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Posted At : July 17, 2009 01:33 PM | Posted By : D McKee
Related Categories:
Regulation,MGM Mirage,Politics,Kansas
Even as CEO of Mandalay Resort Group (before it was subsumed into MGM Mirage), Mike Ensign kept well out of the limelight, content to let sublatern Glenn Schaeffer be the company's face. Now, as he contemplates a return to the casino business with a $235 million Kansas project, "Big Mike" Ensign may no longer have the prerogative of obscurity. In fact, his subsidizing of his stepson's tawdry sex-and-cronyism scandal could be the act for which the co-architect of Mandalay Resort Group is ultimately remembered.
The elder Ensign has always been there to support the man Jon Ralston has dubbed "Little Lord Fauntleroy," even installing him in key positions at then-Circus Circus properties like Nevada Landing. Industry crticic Sally Denton, writing in The Daily Beast, voices a hithero-unasked question about Sen. John Ensign's larger political aspirations.
Namely, "Johnny Casino" has made a career of shamelessly pandering to the religious right, which abhors gambling. Yet he (literally) made his fortune in the gaming industry. If push had come to shove and were the White House still in his sights, who would have gone under the bus? Casino baron Mike Ensign or his stepson's Goody Two-Shoes constituency?
S&G couldn't find a picture of Mike Ensign, so you'll have to make do with his "rigidly coiffed" stepson.
A Kansas casino license seemingly within his grasp, Ensign Sr. will now have to answer questions about the 96 dimes he lavished upon Ensign's mistress and her morally flexible husband. (Note to Papa Ensign's lawyer: If you have to assert that it's not "hush money," it's hush money.)
The cherry atop this sundae of seaminess is that the Ensigns structured the 96 grand payoff in multiple increments in order to circumvent having to pay taxes. Oh, and the acceptance of the Mike Ensign largesse by money-grubbing cuckold Doug Hampton went unreported and is currently unsubstantiated. So are we talking "on the up and up" or "under the table"?
When Mike Ensign has to make his case to Kansas officialdom as to why he ought to be entrusted with one of the Sunflower State's precious few casino licenses, he's gonna have some 'splainin' to do. The rest of us can thank our lucky stars that the former CEO was out of the industry at the time of this sordid imbroglio. Had corporate money found its way into the Hamptons' Love Nest Chest the collateral damage to the casino industry as a whole would be incalculable.
Guess we dodged a bullet there. But as for Mike Ensign, thanks for nothing, sir.
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Since they're all professing themselves to be right-wing Republicans, my guess is:
Under the table & under the radar of banking regs & allowed under the rules of God given Christianity, as they interpret them.