Hillary Clinton Supports Out-Of-State Indian Nation Casinos, Obama Opposed to Expansion of Gambling

This is turning out to be a huge deal in my area. Clinton actually supports out-of-state Indian Nations being allowed to make new tribal lands, sovereign territories in states where they lived hundreds of years ago, and on dubious claims. The Interior Secy has just rejected repealing the rule against it, but clearly Hillary as President might pay off her gambling industry supporters and get that rule changed. Then casinos could go in many, many more states and place that don't have them now.

There are large, well organized whole communities and political machines allied against Casinos in the Catskills. Greene, Ulster, Sullivan and parts of Dutchess Counties are affected by this issue and the newspapers are on top of it.

Spitzer has approved casinos in the Catskills but no one had any idea Hillary did too. Clinton is a supporter and people are furious with Spitzer on this issue and now we find out Hillary is a supporter of casinos as well. The anti-casino groups here in the Hudson Valley feel like Hillary has stabbed them in the back on this. This email os going around:




If you are opposed to casinos, please consider this information about the Presidential candidates on this issue when you vote in the Democratic Presidential Primary. And talk to your friends and neighbors. The next President could make the final decision on casinos coming into your area, using a new legal loophole for out-of-state Indian Nations.

PLEASE RECOMMEND IF YOU DON'T WANT A CASINO IN YOUR COUNTY

Dec. 23, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS: Obama's gaming give, take

Candidate accepts industry's money, still expresses concern

By MOLLY BALL
Snip>
As recently as 2003, Obama, then an Illinois state senator, said he believed the "moral and social cost of gambling" was potentially "devastating" and that using gaming as a source of revenue or for economic development was "irresponsible."

He didn't think Illinois legislators should accept political contributions from the gaming industry, and in 2004 and 2006 refused federal contributions from gaming companies.


Today, it's a different story: He's the U.S. Senate's No. 10 recipient of gaming donations, backed in Nevada by such industry insiders as Billy Vassiliadis and Elaine Wynn, and actively seeking the support of the gaming-dependent Culinary union.

Obama's campaign says there is no inconsistency because he believes states should regulate gambling. As an Illinois state senator, he objected to the way the state regulated the industry. In Nevada, he believes regulation has been done right. And as a federal lawmaker, he doesn't have an oversight role.

However, in simple terms, Obama was an antagonist of the gaming industry when he was an Illinois legislator. Now, as a federal lawmaker and presidential candidate, he is its friend, although it is a friendship on uneasy terms.

He is not the only candidate with a mixed record on the industry that, while frowned upon in churches, is the sine qua non of Nevada's economy.Snip<
http://www.lvrj.com/news/12785077.html


My question who is he and where does he stay on his own convictions? He seems to be John Kerry lite to me.

casino in many many more states

choice a person makes, not unlike drinking. I would not hold this against Clinton. I do, however, have a problem with a politician using the old "moral and social cost" ploy to leverage the "faith" vote. That kind of thing always sets off alarms for me...