We have another candidate for Vegas Addiction rehabilitation
Are cases of Vegas Addiction spreading?
Wednesday’s column on what appears to be an increasing number of swindlers and cheats using Las Vegas to play out their fantasies might have been a little harsh to some readers.
Others shrug and remind me adults are responsible for their own behavior, and business owners have their own profits to look after. Just this week, a New Jersey woman had been charged with bilking real estate investors out of some $45 million in a Ponzi scheme.
Federal prosecutors and investigators traced Antoinette Hodgson’s ill-gotten cash to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where she was treated like a queen.
In Las Vegas, IRS Special Agent in Charge Paul Camacho said, “There might be times when these (casino) employees get an uneasy feeling that the source of funds from a particular customer could be from some fraud. These instances should be reported on Suspicious Activity Reports. We want to work together to stop these crimes in progress so we can minimize victim losses.”
FBI PRIORITY: A lot of numbers were thrown around Thursday by the Operation Stolen Dreams mortgage fraud task force at the Lloyd George U.S. District Courthouse. There are 1,215 defendants nationwide, 123 in Nevada. There’s the $2.3 billion in losses throughout the U.S. with $246.8 million of that from within our own state.
Perhaps the most impressive figure was 10: That’s the number of FBI agents working full time on the local mortgage crisis.
“EDUCATION GOVernor”: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid trails in the polls to Republican challenger Brian Sandoval, but his timing is improving.
Reid recently rolled out his plan to become Nevada’s “Education Governor” and presented bullet points to reporters on how he would improve public education without raising taxes.
Earlier this week, Nevadans were told the state’s graduation rate had dropped to last in the nation at 41.8 percent.
Will Reid’s issue catch fire at a time most are worried about the economy?
MGM/“MRI?”: Not that I’m saying investors should have their heads examined for buying stock in a company with the initials MRI or one that’s staggering under a hellacious debt load, but MGM Resorts International surely has caused a few snickers since changing its name from MGM Mirage.
DEFENDER GENTILE: Attorney Dominic Gentile, who has defended mobsters and reporters for three decades and can tell you which is more likely to pay his bill, has been named Defender of the Decade by the Nevada Attorneys For Criminal Justice.
SPREADING SUNSHINE: Maybe you didn’t know it’s National Flip Flop Day. I forgive you.
Maybe you didn’t know that, on National Flip Flop Day, each of the 20 Tropical Smoothie stores in Southern Nevada is giving a free smoothie to the first 500 flip-flop-wearing customers.
I’ll do the math: Potentially, that’s 10,000 free smoothies and 20,000 flip-flops.
The best part is, it’s a fundraiser for Camp Sunshine, a nonprofit that provides summer camp experiences for children with life-threatening injuries and their families.
ON THE BOULEVARD:
Doubling the fees for sports teams using Las Vegas facilities will have more of a negative effect than anticipated — on the City Hall crowd and those high-paid employees whose unions have fought the slightest pay cut. MGM Resorts International’s trouble with its CityCenter subcontractors threatens to generate the kind of negative news that will further undercut the company. It looks like the Nevada State Democratic Party will admit it erred when it whacked then-state Sen. Bob Beers by claiming he was “under Ethics Commission review” in a 2008 campaign mailer. Beers lost the race, but seems to be having the last laugh. He’s out of the Legislature.
Have an item for the Bard of the Boulevard? E-mail comments and contributions to Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.
