Remember that editorial about construction safety (or the obvious lack thereof) that I said the Las Vegas Sun ought to be writing — as opposed to printing a jeremiad about the Miley Cyrus photo flap? Well, it’s been written … but not in or by the Sun, but rather by a man who knows the commercial building inside out, Tony Illia. He says what needs to be said. As he puts it, “the price of life is being determined daily on Las Vegas Strip.”
Remember when the State Dept. was looking askance at Macao for acting as a laundromat for dirty money, particularly from crazy Kim Jong-Il? Now it’s the turn of the Philippines, whose 15 government-owned casinos have been designated a money-launderer’s paradise. Pagcor has never had a sparkling reputation and the vast Philippine archipelago is rife with terrorists, rebels and kidnappers. So this unholy nexus of government, suspect cash and myriad evildoers does much to explain why U.S. casino operators give the Philippines a wide berth as they attempt to penetrate virtually every other major market in the Pacific Rim.
The wait is over. In the unlikely event you were anticipating my appraisal of Tom Breitling‘s Double or Nothing, it’s to be found in the new issue of City Life. Let’s put it this way: Jack Sheehan was Breitling’s initial co-author but Cal Fussman finished the job and gets the credit. Sheehan was the luckier of the two.
