It’s been a tough week for Harrah’s. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving company. First all the criminal charges in Las Vegas, now a million dollar verdict for wrongful termination of a security guard.

Though I disagree with Missouri’s absurd $500 "loss limit," the actions of Harrah’s supervisors were stupid and arrogant. There certainly were better ways to educate the guard to not hassle patrons over petty things. Surprisingly, the unimaginative supervisor who apparently caused the mess, Robert Green, wasn’t fired by Harrah’s. Instead, he was reportedly transferred to the Showboat in Atlantic City.

Harrah’s is truly a disgusting, sickening organization. I will be happy the day it collapses from the weight of its own constant wrongdoing.

Congratulations to attorney Kevin Baldwin of Baldwin & Vernon in Liberty, MO for successfully handling this case.

From my point of view, Columbia Sussex is perhaps the worst casino operator in existence, even including Harrah’s. At least Harrah’s has a fairly generous comp system that can be profitably exploited; Columbia Sussex has mostly garbage games as well as a garbage comp system.

"We’re going to take a look at what New Jersey had done in more detail," Neilander said. "There can be ramifications for a company conducting gaming outside of Nevada that has shown to have willfully violated gaming regulations."

Though I doubt that the worthless Nevada Gaming Control Board will actually do anything, at least it claims to be looking at the feeble Nevada operations of this awful company.

Gaming agents have stepped up a presence in Nevada casinos operated by Columbia Sussex … Because the usual presence is ZERO, one agent visiting one property would make the statement accurate.

It is terrific to see a gaming board actually take action against an inferior operator that is bringing discredit to an industry that so often brings discredit and shame upon itself. Congratulations to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission for standing up to a casino. Do-nothing Nevada Chairman Dennis Neilander and the other casino lackeys on the Nevada Gaming Control Board should take lessons from their counterparts in New Jersey.

It would be nice to see Nevada take action to strip Columbia-Sussex of its Nevada gaming license and run these sleazeballs out of the state, forcing the sale of its six poorly-managed Nevada casinos. Unlikely to happen, but let’s hope.

In the same week that Clark County filed seventeen criminal charges against Harrah’s employees or contractors in the remodeling scandal, New Jersey regulators refused to renew the Tropicana’s gaming license.  Congratulations to Clark County Manager Virginia Valentine and the members of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission for doing the right thing,  despite undoubtedly heavy political pressure to sweep it all under the rug.

I think both are major events. In the past, casinos have usually gotten a "free pass" when shown to have engaged in various types of wrongdoing. A slap on the wrist, or no penalty at all, just being told "don’t do it again," has been the norm. It has taken civil action by the aggrieved parties to see any semblance of justice meted out.

Have the many successful civil suits against casinos for patron abuse had any effect on the overall view held by the authorities? Have the people in government who are honorable and not in the pockets of the casino industry begun to see that not everyone thinks casinos should control the government and get away with whatever they want? Or am I being too optimistic — these two cases are isolated events, and it’ll otherwise be business as usual, especially in things related to patron abuse?

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With the new allegations about recent wrongdoing at Flamingo, it is imperative that police take action to try to stop these guest-safety crimes from continuing. The arrest, prosecution, and prison sentences after conviction of the responsible Harrah’s executives would be a good start. Do we need another hotel fire to kill dozens of tourists before meaningful action is taken?

Harrah’s has repeatedly demonstrated its disregard for the law and disregard for the safety of its guests and employees. The ongoing exposing of wrongdoing by more than one courageous whistleblower highlights a corporate mentality of thumbing the corporate nose at the safety regulations that exist to protect the very people whose wallets Harrah’s tries so hard to empty. It is ironic that Harrah’s doesn’t seem to care about the safety of the very people it fleeces with its mostly lousy, ripoff games. Maybe that’s what happens when a company gets so bloated that most government officials are too cowardly to take a stand against it. Let’s hope there are a couple of honest Metro detectives who are not afraid, not corruptible, and will push for the proper criminal action to be taken.

Las Vegas television Channel 8 KLAS-TV aired a report on the recent gaming expo. But reporter Edward Lawrence badly misstated facts. It would be laughable, if the report wasn’t so outrageous, slanderous and defamatory to people who have studied blackjack (and other casino games) and learned how to play correctly.

In both pieces, Mr. Lawrence subsequently mentions that card counting is not illegal, indicating that he probably is not as ignorant as his previous references to cheating and stealing make him appear. One has to wonder if Mr. Lawrence was put up to making his moronic comments by someone else; if so, did his integrity take a leave of absence?

Channel 8’s news supervisors and editors should be embarrassed and ashamed that they let such a poorly worded story onto the air and into cyberspace. Shame on Mr. Lawrence, and shame on Channel 8.

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But, bottom line, you are correct story should not have used the words "cheated," or "stole." I will pull the story, and appreciate you taking the time to help correct our, my, error

Bob Stoldal VP News KLAS

One has to wonder if there is no crime in Yonkers, giving a state police officer time to waste on something as stupid as this. The bad news is that it is probably going to be harder to recover damages from the public agency than it would be if some casino security morons did it on their own, instead of in concert with a public employee moron.

But since a first look at the machine did not turn up the ticket, she was ordered into a room where a security woman conducted a strip search.

This brings up an interesting question. Assuming the reporter got the facts correct, if a state police officer took the woman into custody ("taken to a room"), on what basis did the officer turn over the arrestee/"detainee"(?) to a private security guard to do a strip search?

The casino’s defense likely will be, "The police forced security to do it." Of course, that lame excuse didn’t stand up in the Imperial Palace/Grosjean case, where the casino guards tried to blame Gaming Control agents, claiming the Gaming agents ordered the guards to attack, kidnap, and falsely imprison Mr. Grosjean.