{"id":11782,"date":"2013-10-11T13:59:43","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T21:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11782"},"modified":"2013-10-11T13:59:43","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T21:59:43","slug":"clean-sweep-in-maryland-clobberin-time-in-albany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/clean-sweep-in-maryland-clobberin-time-in-albany\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean sweep in Maryland; Clobberin’ time in Albany"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not unsurprisingly, MGM Resorts International<\/strong>, Penn National Gaming<\/strong> and Greenwood Racing<\/strong> (owner of Philadelphia<\/strong>‘s Parx Casino<\/strong>) received the unanimous benediction<\/a> of the Maryland Lottery & Gaming Control Commission<\/strong> this week. Since Penn already operates in the Free State, its approval could, of course, be taken for \"Pansy_\"<\/a>granted. MGM was pretty thoroughly vetted and its approval was conditional on the company having no further contact with ex-board member and electronic snoop Terry Christensen<\/strong>. That should be easy to do. Since Maryland<\/strong> has reviewed MGM’s dealings with Pansy Ho<\/strong>\u00a0(left<\/em>) and deemed them moot, this — along with the Christensen stipulation — should remove any unease about MGM getting licensed in Massachusetts<\/strong> and forgiven in New Jersey<\/strong>. CEO Jim Murren<\/strong> had to be pretty happy about that: Think of all that Borgata<\/strong> revenue, piling up in trust, tantalizingly out of reach.<\/p>\n

Greenwood’s approval was also probationary<\/a>. Chairman Robert Green<\/strong> has to sever ties with convicted felon and former Parx owner Robert Brennan<\/strong>, with whom Green has injudiciously continued to keep company. You’d think somebody as successful in the casino industry as Green would have the smarts not hang out with a penny-stock swindler, especially one fresh out of the federal pen. Green had already received a fairly thorough grilling from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission<\/strong>. Considering a finding of “a serious lack of judgment on his [Green’s] part,” that may weigh heavily against Raynham Park<\/strong>‘s slot-parlor bid in the end.<\/p>\n

\"Blankenhorn\"<\/a>Proving that there’s nothing<\/strong> quite like a meaningless publicity stunt, the Institute for American Values<\/strong> is holding a ceremonial slot-machine smashing<\/a> on the steps of New York’s state capitol. Lobbyist David Blankenhorn<\/strong> will deal out some of the damage, as will author Barbara Whitehead<\/strong> and Dr. Stephen Shafer<\/strong>, a man evidently willing to trade in his medical credibility for a photo op. The fun starts in Albany<\/strong> next Tuesday morning. In the meantime, Blankenhorn and Whitehead have been carpet-bombing the media<\/a> with anti-casino arguments. They’re tireless, I’ll give them that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not unsurprisingly, MGM Resorts International, Penn National Gaming and Greenwood Racing (owner of Philadelphia‘s Parx Casino) received the unanimous benediction of the Maryland Lottery & Gaming Control Commission this week. Since Penn already operates in the Free State, its approval … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,112,11,101,69,90,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782"}],"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=11782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11784,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11782\/revisions\/11784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}