Ministers linked to US casino chiefs

[Briar]

(This is what we have instead of Cook)


Ministers linked to US casino chiefs

Antony Barnett, investigations editor


Dramatic new evidence about the close relationship between ministers and some of the most senior figures in US gambling, who were planning to build Las Vegas-style super casinos across Britain, can be revealed today.

Documents obtained by The Observer reveal how the Department for Culture, Media and Sport pressed the Treasury to change rules on money laundering to help US gambling corporations. They also show that ministers and department officials held meetings with senior casino officials behind closed doors in Las Vegas, South Africa and France as well as the UK.

The disclosures raise serious questions about statements denying any move on money laundering given to the Commons by the Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell. The Conservatives have accused Jowell of misleading parliament and have written to her demanding an explanation.

At the end of last year the government was planning to publish a highly controversial bill that would allow the creation of more than a hundred Las Vegas-style super casinos across Britain. American gambling bosses had targeted Britain as an area of rapid expansion and were looking to make huge profits. The plans provoked public outrage and were opposed by MPs across all parties, who feared it would turn Britain into a nation of gamblers.

...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1544276,00.html

[emad]

1. Jowell's husband is already the subject of a huge fraud investigation

linked to dodgy dealings in South Africa.

Can't see her lasting long in that 2012 Olympics sinecure she's sitting pretty in.

[moggie]

2. Is organised crime still involved in US gambling?

I know the casinos are supposed to be a lot cleaner than the days of Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, but the thought of ministers being linked to mob figures is so juicy...

[T_i_B]

3. Ask US DUer's

A lot of it seems to be related to the Native Indian lobby over there funnily enough. Here's an old article from the Torygraph for more.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/06/19/whamp19.xml

Not only is the tribe trying to recover 3,600 acres of ancestral lands - the largest ever native American land claim - but it is backed by millionaire casino developers.

The fear is that the Shinnecock are using the land claim as a lever in their long-fought battle to build a casino on their existing land - that the white picket fences, the Mondavi-Rothschild vineyards, the Barefoot Contessa delicatessen, the pristine clapboard homes and the white sandy beaches will be spoilt by a downmarket playground for trashy high-rollers.

When the tribe lodged its $1.7 billion lawsuit at the US District Court last week, it sent a shockwave through the Hamptons, from Montauk Point to Georgica Pond.

Bob Ward, an organiser for Stop the Casino - a coalition of groups opposed to the plan - said: "What we don't want is people walking down the streets with beer cans in their hands. Sure, the Shinnecock have their grievances but you don't claim sovereignty in the middle of a community and then try to destroy it.