McCain Cronies Hit Jackpot with Gtech

[maddezmom]

McCain Cronies Hit Jackpot with Gtech
By Ken Silverstein

“As a two-time chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, Mr. McCain has done more than any other member of Congress to shape the laws governing America’s casinos,” the New York Times reported today in a piece that detailed the close ties between Senator John McCain’s chief campaign aides and the Indian gambling business. The Times said that McCain has distanced himself from tribal casinos in recent years as public opposition to the industry grew, but “he has rarely wavered in his loyalty to Las Vegas, where he counts casino executives among his close friends and most prolific fund-raisers.”

A number of McCain’s cronies, several whom were mentioned in the Times story, have ties to another gambling behemoth: Gtech, which is heavily involved in state lotteries and online gaming. Gtech and a firm called Scientific Games dominate the lottery business, which “flourishes at the crossroads of capitalism and public policy,” according to another Times story from last fall. The two companies have “evolved from minor suppliers into an influential oligopoly,” the story said. “Gtech and Scientific Games have done more than just ride the gambling boom — they have strong-armed their way to the top of a publicly sponsored industry that they now dominate.”

To grease its path, Gtech has hired a slew of McCain’s closest aides and advisors. Since 1999, the firm has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to BKSH & Associates, whose chairman until earlier this year was senior McCain advisor Charlie Black, Jr. Black, who left BKSH after it was reported that he was lobbying for clients from the McCain bus, worked on the Gtech account until last year.

Rick Davis, who may or may nor have “separated” himself from the firm of Davis, Manafort in 2006, is another one-time Gtech lobbyist. Between 1999 and 2001, Davis, Manafort was paid $90,000 to represent the gambling company. Davis was the sole lobbyist on the account. For part of that period, Davis was running McCain’s 2000 run for the GOP nomination

more:http://harpers.org/archive/2008/09/hbc-90003629

[maddezmom]

1. D.C. fines Jersey lottery operator $1.4 million in ticket scam

D.C. fines Jersey lottery operator $1.4 million in ticket scam
Thursday, September 25, 2008
BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL
Star-Ledger Staff
GTECH Corp., the longtime operator of New Jersey's lottery, was fined $1.4 million by the District of Columbia this month over charges that its subcontractors or a partner firm hacked into the district's lot tery system and printed winning tickets for themselves two years ago.

The fine, which GTECH calls "a blatantly political move," comes as the firm is locked in a long battle to retain the New Jersey contract it has held for more than two decades.

GTECH and its Washington, D.C., partner, Lottery Technology Enterprises, are accused of supply ing online lottery machines to the District of Columbia that were "vulnerable to fraud and abuse," according to a Sept. 17 notice of contracting officer Eric Payne's decision to fine the firms.

District investigators determined that individuals working for the firms tapped into the online systems over six months in 2005 and 2006 and printed themselves $86,166 worth of tickets free of charge. They collected a total of $72,000 in winnings from those tickets, the investigators found.

more:http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-11/122231675645020.xml&coll=1

[WePurrsevere]

2. The same fools who believe that McCain has no conflict of interest

with Wall Street and Gambling believed (and some still believe despite evidence that their eyes could plainly see if they weren't clouded by KoolAid) that Cheney actually signed off from Halliburton and big oil so there's no conflict of interest where it's now been shown that there is even the Corporate media reported on it.

(waves :hi: to Maddezmom.)