Sheldon Adelson. That’s who American Gaming Association President Geoff Freeman is preparing to take on, as the AGA beefs up its lobbying staff. It’s a bipartisan group that includes 2012 Obama campaign guru Jim Messina. Freeman demurs that it isn’t A Sheldon Thing but the timing is difficult to interpret otherwise. Other new lobbyists come from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s staff, from Big Pharma, from tourism … and from Big Gaming, not to worry. One source predicts that Freeman will reverse field on AGA policy and make Internet gaming a state-level fight. Adelson’s minions, meantime, are trying to rewrite the Federal Wire Act. Perhaps they’d like to dust off the Volstead Act while they’re at it. Oh, and put in a good word for the War on Drugs, which has been such a roaring success.
Going rogue. That’s what Cantor Gaming‘s Michael Colbert was able to do under the nose of top brass, per an agreement reached yesterday between 
Cantor and the Nevada Gaming Control Board. He’s already plead out to a charge of conspiracy in federal court. The NGCB charged that he “was an agent in the illegal betting ring who recruited bettors, maintained existing bettors, collected losses and paid out winnings.” Much of the blame washes back on Cantor CEO Lee Amaitis, who was nominally Colbert’s supervisor. It’s just the latest in a skein of charges that have clung to Cantor’s ankles like seaweed. In a 4,464-instance violation a (now-) convicted money launderer ran bets for a high roller. Then there were the eight missing wagering applications … the employees who wrote betting slips for themselves … the …
Giving this pig a hefty spritz of perfume, Cantor changed its name to CG Technology and starting talking LBO. Memories are short around, so this might do the trick.
Alas for the horsey set in West Virginia, only one track makes money off racing. That’s be Penn National Gaming‘s Charles Town Racing. Despite quantifiable evidence that slots are carrying the tracks like an overburdened nag, Eric Bowen of the Bureau of Business & Economic Reasearch at West Virginia University, waves some vague stats around. The tracks are credited with generating “several hundred million in revenue.” If so, why is racing always on the verge of needing a bailout?
Overturning the Wire Act so we can have nationwide internet sports betting would be a good thing for all of us living outside of NV that can’t fly/drive every time we want to place a sports-bet along with the casinos who would get hundreds of billions more in bets. Of course, I doubt this is what Adelson is up to.