Inside Asian Gaming

February 2012 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 23 so he knows what the odds are.” But then it’s never easy to say what Mr Adelson will do. As for the embattled Mr Gingrich, he was telling anyone who would listen last month that he intends to stay in the race to the bitter end, a vow that means almost nothing without his Las Vegas benefactor, who’s been the campaign’s only meaningful source of funds since Mr Gingrich finished a distant fourth in voting to apportion New Hampshire’s delegates in early January (he’d already lost Iowa) and looked to be fading fast, but it does place the billionaire in something of a bind. Mr Gingrich is a friend and a kindred political spirit, a vehement right-winger who stands the strongest for Israel, in Mr Adelson’s view, and shares his patron’s hostility toward organised labour. “He’s a very loyal guy with those who are his friends, and they have been friends now for quite some time,” says Sig Rogich, a veteran Republican strategist based in Las Vegas. Of course, it can’t be too far from his mind that Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) has been under criminal investigation for the last year by the US Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission for alleged bribery of foreign officials in connection with the company’s business activities in Macau, as it has acknowledged in corporate documents. Ron Reese, Mr Adelson’s spokesman at LVS, did not respond to a request for comment, and Mr Adelson himself has had little to say to the national media that have flocked after him ever since Mr Gingrich pulled out a surprise victory on 21st January in South Carolina with the help of US$5 million from Mr Adelson. It’s the only state he’s won as of this writing. It was on the eve of that vote that Mr Adelson, perhaps feeling a bit more expansive about his investment, issued a statement to The Washington Post : “My motivation for helping Newt is simple and should not be mistaken for anything other than the fact that my wife Miriam and I hold our friendship with him very dear.” For Florida, a much bigger prize, a crucial swing state with a large and diverse population and 50 winner-take-all delegates, the Adelsons ponied up another US$5 million. But Mr Romney’s people came with US$16 million. A withering enfilade of attack ads sent Mr Gingrich into retreat. He bombed in the lone television debate. When the votes were counted on 31st January, he’d been trounced. ‘The Rules Are Mad’ The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics estimates that more than US$6 billion will be spent by political parties, campaign organisations, individuals, giant corporations and other special interests looking to place their man in the White House in November and secure a Senate and House of Representatives to their liking. There are legal limits to the amount of the money candidates can accept from individuals in national elections—“hard money,”as this is known—and corporations, labour unions and foreign nationals are prohibited from contributing directly to a candidate. But for as long as there have been limits, there have been big donors seeking influence who found ways to circumvent them. There are so-called “political action committees” (PACs), there are non-profits In Focus Down and almost out—Newt Gingrich Virtual shoe-in—Mitt Romney celebrates at the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas after winning Nevada’s Republican presidential caucuses