{"id":8279,"date":"2012-01-16T16:22:20","date_gmt":"2012-01-17T00:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=8279"},"modified":"2021-11-15T09:17:05","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T17:17:05","slug":"train-robbery-in-d-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/train-robbery-in-d-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Train robbery in D.C."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"As the online-gambling gravy train begins leaving in the station, members of Congress<\/strong> are making one last attempt to derail it<\/a>. After all, once New Jersey<\/strong>, Illinois<\/strong>, California<\/strong>, the District of Columbia<\/strong> and so forth set up shop as havens for Internet<\/strong> poker and other games of chance, the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue that once dangled within Capitol Hill<\/strong>‘s grasp will be gone, baby, gone. According to Politico.com<\/strong>, “Supporters of a federal bill say states aren\u2019t equipped to handle the complexities of Internet gambling, and Congress needs to step in<\/em>,” a condescending viewpoint that sounds suspiciously like it came straight from the mouth of a certain Gary Loveman<\/strong> or one of his flunkies.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bottom line, the newfound panic among congressmen and senators who have been hitherto sucking their thumbs could produce an ugly constitutional wrangle. Congress may attempt to rush through a law aimed at superseding individual states’ rights — basically mugging them and taking away any online-gambling monies that states thought were in their grasp. Against this one must weigh the extreme difficulty the current Congress faces even in agreeing whether or not the sun rose this morning. Its list of legislative accomplishments is slight and fast action has not been its specialty. Perhaps out of misguided deference to Sen. Harry Reid<\/strong> (D-NV), Nevada<\/strong> continues to take its cues from Washington, D.C.<\/strong>, although one wonders how long that forbearance will once other states get their i-gaming apparatus up and running.<\/p>\n

However, to say that this is an issue “that resonates with” Old Sixty Votes (as lobbyist Mark Hichar<\/strong> does) is really a hoot. Reid got blindsided when cyber-poker became an issue, late in 2010, and has exerted minimal leverage during the present Congress. And it’s a rich irony indeed to hear American Gaming Association<\/strong> President Frank Fahrenkopf<\/strong> (above<\/em>) wring his hands about the need for nationwide oversight and the dangers of regulations that “vary from state to state, which is not healthy.\u201d Uhhhh, isn’t that the way gaming is regulated now<\/em>? I don’t think Fahrenkopf wants to follow that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion.<\/p>\n

\"\"S&G<\/em> offers congratulations<\/strong> to the new COO of Indiana Live<\/strong> racino, Robert “Tom” Dingman<\/strong>. Faithful readers will recall that Dingman, a 25-year veteran of Harrah’s Entertainment<\/strong>, was brought out of retirement by the State of Indiana<\/strong> to serve as trustee of Columbia Sussex<\/strong>‘s undisciplined operation at Casino Aztar<\/em> in Evansville<\/strong>. Dingman’s business policies were so successful that Casino Aztar<\/em> outperformed the market during the recession, a turnaround that continues to this day under the new owners of Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong>. This was a good hire by Cordish Gaming<\/strong> and S&G<\/em> salutes both it and Good Capt. Dingman (USAF – Ret.).<\/p>\n

\"\"Father Slot Flea<\/strong>. The one-armed bandits got the better of Monsignor Kevin McAuliffe<\/strong>, who diverted money from Las Vegas<\/strong> collection boxes into the slot hoppers of area casinos<\/a>. Despite his many good works, Monsignor McAuliffe has landed a three-stretch in the pen. Theft is theft, but the not-so-good father clearly suffers from pathological disorders and U.S. District Judge James C. Mahan<\/strong> ought to be ashamed to be meting out hard time in lieu of treatment. However, McAuliffe got off easy<\/a> compared to the term laid down on an Illinois<\/strong> priest who pilfered $400,000. Desert Companion<\/em> magazine took a less-than-reverent view<\/a> of the McAuliffe affair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the online-gambling gravy train begins leaving in the station, members of Congress are making one last attempt to derail it. After all, once New Jersey, Illinois, California, the District of Columbia and so forth set up shop as havens … 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":[34,15,70,28,7,52,58,68,37,33,90,111,25,31,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8279"}],"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=8279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30338,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8279\/revisions\/30338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}