Gina Raimondo (D) may be friends with Michelle Obama but that’s not going to get out of the International Game Technology lottery scandal. Gov. Raimondo was at the state 
capital a week ago to defend her controversial decision, a move that came as Twin River casinos took out a full-page ad blasting the contract award, which would force Twin River to pack its floor with IGT-made slots. The game maker is on pace to control 84% of Rhode Island slot floors, even though state law it ought to be limited to 50%.
The Rhode Island Lottery Commission has already moved to yank 360 slots from Tiverton and Twin River casinos, contending that their financial performance was not up to contractual requirements. Trying to distract her critics, Raimondo reframed the issue as one of local jobs: “There are only three companies in the country capable of operating the lottery. Only one of them was founded in Rhode Island, has 1,000 jobs in Rhode Island, and is right outside this building.”
IGT, for its part, is threatening to close that outpost unless Raimondo’s 20-year contract is signed. On the other hand, it promises to build a 50,000-square-foot corporate headquarters if obliged. Twin River, meanwhile, has offered $125 million to run the state lottery, a move that Raimondo dismissed, saying the company was too inexperienced to be operating a lottery. Given that Twin River is teaming with little-known Camelot Lottery Solutions, the guv does have a point.
Much of the criticism of Raimondo comes from her own side of the aisle, especially Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello (D), who says IGT’s relationship with the lottery commission is “totally incestuous” and Raimondo shouldn’t have worked out a deal with IGT in secrecy. She’s got no one to blame for this mess but herself.
* Yet another casino is going to get an education in #MeToo-ness. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing Imperial Pacific Saipan for sexual harassment, sex-based discrimination and retaliation toward its female employees. The charges include “sexual advances, demands for sexual favors, and physical touching by casino guests.” And if the ladies didn’t play ball, they were assigned to different jobs, saw their hours cut and/or were fired. The EEOC suit seeks “injunctive relief intended to prevent and correct any future discrimination, harassment, and retaliation,” as well as monetary damages.
Imperial Pacific is kind of a rogue outfit, so this latest development doesn’t raise any eyebrows. It has been subject to a federal investigation after an employee died on the job in 2017 and the FBI raided the casino in search of money laundering the next year. Closer to home, the Saipan government is seeking $70 million in back taxes and unpaid construction bills.
* In one of the more brazen displays of chutzpah we’ve ever seen, former Venetian dealer Anthony Wrobel is seeking a minimal sentence plus parole eligibility for fatally shooting Las Vegas Sands exec Mia Banks and wounding co-worker Hector Rodriguez at a company picnic. The court’s sentence of life without parole seems eminently just, especially since the death penalty was taken off the table. Wrobel must value human lives (other than his own) very lightly to make this request of the court.
* Rodrigo Duterte‘s government is cracking down on at least one Internet gambling licensee, but not to please Beijing. Unpaid taxes got Great Empire Gaming & Amusement 
Corp. shut down by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Agents descended on at least two offices of the company, which employs 8,000 people (which should really give you some idea of the immensity of the Philippines‘ i-gaming industry). Great Empire hadn’t been paying its value-added tax and will have to get itself out of arrears before the shutdown is rescinded. Other closures could follow: Internet-gambling operators are $414 million behind the 8-ball in tax payments.
