The Chumbolone Casino: Gambling In Chicago
THE British Government’s attitude to casinos has been well documented. To recap: casinos are popular and the politicos would like a slice of the action. Casinos will raise money for the Treasury.
And news reaches the Casino Anorak of official goings on in Chicago. The city’s Mayor Richard Daley says he’d like City Hall to own a gigantic casino, “with all the contracts overseen by the city’s gaming board, whose members are chosen by the mayor himself”.
All hail the Chumbolone Casino.
The Chicago Tribune’s John Kass notes: “A casino with all the contracts and jobs and deals hidden from public view should be named for all of us chumbolones who believe taxes will decrease if the casino is built.” Chumbolense, we learn, is a term meaning “stupid idiot”.
Kass tells us the word was coined by Chicago Outfit loan shark and former Chicago Police Officer Anthony “Twan” Doyle. As reported, “Twan was convicted in Family Secrets for passing key information on an Outfit murder to Calabrese’s brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., while the FBI was recording their conversations.”
(Yes, the FBI – the organisation once overseen by Joseph Navarro, king of the tells. Calabrese was a hit man-turned-government witness.)
And who will run the casino? There will be jobs. And while there will be jobs picking up coins, parking cars and cleaning the toilets, there are other jobs in a more organisational capacity.
Kass looks over the CVs and suggests:
Robert Sorich – “the mayor’s former patronage boss, was convicted in federal court as part of a scheme that rigged city job applications to illegally build massive patronage armies for the mayor, in direct violation of a federal court order. Sorich is appealing his conviction on mail fraud.”
Raymond ‘Rayjo’ John Tominello – “Rayjo tutored under the famous Don ‘The Wizard of Odds’ Angelini and Dominic Cortina, the Chicago Outfit’s top bookies back in the 1980s, and he pleaded guilty to being one of their top lieutenants and went to prison for his crimes”
Says Jim Wagner, president of the Chicago Crime Commission: “You’ll end up having to pay a tax for all the corruption that will be brought into play, with the contracts, with the sweetheart deals, with the ghost employees and, history has shown, with the corruption of government and law enforcement.”
Meanwhile, over in the UK…
Posted: 25th, October 2007 | In: Sports Comments (5) | TrackBack | Permalink
