Lost in the loud death rattle of Argosy Belle Sioux City was the opening of its successor — some would say usurper — Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. And, contrary to what naysayers would have you believe, it’s bringing a salutary effect to local businesses. Or, as Work & Church Bar owner Mac Dolan puts it, “they opened and it was just wa-boom with people.” Also feeling the “wa-boom” is Funkalicious Boutique. ” [W]e’ve seen a huge increase with people from everywhere, as far as Norway and even people from Vegas,” reports employee Natalie Olveda. Good on them. Here’s to continued prosperity.
* Sen. Raymond Lesniak‘s crusade for unregulated sports wagering at New Jersey casinos and racetracks met an inglorious end, impaled upon Gov. Chris Christie‘s veto pen. Christie bowed to federal, which prompted a typically Lesniakian burst of hyperbole to the effect that the governor had “stuck a dagger in the heart of Atlantic City and our ailing horse racing industry.” Christie’s veto, however, may yet be overruled.
Lesniak’s bill seized upon a Justice Department opinion that national law doesn’t “obligate New Jersey to leave in place the state-law prohibitions against sports gambling that it had chosen to adopt prior” to a 1992 sports-betting ban. Christie’s beef is not with sports betting but with Lesniak’s method, calling for “a different approach towards sports wagering [that] would comply with federal law. While I do not agree with the Circuit Court’s decision, I do believe that the rule of law is sacrosanct, binding on all Americans. That duty adheres with special solemnity to those elected officials privileged to swear and oath to uphold the laws in our nation.”
Assemblyman Ralph Caputo (right) mourned the demise of the Lesniak bill, warning that New Jersey is “running out of options and ways to increase revenue. The legislation would have been a much needed shot in the arm for Atlantic City and our racetracks, in particular.” But he seemed resigned to the outcome. In another of alarmist rhetoric, Lesniak added, “he’s giving up a great opportunity for New Jersey to have the benefits from sports betting that Las Vegas has, and that are currently enjoyed by organized crime. Either we’re going to have to try to override him or wait until we get another governor.”
Lesniak’s odds of getting an override aren’t good, by the way. Christie enjoys a perfect score in vetos upheld.
* The air was redolent with the aura of Mob Worship when Jay Sarno‘s four kids addressed a crowd at Oscar’s Beef, Booze & Broads. “I don’t mind the allure. It’s kind of cool,” rhapsodized Heidi Sarno Straus. Son Freddie Sarno confessed to ambivalence, but eventually worked his way around to rationalizing that being mobbed-up was just the way things were done Back Then. Host Oscar Goodman provided a benediction, saying “[H]e knew a lot of guys, he dealt with a lot of guys but I never saw him participate in anything that would suggest he was part of the mob as we know the mob today.”
