“Control Boards”: A Casino-Cozy Ploy – No Casinos

“Control Boards”: A Casino-Cozy Ploy

“Gaming Control Board” — A recipe for gambling expansion and influence
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“Control Boards”: A Casino-Cozy Ploy

“Control Boards”: A Casino-Cozy Ploy

If Florida wants to get cozy with casinos, there’s no easier way than to set up a bureaucratic “control board.” Common sense should make people wonder: Why do out-of-state casino interests want legislators to create a new gambling bureaucracy? Because they know it will increase their influence.

Consider this evidence: The Illinois Gaming Board’s top administrator left his post to accept a job with Harrah’s who had two subsidiaries this administrator helped regulate. Even walking scandal and then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who tried to auction President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, found the “gaming commission” shenanigans offensive.

Those who think setting up a vast new gambling agency is a good idea should read this article:

 

By Ray Long and John Case
June 25, 2003
Chicago Tribune

GALESBURG, Ill. — Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday slammed outgoing Illinois Gaming Board Administrator Philip Parenti for taking a job with the Harrah’s casino chain, saying the move is an example of the “culture” in state government that needs to be changed.

Parenti, who was chief administrator of the state body that regulates the gambling industry for 19 months, announced last week that he was resigning to take the job with Harrah’s parent company in Las Vegas. Parenti said that because he is taking a job at the company’s headquarters and not with either of the two Harrah’s subsidiaries that own casinos in Illinois that he helped regulate, he did not believe there was a conflict of interest….

Continue to the full article here.

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