Terry Caudill and the Culinary Union have come to terms on labor pacts for Binion’s Gambling Hall and the Four Queens. The agreement awaits ratification by the 650 employees affected. In the meantime, the Culinary stepped way over the line by 
picketing the clinic of Station Casinos board member and veterinarian Dr. James Nave. (One might call it a knavish move.) The Culinary not only had the audacity to make its vendetta against Station personal, it actually sent out a press release with photos of the labor action. Since my sainted Grandmother McKee was a secretary to Samuel Gompers, it’s a cold day in Hell when I denounce a labor union. The devil must be reaching for his muffler even as I type this.
* Don’t read this story if you’re afraid to cry. There’s an animal-rights scandal brewing around Macao‘s Canidrome Club. Not only were the dogs living in scandalous conditions, as many as 300 a year were alleged to have been executed because they’d worn out their welcome. Reports Channel NewsAsia, “Many of [the dogs] remaining have patches of fur missing, a result of sleeping on wet concrete according to activists, who say injured dogs went untreated when the Canidrome was still operating.” A small army of volunteers has rallied to the dogs’ aid now that the Canidrome is defunct.
Since you can’t throw a rock in Macao without hitting Stanley Ho, it should come as no surprise that Angela Leong, wife #4, ran racing company Yat Yuen, the malefactor in this affair. “We hope 
we can assist in rehoming all the greyhounds – we hope they will have a safe family forever,” says NGO Anima member Zoe Tang, but it could be a yearlong process. There’s hope. “I thought: ‘Why not let them live in our pet shop, and educate our customers about the good things we discovered in our greyhounds?'”, asks retailer Fei Chan, who adopted two greyhounds, who now roam her store. “In the end, I see no difference between greyhounds and other dogs. The ferocity of greyhounds only came from the training humans gave them. Why can’t we teach them the other way around and tame them?” Why not indeed?
* Here’s a man-bites-dog story: A Minnesota tribe is backpedaling on casino plans. The White Earth Nation is having second thoughts about its Star Lake Casino project. Not only did tribal elections see turnover in leadership by the tiniest of margins but there seems to be some uncertainty about where the White Earth Nation is going to get the casino-building money. (This is when you put in a long-distance call to Station Casinos.) Explained Acting CEO Ron Valiant, “We’ve got some new people. They put on hold a lot of our projects going on right now so they can figure out where the money is coming from, how the budgets are and everything like that. There was a lot of monies going out, so they are just trying to find out if we have the monies to move forward on some of these projects.”
Throw in the fact that the two new members of the tribal council are casino opponents and you have a serious problem. Of course, this is nothing new, as the casino has been on hold for three years. Outside groups are also opposed, for fear that a casino will degrade the Star Lake living experience. Considering the number of drunken boaters they must have to put up with during the summer, I do somewhat see their point.
* Philippines autocrat Rodrigo Duterte has personally intervened with gaming regulator Pagcor to get Landing Development a casino license. This potentially scandalous detail is buried in coverage of the $1.5 billion project, slated to open in 2022.
* Back in the U.S., Mount Airy Casino is the latest to request a delay in submitting plans for its satellite casino. Mount Airy ownership may be distracted by their application for Internet gambling. Or perhaps being courted by both Butler County and Lawrence County has produced a dilemma Mount Airy cannot resolve at this time.
