{"id":11803,"date":"2013-10-15T09:42:59","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T17:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11803"},"modified":"2013-10-15T09:42:59","modified_gmt":"2013-10-15T17:42:59","slug":"hey-big-spender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/hey-big-spender\/","title":{"rendered":"Hey, Big Spender"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Seal_of_New_York.svg\"<\/a>Pro-gaming lobbyists outnumbered lawmakers in the last Legislature in New York State<\/strong> — with more than three-dozen entities getting into the action. They’ve also dropped an average of $7.4 million a yea<\/a>r on lobbying efforts. That’s not much compared to the $34 million a year spent in Washington, D.C.<\/strong>, but it’s still pretty “george.” If the pro-casino measure passes in November the fun begins all over again as interested parties jostle over the four initial licenses. As Common Cause<\/strong> Director Susan Lerne<\/strong>r dryly observed, “Albany<\/strong> is extra skilled in creating opportunities for the gambling industry to throw money at it.” In some cases, lobbyists were retained by Casino X simply to keep them away from Casino Y.<\/p>\n

For instance, rich uncle Genting Group<\/strong> had five<\/em> lobbying firms representing it in Albany. Genting is hoping to double down its existing commitment to New York with a Catskills<\/strong> casino. And money talks: After floating the idea of banning casino donations to public officials, Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/strong> (D) has become the biggest beneficiary of casino largesse — over $1 million in donations. (Hypocrisy, thy name is Cuomo.) What’s been spent now is peanuts compared to when, in seven years, the greater New York City area is up for grabs. They’re already hot and bothered<\/a> in Staten Island<\/strong> when the casino subject arises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pro-gaming lobbyists outnumbered lawmakers in the last Legislature in New York State — with more than three-dozen entities getting into the action. They’ve also dropped an average of $7.4 million a year on lobbying efforts. That’s not much compared to … 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":[26,120,101,33],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11803"}],"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=11803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11804,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11803\/revisions\/11804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}