His presidential aspirations having turned to dust, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) is back to doing Sheldon Adelson‘s business, resurrecting RAWA. He has appended to an 
unrelated spending bill the following language: “Internet Gambling—Since 1961, the Wire Act has prohibited nearly all forms of gambling over interstate wires, including the Internet. However, beginning in 2011, certain States began to permit Internet gambling. The committee notes that the Wire Act did not change in 2011. The committee also notes that the Supreme Court of the United States has stated that ‘criminal laws are for courts, not for the government, to construe.’” It’s unclear whether this subterfuge will survive the process by which House and Senate bills are reconciled but eternal vigilance is the price of Internet gambling. Call your senators if you want to see this language quashed.
Center for Freedom & Prosperity President Andrew F. Quinlan takes umbrage at RAWA and its “origins as a crony handout.” He says the very name of RAWA is a misnomer, as the “intrastate, non-sports gambling is not actually prohibited” in the Wire Act as written and a recent legal analysis demonstrates it “was intended only to prohibit
sports gambling over state lines.” RAWA “could open the door to further regulation of the internet and encourage those who want the federal government to ban ammunition sales.” Says Quinlan of RAWA, “The language is troubling for a number of reasons and has huge implications for states that have legalized online gaming, for states that allow the sale of lottery tickets online, for millions of Americans who play fantasy sports, and even for those who cherish the Second Amendment.” Adelson’s so fixated on ending Internet gambling, he’d cut a swath through the Tenth Amendment and hang the consequences.
* You might say MGM Resorts International has parking garages on the brain right now. In addition to installing pay-for-parking infrastructure at its Las Vegas Strip casinos, MGM has commenced work on MGM Springfield not with the casino (which will be left until near last) but a 3,400-space parking garage. Although the hotel will be small-scale, the accompanying casino will be of significant compass: 3,000 slots and 75 tables. MGM’s defection from its original design remains a disappointment but the $950 million investment in western Massachusetts is going to give Springfield a significant shot in the arm, as intended.
* Online gambling was good for Atlantic City last month, jumping 34% to an all-time high of $17 million. Helping to propel this windfall was PokerStars, which took 46% of all online-poker action in its first full month of operation.
England‘s the Mirror has discovered downtown Las Vegas or, more accurately, an emergent hipster culture that exists parallel to — but independently from — the casino industry. The borders of “downtown” get rather an elastic definition so as to include the Golden Steer, but you can’t really experience “vintage Vegas” without dining there. The Downtown Grand also gets props as the place to stay near Glitter Gulch, a recommendation I can second. Writer Gavin Allen compiles such an impressive inventory of non-gaming Vegas attraction (without making more than a token stop on the Strip at the Forum Shops) that he makes a convincing case for Sin City as a fully evolved metropolis. But, in truth, how much of that could survive without the casino industry luring the tourists — although 59% of those who stay on the Strip and visit Downtown are primarily drawn by the Fremont Street Experience. which Allen undervalues — and providing a strong job base for locals?
As Downtown’s fortunes wax, suburbia’s wane. The squatter problem has reached an all-time high. One of the houses directly opposite ours had to be boarded up after the recent discovery of infestation.
* Poker’s contracting market appeal and stingy prize pools are likely to spend the Normandie Casino‘s doom. The oldster among Gardena‘s card rooms is a victim, in part, of failing to keep up with the times.
