Free Republic

A hub for gambling is taking shape in a historic area of Virginia between Richmond and Williamsburg, signaling sharp change in a state that long resisted the lure of gaming revenue. Two weeks ago, a Chicago company announced plans to buy and reopen the dormant Colonial Downs horse-racing track, Virginia’s only facility for major thoroughbred events. The deal — worth some $20 million — was made possible when the General Assembly this year legalized a type of video horse-racing game that some have likened to slot machines.

Daily resort fees and parking charges are rising and spreading in Las Vegas, adding as much as $45 a day to visitors' hotel bills. The publisher of Las Vegas Advisor blames the extra charges for a recent decline in the number of visitors. "Everyone hates resort fees, but the parking [fee] is even worse," said Anthony Curtis of Las Vegas Advisor. "Everyone wants some kind of comp, [and] the most basic comp is free parking. That was the one comp that everyone got." The Advisor, a decades-old, monthly newsletter highlighting what's new in Vegas and featuring deals for visitors, provides...

The team of opposition researchers behind the infamous anti-Trump dossier embraced by the FBI were paid big bucks to continue trying to dig up dirt on Russian meddling in American politics – even after the 2016 presidential election. That revelation, buried inside a 243-page report released by House Intelligence Committee Republicans last week, has sparked new speculation about the identities of the secretive donors who were funding the post-election project. According to the House Intelligence Committee report, Daniel J. Jones – the president of the Penn Quarter Group and a former staffer for Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein – “secured the...

Wynn Resorts Ltd (WYNN.O) on Friday proposed renaming a planned $2.5 billion casino in Massachusetts following allegations that founder Steve Wynn routinely subjected women who worked for him to unwanted sexual advances. Wynn Chief Executive Matt Maddox at a meeting before the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in Boston formally proposed renaming the Wynn Boston Harbor project “Encore Boston Harbor.”

A new attack ad against DeSantis has links to the bare knuckled political operative -------------snip--------------- Today an outfit called National Liberty Federation began airing about $290,000 in ads on radio and Fox News TV stations across Florida hammering Republican U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis: -------snip--------- The National Liberty Federation is run by a Palm Beach County resident named Everett Wilkinson, who used to call the group the South Florida Tea Party. Wilkinson for years has worked closely with Roger Stone, hosting a 2011 Boca Raton Trump rally that served as a harbinger of his presidential campaign, vocally supporting more casinos in...

Caught in the Searchlight: Hsu, Reid, and the Searchlight Leadership Fund Harry Reid’s Mob Money, Part 5By Fedora Fugitive fundraiser Norman Hsu’s donations to Hillary Clinton have understandably grabbed the limelight, but there is another story lurking in the shadows of the affair. Federal Election Commission documents record that on May 17, 2007, Hsu donated $1,000 to the Searchlight Leadership Fund, a political action committee associated with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. On the same day, Searchlight received a $1,000 contribution from Winkle Paw, described by Hsu’s lawyer as a business associate of Hsu. Also donating $1,000 to Searchlight that...

Top U.S. intelligence officials gathered in the White House Situation Room in March to debate a controversial proposal. Counterterrorism officials wanted to create a government dragnet, sweeping up millions of records about U.S. citizens—even people suspected of no crime. ~ snip ~ The rules now allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them. That is a departure from past practice, which barred the agency from storing information about ordinary Americans unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an...

Regulations recently signed into effect by Attorney General Eric Holder allow the National Counterterroism Center (NCTC) to monitor records of citizens for any potential criminal activity, without a warrant and without suspicion. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the records that will be subject to seizure and examination by the NCTC include “flight records, casino-employee lists, the names of Americans hosting foreign exchange students and many others.” Prior to the promulgation of these new regulations, such records were stored on only those citizens suspected of terror-related activity or as part of ongoing criminal investigations. Furthermore, this information...

Link only. Holder now has the right to keep dossiers on U.S. citizens. More here.

A laptop computer recovered from the Las Vegas hotel room where Stephen Paddock launched the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was missing its hard drive, depriving investigators of a potential key source of information on why he killed and maimed so many people, ABC News has learned.

I'm in Oklahoma and we have casinos everywhere. It seems. But a tribe has surreptitiously acquired a small piece of property in my particular town and built facilities for a restaurant. Now it's been revealed they intend to start a casino, and our councilmen say there's nothing they can do. Even though gambling is illegal in my town, these people are protected by the federal government to open up one of their filthy, prefabricated, typically "native American" dumps? They say they are, and they say as long as they comply with the feds, they can do whatever they want. I'm...

"An inspector general called them courageous, but Sen. Harry Reid said Friday that the government whistleblowers who accused him of using political pressure to try to win special treatment for a Las Vegas casino were “a bunch of whiners.” ........[Homeland Security Inspector General John] Roth said the special treatment was brought to his attention by more than 15 whistleblowers — an extraordinary number, in Mr. Roth’s judgment — who believed Mr. Mayorkas was caving to political pressure. “That so many individuals were willing to step forward and tell us what happened is evidence of deep resentment about Mr. Mayorkas‘ actions...

Kim Jong Un may be behind biggest bank heist in history he man behind the biggest bank heist in history may have been Kim Jong-un. Federal prosecutors are preparing to finger North Korea for orchestrating the theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last year, according to a report.

Las Vegas police say they are investigating a burglary at a high-end retail store inside the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. Police said in a statement on Saturday that a preliminary investigation suggests that at least three people entered the store and one of them fired gunshots. No one was injured and a suspect was taken into custody.

On Monday, Native Americans conducted a forgiveness ceremony with U.S. veterans at the Standing Rock casino, giving the veterans an opportunity to atone for military actions conducted against Natives throughout history. In celebration of Standing Rock protesters’ victory Sunday in halting construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, Leonard Crow Dog formally forgave Wes Clark Jr., the son of retired U.S. Army general and former supreme commander at NATO, Wesley Clark Sr. This was a historically symbolic gesture forgiving centuries of oppression against Natives and honoring their partnership in defending the land from the Dakota Access Pipeline.

MGM is ready to open in Prince George’s County, Maryland gaming officials said Wednesday. Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency issued an operating license Wednesday to the gaming giant, clearing the way for it to open to the public Thursday night.

Casino operators know there’s no gambler quite like the Chinese. With their affinity for baccarat, the most lucrative game in Las Vegas, Chinese gamblers have long commanded special treatment — be it with private Chinese gaming salons, Lunar New Year festivities or performances from pop stars flown in from Hong Kong and Taiwan. No one in Las Vegas, however, has built a casino and hotel strictly for Chinese visitors until now. The Lucky Dragon Hotel & Casino is billing itself as Las Vegas’ first Asian-themed resort, funded in large part by Chinese investors. The property, set to open Dec. 3...

An Atlantic City police officer was shot and wounded and a suspect is dead in a shootout at a casino parking deck early Saturday morning, authorities said. The incident occurred outside Caesars Atlantic City casino around 3:30 a.m. Saturday, authorities said. The officer, reported to be in critical condition, was rushed to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in the city, according to authorities. The officer and his partner came under fire when they got out of their patrol car, according to authorities.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn wrote a letter Thursday to the soon-to-be unemployed workers of the Trump Taj Mahal casino, accusing their union of inciting them to destroy their own jobs by participating in the longest strike by Atlantic City's main casino workers union. Icahn told the workers that officials of Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union knew that the company had made its final offer, but rejected it anyway, knowing a strike would result.

A Sanford judge today ruled that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi does not have to answer defense attorneys' questions under oath in a mammoth Internet casino gambling case pending in Seminole County. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. made that ruling this morning.The case involves more than 50 defendants, accused of violating the state's gambling, racketeering and money laundering laws by operating Internet cafes that prosecutors say served as storefront gambling parlors. Each had ties to the non-profit Allied Veterans of the World, a group that provided charity to military veterans but, according to authorities, donated just two percent of its...