“We know there’s going to be drug sales and prostitution and that you can’t stop all of it,” is the rallying cry of the Nevada Gaming Control Board‘s top enforcer, Jerry Markling, basically running up the white flag even before pool season has kicked into high gear (giving one optimal chances of observing that migratory fauna, the wild douchebag, in his natural habitat). If the powder-puff regulatory approach outlined by Markling and his bosses was working as well as they say, why then do so many problems — as portrayed in Liz Benston‘s story — persist? The Sun‘s piece paints the NGCB as defeatist, underfunded (well, there’s no arguing that) and basically impotent by choice when it comes to chastising operators. Small wonder that they recidivate with impunity. Whatever happened to the value of a good public shaming?
So What Else Is New Dept. For the seventh time in two years, spring floods have closed the President casino. This has been an endemic — and utterly predictable problem — for the area. Since Pinnacle Entertainment has abandoned its quest to hang onto the President’s license, the question becomes academic whether Pinnacle’s plan to keep the casino going at Laclede’s Landing was sane, let alone viable.
Anybody who thinks Vegas pool parties and clubs are not hurting anybody except the drug users, alcohol addicts and johns needs to listen to those in the emergency rooms, doctors offices and social agencies who spend their valuable time and money that comes from all taxpayers as they try to help the direct victims.