{"id":13198,"date":"2014-04-03T10:20:27","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T18:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13198"},"modified":"2014-04-03T10:20:27","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T18:20:27","slug":"adelson-crassness-and-classiness-could-online-poker-flop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/adelson-crassness-and-classiness-could-online-poker-flop\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelson: Crassness and classiness; Could online poker flop?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend’s GOP<\/strong> kaffeeklatsch, hosted by Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>, was such a self-abasing lap dance by the celebrity attendees that this Andy Borowitz<\/strong> satire doesn’t feel like much of a stretch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Adelson2_2_12\"<\/a>That being said, Adelson is making his presence felt in the philanthropic realm<\/a> with the formation of Sands Cares<\/strong>. The first million dollars take the form of a donation to Clean the World<\/strong>. The admirable mission of this charity is to recycle waste products — such as used soap and shampoo — into hygiene products for underprivileged countries. Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> has made a lot of money off the Third World so it’s nice to see it giving some of it back. Sands Cares also wrote a five-year, $7 million check to the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration<\/strong> at UNLV<\/strong>. Interim UNLV President Don Snyder<\/strong> has really decimated the degree program over there, so the Harrah College could definitely use Sands’ cash, which go toward founding a\u00a0Center for International Hospitality & Gaming Education.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Said Sands President Michael Leven<\/strong>, “we want to be recognized globally in terms of civic responsibility. That goes with the territory.\u201d In the case of UNLV, a quarter of the Harrah College’s students come from Asia<\/strong>, meaning Sands is potentially underwriting the education of its future managerial staff.<\/p>\n

\"Leven\"<\/a>As for the donation to Clean the World, some of that will be felt right here in Las Vegas’ homeless community, some in places as far-flung as the South China Sea<\/strong>. Leven (left<\/em>) says the contribution is a proactive one, to help Clean the World prepare for the next crisis rather than react to it. Sands employees will also volunteer their time as part of the initiative.<\/p>\n

The only flaw in Sands Cares is Leven’s hope that it will make people focus on Sands “rather than our chairman.” Nice try but Sheldon Adelson is much too good subject matter to ever be out of the spotlight.<\/p>\n

A half-dozen companies<\/strong> are keeping their powder dry and asking for extensions of their licenses<\/a>. (Once granted, a license has to start being used within six months.) Casino attorney Jeff Silver<\/strong> went so far as to call the game “a loser.” It only outgrosses bingo at this point. MGM Resorts Online<\/strong> and the Golden Nugget<\/strong> were two of the companies taking a wait-and-see attitude. Small-time operator Rory Bedore<\/strong> was of a similar mind but sees Internet poker as a ‘gateway drug’ that could get players into his Max Casino<\/strong> and Carson Station<\/strong> (in Carson City<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

This is different<\/strong>. Players can gamble and earn frequent-flier miles<\/a> and Valley Forge Casino Resort<\/strong>. Valley Forge’s partner in this novel scheme is US Airways<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend’s GOP kaffeeklatsch, hosted by Sheldon Adelson, was such a self-abasing lap dance by the celebrity attendees that this Andy Borowitz satire doesn’t feel like much of a stretch. That being said, Adelson is making his presence felt in … 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":[24,37,53,11,95,33,25,12,129],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13198"}],"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=13198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13199,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13198\/revisions\/13199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}