{"id":15,"date":"2008-09-02T23:41:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-03T03:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2008\/9\/2\/Alaska-nixes-gambling-Politics-here-Harrahs-there"},"modified":"2022-12-18T10:47:13","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T18:47:13","slug":"alaska-nixes-gambling-politics-here-harrahs-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/alaska-nixes-gambling-politics-here-harrahs-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska nixes gambling; Politics here, Harrah's there"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Alaska<\/strong> and its governor all over the news of late, I got to wondering what had become of that ballot initiative, backed by bar owners<\/a>, to expand gambling in Alaska<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As it happens, the initiative was voted down, the most lopsided defeat for the casino industry in a year of setbacks, following legislative rebuffs in Kentucky<\/strong> and Massachusetts<\/strong>. It did, however, prevent discomfiture for one opponent — Gov. Sarah Palin<\/strong>, who would have been required to appoint<\/a> the members of the proposed Alaska Gaming Commission, had it been voted in.<\/p>\n

If you’re scoring at home, that’s: Palin 1, Slot makers 0.<\/p>\n

Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows Dept.<\/strong> Although the largesse of MGM Mirage<\/strong> tends to flow towards the GOP, one of its prime beneficiaries this year is Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick<\/strong> (D-MI). Meanwhile, the war chest of unopposed Rep. John Conyers<\/strong> (D-MI) has been swelled by donations from Phil Ivey<\/strong> and Doyle Brunson<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Conyers is seen as a critical ally in the move to overturn the UIGEA<\/strong>, that midnight raspberry blown to online poker players by then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist<\/strong> (R-TN) and Rep. Jim Leach<\/strong> (R-IA). Frist retired soon afterwards and voters — probably including some pissed-off poker players — sent Leach packing.<\/p>\n

Swift Harrah’s verdict?<\/strong> We may not have to wait long for a ruling on Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong>‘s legitimacy to build and run a casino in Kansas<\/strong>. There’s the little matter of a disputed non-compete clause with the Prairie Band of Potawatomi Indians<\/strong>, who formerly made use of Harrah’s managerial experience before the latter severed ties. However it comes out, a speedy resolution is to be hoped for. It’s going to take the Sumner County casino two years to get up and running anyway, even without being ensnared in litigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Alaska and its governor all over the news of late, I got to wondering what had become of that ballot initiative, backed by bar owners, to expand gambling in Alaska. As it happens, the initiative was voted down, the … 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":[13,44,26,37,45,33,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15"}],"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=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32069,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/32069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}