{"id":13522,"date":"2014-05-06T11:26:17","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T19:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13522"},"modified":"2014-05-07T11:21:49","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T19:21:49","slug":"adelson-im-nice-really-casinos-go-to-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/adelson-im-nice-really-casinos-go-to-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelson: I’m nice, really; Casinos go to pot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sheldon<\/a>Three hundred people turned out yesterday at UNLV<\/strong> to hear Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> hold a rap session with the kids<\/a> about the evils of online gambling. Adelson’s animus, it turns out, was his father’s propensity to gamble his money away at Boston<\/strong>-area racetracks. So why isn’t Adelson trying to get horseracing banned? (Or slot routes or tribal casinos … ?) I know, I know: Stop trying to make sense of it. Where you see a cell phone or a computer, Sheldon sees a little casino. “I am in favor of it as a form of entertainment. But I am not in favor of it exploiting the world\u2019s most vulnerable people,” he said, adding with deliberate irony, “I know I am a Republican and I am not supposed to be socially sensitive, but I am very socially sensitive.\u201d It’s not clear whether anybody asked Adelson to elaborate on his belief in the mystical powers of brick-and-mortar casinos to deter disordered gamblers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe integrated resort is my contribution to the industry,\u201d Adelson said, referring to Venetian Macao<\/strong>. Again, he didn’t explain why casino megaresorts like MGM Grand<\/strong>, which preceded his arrival on the scene didn’t qualify. (Oh, and Sheldon: You look so cute when you make those air-quote gestures<\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

COO\u00a0Michael Leven<\/strong>\u00a0was also on hand to address the student body. He told reporters Sands already has ‘boots on the ground,’ as it were, in Japan<\/strong>. Sands has opened an office there, staffed it up and is already advertising. Casinos in Japan aren’t a done deal but Adelson is the pace car with whom everyone else must keep moving.<\/p>\n

Speaking of habits<\/strong>, now that Nevada<\/strong> has a legal framework for growing and distributing medicinal marijuana, everybody’s getting jiggy with it<\/a>, including staid figures like Las Vegas Sun<\/em> Editor Brian Greenspun<\/strong> and M Resort<\/strong> President Anthony Marnell III<\/strong> (which puts Penn National Gaming<\/strong> one degree of connection away from the medicinal-pot biz). The Nevada Gaming Control Board was quick to warn casinos away from\u00a0such investments<\/a>, citing the legal peril of overriding, federal anti-marijuana laws.\u00a0“Unless the federal law is changed, the board does not believe investment or any other involvement in a medical marijuana facility or establishment by a person who has received a gaming approval or has applied for a gaming approval is consistent with the effective regulation of gaming,” NGCB member Terry Johnson<\/strong>. Never mind that gamblers can freely feed their nicotine habit or get blind drunk on a gaming floor, the Control Board has decided to draw the line somewhere and this is it.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three hundred people turned out yesterday at UNLV to hear Sheldon Adelson hold a rap session with the kids about the evils of online gambling. Adelson’s animus, it turns out, was his father’s propensity to gamble his money away at … 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":[37,171,63,69,90,25,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13522"}],"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=13522"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13532,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13522\/revisions\/13532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}