking for the Board to take action. “It has come to my attention that the debit cards provided to out of work Pennsylvanians work at the ATM machines located in Pennsylvania casinos,” Boscola stated. “Unemployment benefits are meant to provide individuals with the necessities of life and to pay their bills while seeking new employment. Unemployment benefits should not be easily...

SACRAMENTO (CBS 5 / AP) ― Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued an executive order barring California welfare recipients from using state-issued debit cards at casino ATMs. Thursday's order followed a report by The Los Angeles Times that found CalWORKS cards were used to withdraw cash in more than half the casinos in the state. The newspaper reported Thursday that welfare recipients have withdrawn more than $1.8 million in taxpayer cash at casinos since October. Schwarzenegger's order requires welfare recipients to sign a pledge that they will use their benefits only to meet the basic needs of their families.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., facing a tough fight for a new term, trails his chief rival by 10 points, a poll released Friday indicates.. Almost half, 47 percent, of those surveyed by the Mason-Dixon poll said they would vote for former Republican state Chairwoman Sue Lowden, while 37 percent would vote for Reid, The Hill reported. The poll is the first since the Easter-Passover break, which Reid used to travel around Nevada touting his achievements as senator and majority leader.The poll, done for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, found the Tea Party movement would have little impact on...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is using J.D. Hayworth’s legal trust to hammer his primary opponent about his entanglement in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Meanwhile, Hayworth’s former House colleagues are donating thousands to help him escape a legal debt they say he accumulated facing false allegations. The McCain campaign is ratcheting up pressure on the former congressman to disclose the donors to the Freedom in Truth Trust (FITT) he set up in 2008 to pay down legal bills stemming from the Abramoff lobbying scandal. Hayworth came under investigation by the Department of Justice after he received campaign contributions from Abramoff...

Pennsylvania will have to furlough 1,000 state workers if the legislature does not legalize table games at casinos by the end of this week, the governor and his secretary of administration said on Monday. The furloughs will be needed to help close a $250 million hole in the budget, Democratic Governor Ed Rendell said in a statement. Pennsylvania currently allows only slot machines at its new casinos, which compete with New Jersey's Atlantic City's resorts that have offered table games for decades.

A federal grand jury in San Diego has indicted an additional eight defendants for conspiracy to cheat a total of 11 casinos across the country, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Karen P. Hewitt announced today. A one-count indictment, handed up in the Southern District of California on Sept. 1, 2009, and unsealed on Sept. 15, 2009, charges seven defendants each with one count of conspiracy to commit several offenses against the United States, including conspiracy to steal money and other property from Indian tribal casinos, and...

Eight people have been charged in San Diego as part of a conspiracy that authorities said cheated U.S. and Canadian casinos out of millions of dollars by bribing dealers to rig card games. The suspects were indicted by a federal grand jury this month and face up to five years in prison if convicted. The U.S. attorney's office claims that from 2002 to 2006, they bribed card dealers and supervisors at 11 casinos to perform false shuffles during blackjack and mini-baccarat games that helped players win.

The Obama administration may make it easier for Indian tribes to build casinos far from their reservations.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - In Kansas, Carrie Nation battled booze by smashing up saloons, the state school board once approved science guidelines questioning evolution and anti-abortion leaders have made their stiffest stands - all burnishing the state's conservative credentials.

Louisiana casinos won $193 million from gamblers in June, a 14 percent decline from the $225 million haul in May and a nearly 10 percent drop from last year's June haul of $214 million, State Police reported Tuesday. Winnings were down at all New Orleans area casinos between May and June. The only metro area gambling hall to post a gain between June 2008 and June 2009 was the Fair Grounds Race Course and Slots, which was still in its infancy this time last year. The state's riverboats reported a 12 percent decline in revenue in June compared with May...

With the current recession driving states to beg for handouts from the Obama Administration, some legislators will invariably begin to look at other areas for revenue. And some states will probably consider what could be called the “Nevada model.” The “Nevada model” began in 1931 with that state’s legalization of casinos, which in turn directly created one of America’s most desired vacation spots, Las Vegas. According to Nevada’s Gaming Control Board casinos raised 928.2 million dollars for that state just through taxes and licensing fees in 2006. Since the Nevada legalization of casino gambling -- and various rulings simultaneously allowing...

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia's plan to close gaming halls, from gaudy casinos crowned by extravagant neon structures to dingy dwellings containing a handful of slot machines, could turf a third of a million people out of work this week. "I've got 800 staff looking at me every day for inspiration and hope," said Clive Tilley, who runs the 70-tabled Casino de Paris, Moscow's largest gaming complex where gamblers play under vines in mock French courtyards. "With the economy as it is now, it's not the time to pound the streets looking for work. It breaks my heart." From July 1,...

The European Union urged the United States on Wednesday to open talks on scrapping a ban on foreign online gambling companies, saying it breaks global trade rules. The EU says it could seek compensation from the World Trade Organization because the 2006 ban unfairly prevents foreign Internet gambling sites from operating in the United States. But it said it would hold off launching legal action until it had the chance to negotiate a solution with President Barack Obama's administration — another sign of a thaw in EU-U.S. relations since President George W. Bush left office.

Note: The following text is a quote: Former Bank of China Managers and Their Wives Sentenced for Stealing More Than $485 Million, Laundering Money Through Las Vegas Casinos Two former managers of the Bank of China and their wives were sentenced today after their convictions on Aug. 29, 2008, by a federal jury in Las Vegas on charges of racketeering, money laundering, international transportation of stolen property as well as passport and visa fraud. U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro sentenced Xu Chaofan aka Hui Yat Fai to 25 years in prison, Xu Guojun aka Hui Kit Shun to 22...

A New York banker with roots in Ely is exploring a run against U.S. Sen. Harry Reid. John Chachas, a managing director of Lazard Ltd., has been talking to Republican Party bigwigs in Nevada and Washington who are anxious to find a credible challenger to the Senate majority leader, sources said this week. Chachas declined to comment Thursday on the speculation about his potential candidacy. Chachas' interest in the race is said to be active but preliminary: He feels strongly that Reid could be felled by a strong opponent and would be willing to step into that role if no...

What? Casinos and gambling considered threat to national security and military readiness by Univ. of Illinois economist. No way, says the business...

6 Apr 2009 MGM hires bank to sell casino assets: Source NEW YORK: MGM Mirage to advise on selling a number of its casinos, and is talking to potential buyers about the assets, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday. The No. 2 casino operator, controlled by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, is grappling with weak consumer demand and reduced access to credit. The casino firm is hoping to raise money to meet debt payments and also to fund a troubled project it jointly owns with Dubai World called CityCenter, the source said. MGM Mirage, which said in March that...

Court rules for state in American Indian land case I. – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday limited the federal government's authority to hold land in trust for Indian tribes, a victory for Rhode Island and other states seeking to impose local laws and control over development on Indian lands. The court's ruling applies to tribes recognized by the federal government after the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. The U.S. government argued that the law allows it to take land into trust for tribes regardless of when they were recognized, but Justice Clarence Thomas said in his majority opinion that the...

Nothing but snake eyes for Atlantic City casinos By WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press Writer Sunday, February 22, 2009 Uncertainty has always been a way of life for casinos who make their money on games of chance. But now, Atlantic City casinos are looking at their own futures with uncertainty. Donald Trump quit as chairman of the casino company he once ran, and wants his name off the three casinos that have been synonymous with Atlantic City for decades, now that they're in bankruptcy for the third time. The Tropicana Casino and Resort will file for bankruptcy next month, and Resorts...

Gaming revenue fell for the 12th month in a row in December and last year's overall drop is historic. Some locals who depend on conventions to survive say they can't afford the war of words going on between President Obama and Mayor Oscar Goodman. Last week, both Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs canceled corporate junkets scheduled to take place here in Las Vegas. They were trying to get away from the perception that they are taking the money given to them in these bailout packages and using it to treat their CEO's to lavish vacations. The comment President Obama made...

As head of the bad check unit at the Clark County, Nev., district attorney's office, Zadrowski has seen a lot of deadbeat gamblers reported by the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip - at least 700 a month, a number that has climbed as the economy has soured. But a few of those names stick in his memory - and Ausaf Umar Siddiqui is one of them. Turns out the Clark County district attorney's office is one of a number of agencies that has been watching Palo Alto resident Siddiqui, 42, who was arrested Friday on a federal complaint of...

Casinos in Illinois have posted double-digit revenue declines since a smoking ban took effect there in January. And it's not primarily because high air fares stop tourists from visiting the Windy City in search of a game of chance. "The smoking ban is having a major impact," Tom Swoik, head of the Illinois Casino Gaming Association, told The Wall Street Journal last week. Share & Save Newsvine Digg Fark Technorati reddit StumbleUpon del.icio.us Slashdot Propeller Mixx Furl Twitter MySpace Facebook Google Bookmarks Yahoo! Bookmarks Windows Live Favorites Ask MyStuff myAOL Favorites What is this? A 2005 research paper by the...

John Huddy, a veteran TV producer and print journalist, recounts the saga of Jose Manuel Vigoa Perez, who came to Sin City in the early 1980s, rose to the top of the drug trade, went to prison for several years on drug charges and, once released, embarked on a series of casino and armored-car heists. Following his June 2000 raid on the Bellagio hotel ("the crown jewel in the legendary MGM Mirage group"), he was captured by authorities and put away for good. Vigoa's rise was decidedly American, a kind of dark and violent Horatio Alger success story," Mr. Huddy...

Governor says deal curbs the growth of Indian gamblingOLYMPIA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire is benefiting from more than $650,000 in campaign contributions from Indian tribes that hit the jackpot in 2005 when she killed a gambling compact potentially worth more than $140 million a year to the state. Unlike 22 other states that collect millions from revenue sharing agreements for tribal gambling, Washington gets no money from tribal casinos under the compact that Gregoire renegotiated with the Spokane Tribe. Gregoire backed away from the 2005 agreement that included revenue sharing in an attempt to keep gambling from expanding too quickly...

DARTMOUTH, Mass. -- A new gambling study shows some Massachusetts residents who have not supported casinos in the past may be changing their minds. "Fifty-seven percent of Massachusetts residents still favor two or more resort casinos in the state of Massachusetts. That number is actually four percent higher than when we last did this poll in September," said Dr. Clyde Barrow, a public policy analyst at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. The study was funded by a real estate development firm with land interests in the proposed Palmer and New Bedford casino sites. The research showed that as the state's deficit...

In March, the Massachusetts House of Representatives rejected a measure that looked unstoppable when it was proposed by Gov. Deval Patrick last September: the authorization of “destination casinos” across the commonwealth. The plan was for Massachusetts to sell three 10-year licenses for at least $200 million apiece and then tax the casinos’ takings at 27 percent, raking in $400 million a year. That, went the reckoning, would cover a $1.3 billion budget shortfall. Patrick was backed by The Boston Globe, big casino corporations and some trade unions. His opponent, the House speaker, Salvatore DiMasi, warned of “human devastation” and suggested...

PALM SPRINGS – A state senator has introduced legislation that would enable a large group of Indian tribes to expand existing casinos or build large new ones without further negotiations with the state. Sen. Jim Battin, R-Palm Desert, said his proposal would allow all 61 tribes that negotiated gambling agreements, or compacts, with former Gov. Gray Davis in 1999 to have up to 2,000 slots each, the number many tribes believe were promised by the deals. But the California Gambling Control Commission had voted to limit all tribes in the state to roughly 60,000 slots, based on the commission's interpretation...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois' statewide smoking ban is barely a month old and opponents already are trying to relight the debate. With the General Assembly scheduled to return to Springfield this week, various Illinois interests — casinos, bars, veterans' organizations — are preparing to push state lawmakers to carve out exceptions for various types of facilities from the sweeping ban that went into effect this year in all indoor public places. "I'm a dedicated nonsmoker, but the hair on the back of my neck stands up" at some of the freedom-of-choice issues created by the ban, said state Rep. Bill...

Southern California gamblers can try their luck this weekend on shiny new slot machines just days after voters approved four Indian gambling expansion plans. Workers have been busy installing some of the 17,000 slot machines allowed in new deals approved by voters Tuesday for four tribes. The new deals, known as amended compacts, allow the tribes to expand in exchange for sharing their slot-machine revenue with the state. The first payments, expected to be more than $40 million, are due to the state at the end of the fiscal year June 30, according to the governor's office's lowest estimates. That...

Even as Governor Deval Patrick seeks to license three resort casinos in Massachusetts, he hopes to clamp down on the explosion in Internet gambling by making it illegal for state residents to place a bet on line. He has proposed jail terms of up to two years and $25,000 fines for violators. The provision, buried deep in Patrick's bill to allow three casinos to the state, puts the governor at odds with a fellow Democrat: US Representative Barney Frank, the sponsor of federal legislation to license and regulate online gambling nationally. Yesterday Frank strongly criticized the governor's plan to punish...

MASHANTUCKET PEQUOT INDIAN RESERVATION, Connecticut: With hundreds of millions of dollars in annual profit flowing in from their gambling business, the Mashantucket Pequots first floated the idea of building a large amusement park. But those plans were shot down by neighbors already unhappy with the huge Foxwoods casino in their midst. The tribe then bought into a ferry-building business in hopes of diversifying its holdings, but that only provided a costly lesson, said Michael Thomas, the tribe's chairman. So maybe it should not be surprising that Pequot tribal leaders would choose to stick with what they know best. In doing...

Governor Deval Patrick plans to propose as early as tomorrow that the state sell licenses for three full-scale resort casinos in Massachusetts, citing their potential to spur economic growth, create jobs, and generate new government revenue, according to State House officials who have been briefed on his plan. Patrick will recommend that the casinos be licensed in three regions: Southeastern Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts, and an area that includes Boston and points north, the officials said... All three licenses would be put up for competitive bid, in a process that is expected to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in immediate...

Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian and MGM’s Board of Directors are expected to announce today (WED) that certain members of the Royal Family of Dubai- a Mid-East oil-rich kingdom - are buying into MGM Mirage and its $7-billion City Center hotel-condo complex. My Wall Street sources are abuzz this morning saying the multi-billion dollar deals signal the next phase of corporate takeovers and foreign investment into the booming Vegas gaming and hospitality business.Kirkorian’s company, Tracinda that owns his share of MGM is reducing his stake from 54.15% to 51.65% in the transaction and Wall Street believes that Dubai World will ultimately buy...