BARBWIRE
by
 Damn that ABC News. The accursed liberal eastern media establishment did
something even religious conservatives applaud: made Nevada gambling look
bad. This means war, and war means libel suits.What could be the motivations of crack investigative reporter Brian Ross?
Why would he bash the gambling-industrial complex on Prime Time Live last
Wednesday? Is he still mad that he lost that Las Vegas trial a few years
back?The hometown jury found that Ross, his producer Ira Silverman and NBC News
had libeled singer Wayne Newton in a story about his relationship with
alleged mob associate Guido Penosi. Newton said he barely knew Penosi, but
once called him in desperation seeking help in stopping someone who was
making threats against Newton's child. The multi-million dollar verdict was
later overturned by a higher court.Expensive libel action is increasingly used to scare off the news media.
In 1983, Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.) sued the McClatchy newspaper chain after
the Sacramento Bee printed articles critical of the curious financing of
Laxalt's Ormbsy House Hotel-Casino. The real purpose of the action was to
serve notice to the national media not to run stories which might embarrass
the Ronald Reagan re-election machine. It worked. Only the Miami Herald,
Mother Jones and the Village Voice followed the Bee and printed negative
reports about organized crime and Reagan associates in 1984.Just a week before the election, NBC News killed a sensational story about
Tony Spilotro and Las Vegas mob activities. (For details, see the
DeNiro-Pesci-Scorsese film "Casino.") Las Vegas gambling mogul Steve Wynn
is currently suing Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith over a
book which fails to portray Wynn in the suckup manner to which he has
become accustomed. Incredibly, the suit was filed in some Kentucky
backwater.Slot machine makers International Game Technology and Bally publicly
threatened libel action as pre-emptive strikes against what they knew would
be a negative hit last Wednesday. ABC recently backed down against tobacco
industry legal threats, so it was worth a try.The gamblers spun the Prime Time Live report as an attempt to keep Nevada
Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible off President Clinton's national
gambling study commission. Perhaps they're right. Maybe the
fire-and-brimstone anti-gambling crusaders are just plain incensed that
Nevada vice is regulated by someone named Bible.Certainly, Disney-owned ABC could use some new favor among moralistic
viewers. The merchants of Mickey Mouse now also sell NYPD Blue which showed
(gasp) Gail O'Grady's breast and (aargh) Dennis Franz's butt in prime time.
Everybody knows that if the Good Lord had meant people to prance around
naked, we would've been born that way.Federal review or not, the megagaming companies will come out just fine.
If the nationwide proliferation of gambling gets stopped, their current
interests will increase in value. If the feds don't impede the spread, the
spiders will just expand their web to catch new flies.They never admit that they are being subsidized by you and me. New Jersey
recently granted Wynn's Mirage both land and tax breaks to expand there.
Never satisfied, Mr. Wynn wants Jersey taxpayers to foot the bill for a
tunnel to shunt auto travelers to his free land. Wynn just got the Clark
County commission to allow him to build a monorail between his properties
and around an angered Caesars Palace.In Carson City, big gamblers are busily trying to jack up the state's
business tax by 20 percent on everyone save themselves. They are also
pushing the legislature to impose a sales tax increase on Las Vegans, a
tough trick to turn now that it takes a two-thirds vote to impose a new
levy. No problemo if the wheels have been properly greased with campaign
cash.The gamblers are also "allowing" an increase in the Las Vegas area room
tax to help pay for growth-related needs. It will raise only $27 million of
the needed $3 billion and will all come from tourists, but I guess it's the
thought that counts.The only piece of legislation gamblers failed to juice through in 1995 is
now back before the assembly judiciary committee chaired by Bernie Anderson
(D-Sparks). Assembly minority leader Lynn Hettrick (R-Gardnerville) last
week brought back the Blackball Bill (AB 248). It would place gamblers in a
class by themselves. Alone among Nevada businesses, they would be exempt
from worker lawsuits arising from sharing information with other gamblers
about employees.No matter what your boss might say to another gambler about you, true or
false, you'd have no recourse. You could be blackballed, reduced to
second-class citizen in a second-class state. They wouldn't risk breaking
federal law by calling somebody applying for work a "union sympathizer."
Such a person might just be code-named a "troublemaker" for making
outrageous demands like overtime pay (which would be pretty much eliminated
by AB 212).Another legislative gem currently promoted in the name of families and
children involves banning "neighborhood casinos." No, not slots in bars and
grocery stores, but larger places, like Baldini's, the Gold Dust West and
the Bonanza, which might suck traffic away from the major players. The good
ole boys in Gomorrah South have found neighborhood casinos quite an
irritant for some time. Now, they're gonna make Dodge City safe for widows
and orphans. Nice to know they're always thinking about protecting the
weak.Not even the NFL worries about gambling these days. Last week, Louisiana
officials issued the last available riverboat casino license in that
honest, upstanding, God-fearing state. It went to a partnership including
Edward DeBartolo, Jr., owner of the San Francisco 49ers. The team's name
was conspicuously absent from the publicity.Las Vegas wants $45 million from the legislature to expand the original
Shark Tank, Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV, to accommodate (don't laugh)
rodeos. The unannounced agenda involves more collegiate basketball, which
brings big betting action. That's one theory as to why Sen. Bill Raggio
(R-Reno), who represents gambling clients as an attorney, stifled all
embarrassing questions about university system financial improprieties
during a recent hearing.I just hooted when I saw local gambling executives praise the honesty of
their games in reaction to the ABC report. Near-miss slots don't exist, one
said rather self-righteously. That's beside the point.Casino gambling is a "flat show," an old carnival term for games rigged so
that the player has little or no chance of winning. The only way to make
money in a casino is to own one. Games where the player enjoys anywhere
near an even chance get banned. Skillful players, like blackjack card
counters, get blackballed because they can beat the house too consistently.When you walk into a casino, keep in mind that you have entered a flat
show. Your chance to win is about the same as landing that dime on the flat
plate to win the bowl of colored water at the fair. And you're the
goldfish.Governments love gambling as a painless revenue source, "voluntary
taxation" from slot-playing voters. Casino taxes pay for big brooms to
sweep gambling-related family and social problems under the rug.It's getting harder and harder to tell gamblers from governments. John
Ascuaga's Nugget now requires your Social Security number before you can
even enter its annual free house drawing.Home sweet home means Nevada. Keep one hand on your sixgun and the other
on your wallet.Be well. Raise hell.
Andrew Barbano is a Reno-based syndicated columnist and 28-year Nevadan.Barbwire by Barbano has appeared in the Sparks Tribune since 1988. This column originally published 3/16/97.Nevada Instant Type in Sparks and both Office Depot Reno locations. |
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