Busted!; Sisolak gets sick

Other benefits allegedly received by Cromwell were a Bowflex machine worth $1,700 and a comped stay at a Boston hotel, goodies for which RGB received hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from Wampanoag Gaming Authority. Confronted with all this bad news, the Wampanoag said they were “deeply concerned” and would convene an emergency meeting, while RGB took down its Web site for “scheduled maintenance.” Uh-huh.

In a poor choice of simile, Cromwell had vowed to build the “Taj Mahal of casinos.” (Casinos and Taj Mahal don’t go well together. See Trump, Donald.) The tribe’s casino ambitions have a troubled track record, with previous chairman Glenn Marshall being convicted of fraudulent use of casino-investment monies. It’s perhaps supremely beside the point now, but is there any need in the saturated Massachusetts market for yet another casino? Any, let’s let Lelling have the last word: “Many American Indians face a host of difficult financial and social issues. They require—and deserve—real leadership. But it appears that Cromwell’s priority was not to serve his people, but to line his own pockets.”

Covid-19 plays no political favorites. As though to underscore its virulence in Nevada, it has sidelined Gov. Steve Sisolak (D). The chief executive announced that he had contracted Coronavirus, although he is asymptomatic at present. The guv will be holing up in his Carson City mansion for the next 10 days. Contract tracing is underway. Maybe it was that ribbon-cutting at the DMV that did it. (D0es anything good ever come from a visit to the DMV?) “I’m feeling fine. I don’t have any symptoms. I’m a little tired, but I’ve been tired since March when we started fighting COVID,” Sisolak told Megan Messerly. “I think this just puts the spotlight on the fact that you can take all the precautions that are possible and you can still contract the virus, and I don’t know how I got it, but we’re going to quarantine and get through it.”

The question may be whether Sisolak is doing enough. Covid cases are logging in at a record-level (f0r Nevada) of 1,380 per day, yet the Silver State remains wide open for business. How bad do things have to get before restrictions are reimposed? At a national level, longtime and respected epidemiologist Michael Osterholm wants to provide a severe cure. He would prescribe a nationwide lockdown, with workers to be compensated for four to six weeks of lost wages. Warning of “pandemic fatigue” leading to “Covid hell,” Osterholm proposes desperate measures but, with well over 240,000 Americans dead it arguably might be time to for some desperation.

“We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers, for losses to small companies, to medium-sized companies or city, state, county governments. We could do all of that,” Osterholm said. “If we did that, then we could lock down for four to six weeks.” He added later that his opinions were strictly his own. “My only point was if we are going to keep making restrictions state-by-state, there is no compensation for the businesses that are being impacted,” he told NBC. The incoming Joe Biden administration quickly distanced itself from the idea of a lockdown, however. Looking on the bright side, Osterholm said Australia– or New Zealand-style anti-viral measures would mean “We could really watch ourselves cruising into the vaccine availability in the first and scond quarter of next year while bringing back the economy long before that.” Let’s hope he’s right about that.

Did you have millions wagered on Donald Trump being re-elected? The bad news is that you can’t collect. The good news is that offshore books aren’t calling the election for Joe Biden—still—meaning that your money is theoretically still yours. In spite of mounting evidence, like having allegedly “dead” Georgia voters turn up very much alive, sites such as Betfair are hedging on the definitive outcome. That’s pretty “george” of the books, which could collect as much as $5 million from one mega-punter who went all in on Trump. They’re said to be spooked by PaddyPower‘s $1 million mistake in 2016 when it paid out wagers on Hillary Clinton. Even though he’s a staunch Republican, American Gaming Association President Bill Miller has even more fodder for his stump speech on the risks of betting with offshore sites. Still, oddsmakers like BetOnline‘s Adam Burns are keeping their powder dry—and already taking odds on 2024 (President-Elect Biden looks good to win reelection, Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris less so.) Said Burns, “If Biden comes in, it’s a big win for us. If Trump is declared the winner, we will take a bath. It will not be a happy day here.”