{"id":12412,"date":"2014-01-07T17:20:14","date_gmt":"2014-01-08T01:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=12412"},"modified":"2018-02-24T10:45:26","modified_gmt":"2018-02-24T18:45:26","slug":"freeman-vs-the-evil-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/freeman-vs-the-evil-empire\/","title":{"rendered":"Freeman vs. the Evil Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Blofeld.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-8806\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Blofeld-291x300.jpg\" alt=\"Macau Sands New Casino\" width=\"291\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Blofeld-291x300.jpg 291w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Blofeld-145x150.jpg 145w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Blofeld.jpg 592w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 291px) 100vw, 291px\" \/><\/a>Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>. That&#8217;s who <strong>American Gaming Association<\/strong> President <strong>Geoff Freeman<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/business-a-lobbying\/business-a-lobbying\/194451-aga-bulks-up-for-online-gambling-fight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"broken_link\"> is preparing to take on<\/a>, as the AGA <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/business\/gaming-lobbying-organization-revamps-management-team\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">beefs up its lobbying staff<\/a>. It&#8217;s a bipartisan group that includes 2012 Obama campaign guru <strong>Jim Messina<\/strong>. Freeman demurs that it isn&#8217;t A Sheldon Thing but the timing is difficult to interpret otherwise. Other new lobbyists come from House Majority Leader <strong>Eric Cantor&#8217;<\/strong>s staff, from Big Pharma, from tourism &#8230; and from Big Gaming, not to worry.\u00a0One source predicts that Freeman will reverse field on AGA policy and make <strong>Internet<\/strong> gaming a state-level fight. Adelson&#8217;s minions, meantime, are trying to <!--more-->rewrite the Federal Wire Act. Perhaps they&#8217;d like to dust off the Volstead Act while they&#8217;re at it. Oh, and put in a good word for the War on Drugs, which has been such a roaring success.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Going rogue<\/strong>. That&#8217;s what<strong> Cantor Gaming<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Michael Colbert<\/strong> was able to do under the nose of top brass, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/business\/cg-technology-nevada-gaming-regulators-tentatively-settle-complaint\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">per an agreement reached yesterday<\/a> between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Slot.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-12413\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Slot-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"Slot\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Slot-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Slot-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Slot.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Cantor and the <strong>Nevada Gaming Control Board<\/strong>. He&#8217;s already plead out to a charge of conspiracy in federal court. The NGCB charged that he &#8220;was an agent in the illegal betting ring who recruited bettors, maintained existing bettors, collected losses and paid out winnings.&#8221; Much of the blame washes back on Cantor CEO <strong>Lee Amaitis<\/strong>, who was nominally Colbert&#8217;s supervisor. It&#8217;s just the latest in a skein of charges that have clung to Cantor&#8217;s ankles like seaweed. In a 4,464-instance violation a (now-) convicted money launderer ran bets for a high roller. Then there were the eight missing wagering applications &#8230; the employees who wrote betting slips for themselves &#8230; the &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Giving this pig<\/strong> a hefty spritz of perfume, Cantor <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/business\/cantor-gaming-changes-its-name-cg-technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">changed its name<\/a> to <strong>CG Technolog<\/strong>y and starting talking LBO. Memories are short around, so this might do the trick.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/penn-national-gaming.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5083\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/penn-national-gaming.jpg\" alt=\"penn-national-gaming\" width=\"195\" height=\"45\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/penn-national-gaming.jpg 195w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/penn-national-gaming-150x34.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/a>Alas<\/strong> for the horsey set in <strong>West Virginia<\/strong>, only one track makes money off racing. That&#8217;s be <strong>Penn National Gaming<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Charles Town Racing<\/strong>. Despite quantifiable evidence that slots are carrying the tracks like an overburdened nag, <strong>Eric Bowen<\/strong> of the\u00a0<strong>Bureau of Business &amp; Economic Reasearch<\/strong> at <strong>West Virginia University<\/strong>, waves some vague stats around. The tracks are credited with generating &#8220;several hundred million in revenue.&#8221; If so, why is racing always on the verge of needing a bailout?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sheldon Adelson. That&#8217;s who American Gaming Association President Geoff Freeman is preparing to take on, as the AGA beefs up its lobbying staff. It&#8217;s a bipartisan group that includes 2012 Obama campaign guru Jim Messina. Freeman demurs that it isn&#8217;t &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/freeman-vs-the-evil-empire\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[148,37,53,69,33,111,25,12,139],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12412"}],"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=12412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21245,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12412\/revisions\/21245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}