“This actually is something I know something about.”
-New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, former Goldman Sachs chair, on tightening credit markets that are pinching casino investors
“Once you begin going down that path to tribal casinos far from reservations, I don’t know how you ever control it, because the precedent would be established and then you could have gaming anywhere.”
-U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on his department’s recent veto of 11 proposed casinos 70 to 1,500 miles from applying tribes’ reservations
“There is a need to link Shenzhen with Zhuhai and a need to link Hong Kong with Macau and Zhuhai. I can see the need for five bridges in the region, which isn’t surprising when you consider that there are 16 bridges and four tunnels in Manhattan.”
-Sir Gordon Wu, “Asia’s Mr. Fix-it,” in a 2006 interview with Silk Road, speaking about infrastructure plans for the Hong Kong-Macau region.
“We were shocked by the lack of due process involved. The Department of Interior created a new regulatory standard one day, didn’t notify anybody and applied it the next day.”
-Mark Van Norman, executive director of the National Indian Gaming Association, on the new federal commutability guideline for planned casinos far from tribes’ reservations
“Why should the racetrack industry need bailing out by the government any more than any other industry? If it were some other industry that had outlived its usefulness, we generally would let it die.”
-New Mexico dentist Guy Clark, chairman of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling
“The money at stake in these casino deals is exorbitant. They are in essence licenses to print money for a very long time.”
-Terry Gillen, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s chief adviser on casinos, explaining to an often-hostile crowd of casino supporters in the Fishtown district, site of the proposed SugarHouse casino, why the city is moving so slowly and deliberately on granting zoning approvals to the project
“We remain opposed to the expansion of gambling. We’re a family market.”
-Zoraya Suarez, a spokeswoman for Walt Disney World in Orlando, perhaps foreshadowing lawmakers’ reasons to reject current bills to plump up Florida gaming
