{"id":7962,"date":"2011-11-22T11:40:12","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T19:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=7962"},"modified":"2021-09-06T08:52:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T16:52:32","slug":"jack-abramoff-human-sewage-massachusetts-its-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/jack-abramoff-human-sewage-massachusetts-its-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Abramoff, human sewage; Massachusetts: It’s done"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Victor Rocha<\/strong> says it best: “Jack Abramoff is still the scum off the earth<\/em>.” The unrepentant ripoff artist — to call him a snake in the grass would be a slander upon serpents — claims his only failing was to be just a teensy weensy bit overzealous. The problem, he brazenly asserts, wasn’t his conduct but the laws on the books. His Baron Munchausen-worthy assertion that he generated a 75X return on investment for the tribes he bilked reeks of what would politely be called “balderdash.” (S0 that’s why all those Abramoff-tainted tribal governments got drummed out of office! They were making too much money<\/em>. Yeaaaahhhh, that’s the ticket.) Asking scumbag Abramoff to render judgment on Newt Gingrich<\/strong> is akin to having Lefty Rosenthal<\/strong> opine on the business practices of Donald Trump<\/strong>. By self-aggrandizingly likening himself to Gordon Gekko<\/strong>, Abramoff shows he’s still living in an egomaniacal fantasy land, with sycophantic ABC News<\/strong> talking heads dancing attendance upon him like panpipe-playing fauns.<\/p>\n

\"\"Whoop-de-do<\/strong>. A nonbinding referendum is about as definitive as a letter of intent, long on symbolism and short on consequence. Citizens in Texas<\/strong> will get to weigh in on casino gambling next March<\/a>. The way the question is worded (pledging casino revenues towards education) augurs well for the outcome: It’s how similar — albeit binding — ballot measures have succeeded in Missouri<\/strong> and other states. However, anything less than enormous landslide of “Ayes” appears unlikely to budge the Texas Lege, to say nothing of the absolutely immovable Gov. Rick Perry<\/strong> (R, pictured<\/em>). Perry is only to happy to wave “bye bye” to Longhorn State dollars as they cross the border into Oklahoma<\/strong> and Louisiana<\/strong> … shades of the Pete Wilson<\/strong> era in California<\/strong>, when the state government would far sooner forfeit economic opportunity to Nevada<\/strong> than make a compact with one measly Native American tribe.<\/p>\n

\"\"Finally!<\/strong> After some false starts and (arguably) a couple of wasted years, Massachusetts<\/strong> finally joined the casino fraternity yesterday. Gov. Deval Patrick<\/strong> (D) affixed his John Hancock<\/a> to the enabling legislation, inspiring sighs of relief among slot manufacturers and moans of anxiety from neighboring states. Gary Loveman<\/strong>‘s favorite-son status and House Speaker Robert DeLeo<\/strong>‘s passionate advocacy of Suffolk Downs<\/strong> (above<\/em>) makes Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> an overwhelming favorite in the steeplechase for the lone slot parlor. But with both Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> and Steve Wynn<\/strong> sounding wishy-washy of late, second-tier operators like Penn National Gaming<\/strong> and Ameristar Casinos<\/strong> have a chance to come up in the world whilst the big boys are second-guessing themselves. Heck, whoever thought they’d be the ones talking half-billion-dollar investments and Caesars would be taking the El Cheapo route?<\/p>\n

For those of you wondering<\/strong> when the Chinese government is going to put the hammer down on runaway (in more senses than one) casino revenues in Macao<\/strong>, $11.5 billion in tax revenues provides your answer. For governmental purposes, public theft and drained savings accounts — ostensibly major worries of the Peking<\/strong> government — may be deemed a small price to pay for that kind of revenue stream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victor Rocha says it best: “Jack Abramoff is still the scum off the earth.” The unrepentant ripoff artist — to call him a snake in the grass would be a slander upon serpents — claims his only failing was 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":[40,34,83,26,7,140,84,112,39,10,115,69,33,111,25,12,32,31,114,87,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7962"}],"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=7962"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30025,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7962\/revisions\/30025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}