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A cautionary tale: Alabama legislators indicted for "conspiracy" with casinos
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
A cautionary tale: Alabama legislators indicted for "conspiracy" with casinos
Eleven people, including lobbyists, casino operators and 4 Alabama state senators, have been indicted for a "conspiracy" to help pass favorable legislation in exchange for campaign contributions and other campaign help – like the appearance of country music stars at rallies.
According to the indictment, which you can read in its entirety here:
Alabama State legislators and legislative staff, as agents of the State of Alabama, corruptly solicited, demanded, accepted and agreed to accept money and things of value from defendants and others, intending to be influenced and rewarded in connection with pro-gambling legislation.
What's most striking about the alleged crime is, well, how un-striking it really is – especially by the standards of Pennsylvania.
Our Great Commonwealth places almost no limits whatsoever on campaign contributions.
The key notion in these allegations, of course, is that the politicians "corruptly" accepted money and things of value, "intending to be influenced."
In Pennsylvania, politicians – Democrats especially – have received vast amounts of money from pro-gambling interests, and have voted favorably for all kinds of concessions to casinos – their legalization, of course, but also such goodies as the ability to extend credit to slots players (a nicety packed quietly into the recent table games bill).
It's all perfectly legal – as long as those politicians don't "intend to be influenced" by the wads of money they receive.
I'm reminded in particular of the case of lobbyist Stephen Wojdak, which I wrote about during the table games debate last winter. Wojdak, a powerful lobbyist said to have a hand in all legislation casino-related, and who represents several casinos, controls a political action committee which has given generously to Harrisburg lawmakers.
As the table games legislation was being drafted, an obscure clause appeared in it that would favor one casino venture, that he represented, over another. Asked if he held any interest in the favored casino, Wojdak did not reply to several inquiries.
I should emphasize that I'm not implying any crime here. On the contrary: I'm implying this kind of stuff is business as usual.
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