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By Sean Toth
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer
Well, it took awhile, but the federal government has “invaded”
Under Regulation 6A,
With the federal change, however, casinos with $1 million
and over in annual gross gaming revenue will be subject to the same federal
reporting requirements as casinos with $10 million and over in annual gaming
revenue, the reporting threshold under Regulation 6A.
With the threshold lowered, that information could be
accessed by many more people now than before and may even be accessed by the
public. And this opens such information up for all types of potential abuse.
And what may be even more troubling is that the Nevada
gaming officials didn’t put up much of a fight at all, taking less than 10 minutes
to eliminate the state’s money laundering regulation and acknowledging that the
feds had taken over the tracking of large cash transactions from the
state.
In the second and final public hearing concerning the
elimination of the regulation, nobody spoke against the action. Only
representatives of a few small casinos even attended the hearing.
It’s appropriate we take this action, but it’s also
important to note that Regulation 6A has been very valuable and served the
state well for a long period of time, said Gaming Commission chairman Pete
Bernhard of the 21-year-old rule.
I feel obligated to add a few personal remarks on behalf
of, well, EVERYBODY except the federal government!
Although this is very highly unlikely to ever affect me
directly (most freelance sportswriters can’t afford to wager that kind of
money!), this seems very “Orwellian” to me.
First of all, who came up with those small amounts? I might
be willing to believe that terrorists could potentially use Vegas as a means of
laundering money around
$50,000 or more, but not the amounts in concern.
I will close by just pointing out what probably seems
obvious to most people with a brain: This has NOTHING AT ALL to do with
thwarting terrorism! Just as with everything else concerning the Patriot Act,
this has everything to do with control. This is yet another example of handing
a lot of information to very few people. And in these days where now more than
ever information is power, those who control the flow of information control
all the power.
Just as in my previous article regarding the
States are rapidly losing an alarming amount of power to the
federal government in this country. Nevada could have battled this, but state
officials knew that if the states do anything that the federal government doesn’t
like, even if the people decided on something through democratic processes such
as initiatives during elections, the feds have “squeezed” the states to get
their way by taking away crucial federal funding such as highway and school
funds that the states are very dependent on. This has already happened to many
states on many occasions that have dared to go against certain parts of the
Patriot Act.
So much for those “small government conservative
Republicans” and “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!”
Sean Toth