{"id":11457,"date":"2013-09-04T10:45:54","date_gmt":"2013-09-04T18:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11457"},"modified":"2013-09-04T10:45:54","modified_gmt":"2013-09-04T18:45:54","slug":"im-shocked-shocked-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/im-shocked-shocked-2\/","title":{"rendered":"I&#8217;m shocked, shocked!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-11458\" title=\"51+WpV6BPmL._SY346_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/51+WpV6BPmL._SY346_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"346\" \/>If you thought <strong>Pennsylvania<\/strong>&#8216;s casino-selection process was more than a bit fishy, you&#8217;re not alone.<strong> Pennsylvania State Police<\/strong> Lt. Col. <strong>Ralph Periand<\/strong>i (ret.) <a href=\"http:\/\/cdcgamingreports.com\/new-mob-bio-traces-probe-of-pa-gaming-industry-ap\/?utm_source=The+Flash+-+September+4%2C+2013&amp;utm_campaign=Flash+-+June+7%2C+2013&amp;utm_medium=email\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">tried to probe<\/a> whether then-Gov. <strong>Ed Rendell<\/strong> (D) and &#8220;<em>members of his administration and others in state government might be trying to control the new gaming industry in Pennsylvania<\/em>.&#8221; Ya <em>think<\/em>? If you were a &#8220;george&#8221; donor to the Democratic Party your chances of getting a casino license were extremely good, as <strong>Neil Bluhm<\/strong> and the late <strong>Don Barden<\/strong> could tell you. (OK, you might have trouble getting an answer from Barden.) However, in Periandi&#8217;s attempts to put the squeeze on Mob associate <strong>Louis DeNaples<\/strong>, the state court system kept tripping him up.<\/p>\n<p>These revelations are a subplot <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Quiet-Don-Kingpin-Russell-Bufalino\/dp\/0425266850\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1378319813&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+quiet+don\" target=\"_blank\">in a new biography<\/a>,\u00a0<em>The Quiet Don<\/em> that is mainly preoccupied with Russell Bufalino, the titular <em>capo<\/em>. From this foretaste, it has the flavor of a must-read.<\/p>\n<p><strong>At a time<\/strong> when it&#8217;s pushing for a <strong>Massachusetts<\/strong> casino license, the last thing<!--more--><strong>Foxwoods Resort Casino<\/strong> is a scandal, let alone two. However, the treasurer of Foxwoods owner the <strong>Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/cdcgamingreports.com\/pequot-treasurer-in-talks-for-possible-plea-deal-ap\/?utm_source=The+Flash+-+September+4%2C+2013&amp;utm_campaign=Flash+-+June+7%\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">is apparently going to plead out<\/a> on charges that he took 70 grand from tribal coffers. Ex-chairman <strong>Michael Thomas<\/strong> has a date with the pokey, after being convicted of embezzling 100,000 clams from the tribe. Casino CEO <strong>Scott &#8220;Woody&#8221; Butera<\/strong> is going to have to convince Bay State regulators that his operation is safely insulated from corruption at the top of the tribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you thought Pennsylvania&#8216;s casino-selection process was more than a bit fishy, you&#8217;re not alone. Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. Ralph Periandi (ret.) tried to probe whether then-Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and &#8220;members of his administration and others in state &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/im-shocked-shocked-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[83,166,112,91,95,33,87,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11459,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11457\/revisions\/11459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}