“It is amazing how people get religion once they want a gaming license,” said then-Nevada Gaming Control Board member Brian Harris, back in December ’98, in one of the all-time-great casino-related quotes. Harris’ statement came in connection with the license-application withdrawal of the Sunrise Suite Hotel. If you’ve never heard of it, that’s because — sans casino — it quickly went bankrupt, was stealthily snapped up by Carl Icahn and became Arizona Charlie’s Boulder.
Harris’ remark is pertinent once more the wake of last week’s Control Board hearing. There, the CEO of a downtown topless bar professed to have been shocked — shocked! — to learn that drugs and prostitution were being peddled in his fine establishment. His attorney added that the club has received a clean bill of health … from its own investigative service.
Regulators weren’t having any of it. Nor does it say much for the charms of the Girls of Glitter Gulch that it needs slot machines to keep patrons interested. Or is that simply another manifestation of our ADD-riddled, multi-tasking society?
Another regressive tax. Since neither you nor I can afford to hire lobbyists, we’re the ones who get jammed up whenever guvmint needs to find a few extra coins ‘neath the sofa cushions. The latest indignity is an Internet sales tax, long bruited and finally gaining traction, I regret to say. All those eBay vendors are just going to love all the additional paperwork that they’ll have to fill out if this turkey flies through Congress.
The presidential contenders are (mostly) ‘Net friendly on this one. Sen. Barack Obama‘s position is “No” … but with some ominous qualifiers. Sen. John McCain‘s flat “No” is to be preferred.
On our last “Vegas Gang” episode, we discussed whether it’s true that the only color which matters in a Las Vegas casino. I was of the “No” persuasion. Further ammo comes by way of Norm!, who reports on alleged discrimination against Poetry, a club catering primarily to a black clientele.
If true, this stuff would come right out of Las Vegas’ “Mississippi of the West” era — and be another reminder of how illusory progress can be. A friend of a friend, a successful African American musician, said that a good day for him was one that went by without his being on the receiving end of a racial slur.
I don’t complain too much about my lot in life since hearing that.
