Danger wears many faces

What a week for bricks-and-mortar casinos. You know, the kind where it's still acceptable for Americans to play some poker.

Over at Ringo's Little Vegas Casino in Spokane Valley, it turns out a fully-fledged Hell's Angel has slipped through the net and wound up on the security staff.

"...the Gambling Commission cited six provisions of state law that are being violated by having a Hells Angel working at the state-licensed casino...
"The law legalizing card rooms such as those at Ringo’s says, 'The public policy of the state of Washington on gambling is to keep the criminal element out of gambling and to promote the social welfare of the people by limiting the nature and scope of gambling activities by strict regulation and control.'
"Nakayama’s affiliation with the Hells Angels flies in the face of that public policy, the revocation order contends. The accompanying case investigative records obtained under the state’s Open Records Act call the outlaw biker group a 'criminal offender cartel'.”

Video report below:



Over on the east coast, meanwhile, a cloud hangs over three employees of Atlanic City's Borgata Casino, currently on bail pending their trial for sexual assault.

And then, last but not least - this. The kind of story you know you shouldn't laugh at but do anyway. Casino security staff at Harrah's Caesars Atlantic City, sick of homing the cameras in on potential cheats, swap greed for lust as their mortal sin of choice and start scanning for female body parts instead.

"So, state officials say, they kept their eyes on the cleavage and buttocks of women wearing low-cut blouses or tight dresses, using the high-powered cameras to zoom in on their quarry."

The great thing about sexual misdeeds is that you always know there's a euphemistic gem coming up when pleasures of the flesh fall to be considered in the stuffy confines of a courtroom. In this case it was the Casino Control Commission and Harrah's Entertainment Inc spokesman Christopher Jonic - his principals $185,000 worse off in fines after this lusty lenswork - did not disappoint.

"Many times over, we have pronounced our zero-tolerance policy when it comes to inappropriate surveillance..." he insisted.

That's right; that's no peeping tom on yonder window ledge, just a little 'inappropriate surveillance'.

Jonic's efforts to keep a straight face were nothing, however, alongside the titanic struggle previously required from one of the defence lawyers.

"A fourth surveillance worker...was cleared last summer of any wrongdoing after authorities reviewed the 11 minutes of footage he had shot.
His lawyer convinced state regulators that when he zoomed in on a female bartender's chest, he was actually trying to read her employee identification badge, which she had pinned near her blouse opening."

What a wonderful thing legal precedent is. I don't know about you but I shall be endeavouring to ID women with renewed enthusiasm from now on.

Yet behind the flippancy, where does all this leave America? A woman effectively can't play poker for cash online because people who purport to know better say it's dangerous, so she has to go out to her local B&M casino, mix with Hells Angels and suspected sex offenders and pray to God that she's not being 'inappropriately surveyed'.

I don't pretend it's a fun choice but if I had to choose between a Society whose women risk addiction over one where they risk intimidation and violation, I'd take the former every time.