Budgetary impasse in Trenton? Guvmint forcibly shut down? Nobody to keep an eye on casinos?

No problem!, says state Sen. James Whelan (former mayor of Atlantic City). His proposal would allow casinos to police themselves for the duration -- provided they were fined tenfold the usual amount for any hanky-panky. (Yes, but who is going to report the aforesaid hanky-panky? The casino that stands to pay 10X in fines? Methinks otherwise.) Oh, and the governor could "summarily suspend a casino license," too.

Food for thought, anyway.

Whelan's successor, A.C. Mayor Scott Evans found himself on the business end of a state house grilling yesterday. In light of past shenanigans involving city officials and former airport Bader Field, New Jersey solons aren't predisposed to sign off on what they perceive as a sweetheart deal between Atlantic City and Penn National, which wants Bader partly for a casino and mostly for a 'flip.'

If the "city officials" cited in the story are correct, Evans' proposed deal would leave at least $200 million on the table."You can slice this and you can dice this any way you want, but it looks bad," growled one legislator. It looks like a long spring (and summer, maybe) for Evans and Bader Field.

Finally! Somebody is taking on the question of why slot casinos should be subsidizing race tracks. I dig the romance of the "sport of kings" as much as anybody. But if it can't stand on its own four feet, why is the casino industry obligated to prop it up?

"Cruise to nowhere" indeed. Gambling ship Sun Cruz 9 looks like it has a date with Davy Jones' Locker. I can't say I ever fancied the idea of gambling out in international waters anyway. Props to the skilled Coast Guard crew that rescued the ship's crew in stirring fashion.

(Mind you, there was no gambling underway at the time nor any gamblers aboard; the ship was in transit from port to port.)

Organized crime in Macao's casinos is really a good thing. Yes, an academic actually said that, rationalizing that loan-sharking and God knows what else keeps Macao's criminal element gainfully employed and off the streets. Who knew that Stanley Ho's triad-infiltrated casinos were performing a public service all these years?

Those crooks had better make hay now because it's reliably predicted that the iron fist of Peking will descend upon them once the 2008 Olympics are over (and the world is looking the other way). Given how extremely unsavory Macao's reputation was prior to China's takeover, I doubt our casino barons will be complaining too loudly, either.

I'll be 83 before a bridge between Hong Kong and Macao breaks even. Yeah, but the Las Vegas Monorail will still be running in the red (and still be tax-exempted). So there.