Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming February 2015 18 Feature In Focus Reid, majority leader of the Senate up until this year and the Silver State’s most powerful national politician, was strangely silent through most of the back and forth over RAWA during 2014—this despite the fact that Nevada authorizes Web poker and most of the major gaming corporations based there have called for a supportive federal framework that would allow legalization to proceed in jurisdictions where they operate. Certainly MGM Resorts International has been vocal about it, and Caesars Entertainment runs gambling sites both in Nevada and New Jersey. Jan Jones Blackhurst, Caesars’ senior vice president of government affairs, has said, “We believe that banning Internet gaming is bad public policy from our perspective.” Gone with the loss of his Mr Reid’s Senate leadership is Nevada’s outsized clout in Washington, and it seems that Mr Reid, whose party opposes Mr Adelson on nearly every issue, would prefer to cut a deal with the billionaire to salvage a carve-out for poker should RAWA come up for consideration in 2015, and Mr Reid believes that it will. Also, Mr Reid wants to run for a fifth term in 2016, when he’ll be 76, and it would help him immensely if Mr Adelson and his money don’t go out of their way to make that difficult. In December, speaking to the Las Vegas Review-Journal in his waning days as majority leader, the senator denied that anything resembling such a deal was on the table. But it didn’t sound like he and Mr Adelson were enemies either. “I think the proliferation of gambling on the Internet is not good for our country,” he said. “I think it is an invitation to crime. I think it is hard to control for crime when you’ve got brick-and-mortar places, let alone something up in the sky someplace, and it is very bad for children.” He added, “If there is a chance to [legalize] poker, I will do that, but I am not for the Wire Act.” In the meantime, the American Gaming Association, the land- based industry’s federal lobbying arm, had already caved. In 2013, the AGA, backed by Caesars, MGM Resorts, Penn National Gaming and Boyd Gaming, among others, had organized its own coalition to meet the threat of a federal ban, though no actual proposal existed at the time. In testimony before a House Nevada Democrat Harry Reid, majority leader of the Senate up until this year and the Silver State’s most powerful national politician, was strangely silent through most of the back and forth over RAWA during 2014—this despite the fact that Nevada authorizes Web poker and most of the major gaming corporations based there have called for a supportive federal framework that would allow legalization to proceed in jurisdictions where they operate. University—he suggested dropping a nuclear bomb as a warning: “What are we going to negotiate about? … You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say, ‘OK let it go.’ And so there’s an atomic weapon, goes over ballistic missiles, the middle of the desert, that doesn’t hurt a soul. Maybe a couple of rattlesnakes, and scorpions, or whatever. Then you say, ‘See! The next one is in the middle of Tehran. So, we mean business. You want to be wiped out? Go ahead and take a tough position and continue with your nuclear development. You want to be peaceful? Just reverse it all, and we will guarantee you that you can have a nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, energy purposes.’” Mr Netanyahu’s ties to Mr Adelson and the neocon wing of the GOP run long and deep. He has spoken before Congress three times, twice at Mr Gingrich’s invitation, on one famous occasion blasting the Oslo peace accord that established the Palestinian Authority, and again in 2011 at the invitation of Mr Boehner. That last appearance was notable in its own right for the prime minister’s sharp criticism of Mr Obama for calling for peace with the Palestinian Authority based on Israel’s 1967 borders. He received, according to one news report, 29 standing ovations. Mr Netanyahu is now running for re-election with his relations with the Obama White House in shambles, and he is seen as vulnerable to opponents calling for more moderate policies both toward the Palestinians and Iran. According to Israeli press reports, the idea for his March appearance was first suggested by Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, described by James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, as an ex-Republican operative and confidante both of Mr Netanyahu and Mr Adelson. The appearance was suggested days after the GOP took the reins on Capitol Hill, and reports are the agreement for Mr Boehner to extend the invitation was reached prior to Mr Obama’s annual State of the Union address with no prior notice to be given to the White House or the State Department. So call it what you will, Mr Adelson has juice, serious juice. Even opponents are loathe to resist him outright. Nevada Democrat Harry