Casino Royale Reprised....Heads They Win, Tails We Lose

InTheEndThere'sOnly
OneBossThatMattersVille


"I want to build an economy based on winners, not losers, and gambling is always based on losers. The only way government makes money on gambling is because you lose it."

Gordon Campbell, Lotusland, 1999

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Down here it's just winners and losers and don't get caught on the wrong side of that line...
Well I'm tired of comin' out on the losin' end.....So honey last night I met this guy....
And I'm gonna do a little favor for him....

Bruce Springsteen, Atlantic City, 1982

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Casino Royale Under Surveillance....What Are The PAB-Bots Looking For Today?

TheHitCounterIs
YourFrenemyVille


Mostly, a small flock of fine folks from the British Columbia Government's massive Public Affairs Bureau touch down at this wee little F-Troop-listed bit of the bloggodome after visiting other, much more well-known sites, like our friend Mary's, or Sean Holman's place, or the home of the Big Fish.

And when they do come in for a landing here it's usually on the homepage.

But lately (surprise!), they've come looking for specific stuff.

And today, their favorite land and read spot has been this one, which involves a discussion with regular reader, and current foreign desert correspondent, Ian Reid about the obligations of Casino buyers, sellers and regulators under the British Columbia Gaming Act.

Imagine that.


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Oh, and in a surprisingly solid show of support for social networking Potemkinsism involving an octect of PABsters, a most interesting discussion has broken out in a comment thread attached to one of Sean Holman's least earth shattering, but nonetheless interesting, posts in recent days......

And stay-tuned for the coming report on what was in the North False Creek Official Development Plan Ammendment for the area surrounding BC Place (a.k.a. 'Area 10' - how Maxwell Smart is that!?) of Oct 2008 that was approved by Smilin Sammy et al., in Oct of 2008 and which cleared the decks for PavCo to make its deal with the Dev.....errrrrrr......T. Richard Turner and Friends from Vegas and NumberedCompanyVille.....(in other words, I've got the docs, and one of them contains the secret woid).....


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The Casino Royale's Resurrection Shuffle....The Ghost Of Smilin' Sammy

SeeNoSpeakNoHearNoNuthin'
Spammy'sMonkeysVille


So....

I was sniffing around PavCo's publically available documents and I stumbled across something interesting.

Which is, as is stated in PavCo's Capital Project Plan of Dec 27th, 2008, the fact that....

"The City of Vancouver approved the Official Development Plan (ODP) for a Gross Buildable Area of 1,400,000 square feet in Oct 2008"

Three things....

1) Oct 2008 means that the megalopolis was approved by Smilin' Sammy Sullivan and his Merry Band of Sycophants during the last days of their Reign of Errors, not by Gregor and the Visionistas, which may, at least in part, explain why the crickets are chirping on this issue over at the Spamaloteers' House of Horrible Horrors.

2) 1.4 million buildable square feet means that, after T. Richard Turner and friends are done with their 1.1 million for the Pleasure Palace and Twin Towers, there is, at least potentially, still up to 300,000 square feet of prime downtown Vancouver developable real estate floating around*.

3) And here's something I haven't quite figured out yet.....Was there any mention of a Casino in that ODP ammendment? (stay tuned on that one, have the pdf's on the thumb drive right now for light Friday night reading)



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*Perhaps, true to form and past performance, to be used as a consolation prize for some lucky winner?.....Like, maybe for an unsuccessful 2nd bidder for example?
PavCo's patronizingly pablumized project plan document can be found here (careful, pdf).


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Casino Royale..... Lob-O-Rama-Llama-Ding-Dong

AllTheInfluence
ThatFitsVille

While it is not, in my opinion, the way to go given that the evidence uncovered so far suggests something very, very different, the Opposition's Spencer Chandra-Herbert has managed to prod the Lobbying registrar into some kind of action:

"B.C.'s registrar of lobbyists has opened a file on the activities of the chair of the Insurance Corporation of B.C., T. Richard Turner, in connection with the major casino development project planned for downtown Vancouver, CBC News has learned......"

I guess there is a bit of upside here in that it is trivial, shiny stuff like this, unfortunately, that actually gets the lazy division of the local proMedia to pay attention.

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The Long Division Project: How Many Schoolchildren Can Fit Under One Retractable Roof?

AllTheAttacksOnThePublicSchoolSystem
ThatFitVille


The retractable roof on BC Place stadium, which we have now established is being built, at least in part, to make a Las Vegas Casino operator happy, will cost we, the people of British Columbia, 458 million dollars at a minimum.

Now.....

The Vancouver School Board is currently 18 million dollars in deficit which may very well lead to the firing of hundreds of teachers and staff, the cancellation of music programs, the shortening of the school year, and the turning down of heat in classrooms.

Yes - you heard that right - no heat for kids sitting at their desks.

So.....using my long division skills that I have re-learned helping littler e. with her Grade 5 homework.....

458 million divided by 18 million = 25

Whic means that the money spent on that stupid roof could be used to halt the shortfalls that will do nothing but hurt our kids for twenty-five years straight.

Or, put another way, we could take the money being spent on that ridiculous roof and spread it around to every single school district in the province and improve their programs for the next 10 years.

At least.

OK?

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Casino Royale Gets Pointy: Mr. Turner Speaks...

HowManyStories
CanOnePhoneCallFitVille

....And tells the Globe's Justine Hunter that he told the Minister in charge of BC Place the following when he called him up sometime last year, likely according to Mr. Turner, sometime 'around October'*:

".....if the roof does not get built, we (Paragon Gaming Inc.) may have to revisit the size and scope of what we planned (for the adjoining Casino),” he (Mr. Turner) recalled telling the minister (Kevin Krueger). “You figure out what’s right for British Columbia – leave the roof as it is, make it a pyramid, whatever – and that’s fine. Then we’ll figure out what we have to do.”

Mr. Turner also told Ms. Hunter the following about the NDP's call for an investigation by British Columbia's Lobbyist Registrar Paul Fraser:

“It’s got nothing to do with Rick Turner and it has everything to do with politics of B.C.”

Ya.

Sure thing Mr. T.


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*The date of the call, as we have noted previously, is critical because the 'decision' on the roof was not announced until Oct 23rd, 2009.....

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Casino Royale Nitty Gritty...When, Precisely, Did Mr. Turner Join Paragon?

AllTheTimelinesThatFit
CampbellGovernmentInsiderVille

The VSun's Jonathan Fowlie is reporting that it was June 27th, 2006.

Why does this matter?

Well, the Edgewater Casino sale was not completed until Sept 2006.


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Clearly, the timelines of this thing are starting to intersect and cross-over like a web gone wild.... Will sit down and try to write a tangle-free post soon.....

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Casino Royale Bombshell, Part Deux....How Many Sides Does This Street Have?

Workin'It
FromAllAnglesVille



Well, well, well......Whaddy'a know....

It turns out that the Campbell government insider who phoned up the Minister responsible for BC Place and allegedly told him that the loss of the retractable roof might a 'deal breaker' actually had a financial interest in the business of the Las Vegas Casino builder/operator, Paragon Gaming Inc., long before anyone previously thought.

Sean Holman of the independent Public Eye has broken this story too. Here is Mr. Holman's lede:

"T. Richard Turner had a stake in a Paragon Gaming Inc. casino development in Alberta while he was chair of British Columbia Lottery Corp.'s board of directors, Public Eye has exclusively learned. In an interview, Mr. Turner - who became head of the lottery corporation in December 2003 - confirmed he's a minority shareholder in Tamarack Fund (2003) Limited Partnership. That partnership owns a portion of Edmonton's River Cree Resort and Casino, which was developed by Paragon Gaming and the Enoch Cree First Nation. In response to an inquiry placed by Public Eye on March 31, a spokesperson for the lottery corporation stated Mr. Turner advised BCLC of that financial interest in January 2005. Back then, Paragon Gaming had no operations in British Columbia. Nor was Mr. Turner aware it had any West Coast ambitions....."

Go and read Sean's entire post - it's worth every pixel times 458 million, give or take.

****

I'm on the run at the moment.....Will have more to say about the implications of all this later.

Regardless, I don't know about you, but I can't help but wonder if this just might be enough for members of the Provincial proMedia Punditry, Vaughn Palmer included, to upgrade this scandal from potentially 'smelly' to downright putrid.....

OK?


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Casino Royale Rebound....Watching PavCo Bounce

AllTheComments
ThatFitVille

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Update: Mr. Turner himself has now pretty much confirmed my supposition below regarding when he called Mr. Kruger by telling Justine Hunter of the Globe on Wed Apr 7th that he estimates he placed the call to the Minister sometime 'around October' (of 2009)
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I've been wading through the publically available documents involving the recent decisions of PavCo, a British Columbia Crown Corporation not headed by T. Richard Turner, that is responsible for making decisions about BC Place Stadium and the Casino project that Mr. Turner has a financial interest in.

And, for the record, reading through those documents has been a tough slog, and I'm not yet done.

But, so far, I have seen nothing that contradicts the following timeline that regular commenter 'A Dave' posted-up over at Harvey Oberfeld's place earlier today.

May, 2008: Province (of British Columbia) announces upgrade to BC Place, including seat replacement, renovations to washrooms and concessions, and the replacement of the Teflon covering with a new retractable roof – total cost estimated at $150 million.

November, 2008: Province Treasury Board approves PavCo’s $365 million business case for all renovations noted above, with an estimate given by PavCo’s David Podmore that it will cost $200 million for the retractable roof alone – the approved business case is over $200 million higher than the original estimate of only 8 months prior.

October 23, 2009: Province reapproves PavCo’s revised business plan at $365 million, but only a month later a fixed-price contract to replace the roof (none of the other work is included) with Poole Construction is signed for $468 million(*) – the roof work alone is suddenly $268 million more than Podmore’s $200 million estimate of only 11 months earlier.

Note: Nearly $100 million in renovations have been reported completed prior to the Olympics, including both a seismic upgrade of BC Place, and reinforcing the concrete ring around the lip of the stadium to ensure the weight of the new roof would be properly supported. These large structural upgrade costs would, therefore, NOT be included in the fixed $468 million work contract with PCL.

Now, why is this timeline important?

Because it's going to be vital to compare this to the timeline of all of PavCo's decisions regarding the Casino deal itself (and decisions regarding other potential 'bidders', including non-Casino types.....read: residential developers....that either were not preferred, or who dropped out early).

Heckfire, we can already make one critical comparison, which is that Paragon Gaming Inc., the Las Vegas gambling concern that Campbell government insider T. Richard Turner is part owner of was chosen as the preferred bidder in late June of 2009 while the fixed price contract for the Stadium roof was not announced until later that fall.

Now - according to the Minister responsible for the Marshmallow, Kevin Krueger, he received a call from the good Mr. Turner telling him that any pullback on the retractable roof might be a potential deal breaker for Paragon Gaming Inc.(**) Critically, also according to Mr. Krueger, that call from Mr. Turner occured after June of 2009 and sometime before winter set in.

Which means that, based on the timelines described above, it is at least possible that Mr. Turner's call to Mr Krueger took place during that period between the summer and fall of 2009, when, presumably, active decisions about the retractable roof were still being made by PavCo.


OK?



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(*) The number is actually $458 million.
(**)It is important to point out that, in an interview the VSun's Jonathan Fowlie, Mr. Turner stated, apparently unchallenged by the good Mr. Fowlie, that he did not tell Mr. Krueger that the loss of the roof would be a deal breaker.....Thus, for the moment, at least in part because Mr. Turner has either not been asked to give interviews to other members of the Press, or because he has appears to have avoided granting one to Sean Holman, who broke this story, we are left with a bit of a "he said/she said" situation regarding what, precisely, was said during the phone call in question.....Regardless, however, neither party has contested the fact that the phonecall did, in fact occur, and that both the roof and the casino deal were discussed during it.....
Update: The latest from Mr. Fowlie, in the VSun confirms the Oct 23, 2009 fixed contract announcement date.

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Casino Royale Water Trail.....There's A Hole In Your Bucket, Dear Baldrey.

WithWhatShallHeFetchIt?
DearTeeVeeVille


Unlike Vaughn Palmer, who worked late last Thursday to produce his Casino Royale column and then got up early on Good Friday to appear on the Ledgie-Boys Radio Show with substitute host Michael Smyth, Global's man-about-town Keith Baldrey was nowhere to be seen or heard on the issue of the Campbell government insider with the financial interest in the proposed downtown Vancouver Casino calling up the Minister responsible before the final deal went down.

But that doesn't mean Mr. Baldrey hadn't already weighed in with his missive on state-sponsored gambling in general, and the big money in particular, that, apparently, can be made from it.

Unfortunately, this column in favour of state-sponsored gambling from Mr. Baldrey came three days early and $500 million dollars too late. Here is a wee chunk of it, as published in that most august of public-print journals, The Abbotsford Times:

"...The lucky municipalities that have casinos within their boundaries reap financial benefits that on average equal between two and three per cent of their annual budgets. That's money that helps pay for things such as garbage collection, street cleaning, water quality and maintaining parks and recreational facilities....."

{snippety-doo-dah}

"...In comparison, the amount we would have to raise taxes across society to replacing gaming revenues would be painful - and roundly protested.

So bring on the new casino to BC Place! I sincerely hope it makes one heck of a lot of money, since much of it will flow into everything from sports to arts and culture to schools to health care. The anti-gaming lobby is no more...."

Two things....

1) Two to three percent? If that is really the number, is that truly irreplacable? I think not.

2) With cheerleaders like Mr. Baldrey around waving their pom-poms and carrying the gaming lobby's water, how could the anti-gaming lobby and/or the anti-graft lobby not be dead of dehydration?

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Casino Royale.....Here Comes Harvey!

RetireesGone
WildVille


Mr. Oberfeld is back.

And with his first post, he goes hard at the Casino issue, the Opposition, and the Press:

"...The press, the Opposition must NOT let up on this one.

To me, it smacks of an arrogance of power by politicians who believe they can just spend public $$$ as they wish … even foolishly on wildly expensive ill-advised projects … helping out friends and insiders … in the belief they can just get away with it, and get re-elected anyway....."

I can almost see Jack Webster nodding his head in agreement as he shoves the cancer stick under the desktop whilst returning from a commercial break in his studio situated just inside Heaven's Gate.

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Casino Royale Re-Roofed.....The Heart Of The Matter

ThePublicMatters
WhenWePayAttentionVille



VSun reader Brian Parfitt gets right to the heart of the matter in his Letter to the Editor when he writes:

"....(I)t is clear that the people of British Columbia have once again been misled by the BC Liberals.

The main reason BC Place requires a new retractable roof is for the proposed casino, rather than sport. An inflatable roof requires multiple air locks for exits and entrances. The casino proposal envisions a large, open passageway connecting the casino complex and BC Place. An air lock system would be completely impractical....."


Which is a brilliant, and precise, analysis.

Again, re-capping......

We the people of British Columbia are NOT paying $500 million dollars for a roof because it is required by BC Place Stadium and it's Sports Team tenants.

Instead, we are paying half a billion dollars of our hard-earned treasure to make it possible for a Las Vegas Casino operator to flip it's license in the moribund Edgewater*, build a down market pleasure palace to rival the Circus Circus, and make a bundle in the bargain.

OK?



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*A license it bought way, way, way back in 2006 with Campbell government insider T. Richard Turner and a group of yet to be identified folks behind a company with no name, only numbers.

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Casino Royale Refried.....It's Just The Way Things Are Done

AllTheCynicism
ThatFitsVille


This time it's Les Leyne of the VT-C who weighs in.

Mr. Leyne gives us nothing new, but his piece is a reasonably serviceable re-cap of most of what we know already

Unfortunately, like Vaughn Palmer before him, Mr. Leyne pulls back when he concludes that this is just the way that things are done, which is a shame he figures, but what the heck can you do about it.....

What the heck, indeed.

****

But here's the thing....

Why didn't Mr. Leyne, in addition to listing Mr. T. Richard Turner's various connections to both the Gordon Campbell government and Paragon Gaming Inc., actually have a look at the timeline as well.

Specifically, why did he not have a hard look at, and think about, the dots that need connecting regarding the fact that Mr. Turner was the Chair of the BC Lottery Commission until late 2005 and then, whammo, a few months later he's an investor and director in Paragon and then, double-whammo, Paragon buys the essentially bankrupt Edgewater a few weeks later, followed by the triple-whammo of a numbered company joining the whole gang a short time later to seal the deal.

Why does this stuff matter?

Because the Edgwater casino license is the chip that will be flipped to facilitate the building of Paragon's, and Mr. Turner's, and the Numbered Company's, Casino Industrial Complex on the edge of BC Place's new retractable roof.

A roof that we, and not Paragon, nor Mr. Turner, nor the fine folks hiding behind their Number, are paying for.

OK?


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One thing we do have to give Mr. Leyne credit for is the fact that he made it clear it was Sean Holman that brought this thing to light with his digging.

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Casino Royale Reloaded....Do The Doors Have It?

TheFourDay
Anti-RumourMillVille


Remember how the Minister Responsible for The Marshmallow, Kevin Krueger, started backtracking furiously when the lightbulb went off and he realized he was in big trouble....

This all came up after Mr. Krueger uttered his 'No Roof/No Dice'- type statement in regards to a phone call he received, sometime last summer or fall, from the current Chair of ICBC and part owner of the Las Vegas Casino Builder/Operator that has just won the PavCo/Gordon Campbell government-assisted jackpot here in Lotusland?

Well....

As near as I can figure it, one of the 'explanations' that Mr. Krueger offered up to explain why the fine folks from Vegas that are all set to erect the latest version of the Circus-Circus need that 500 million dollar removable cloak atop the Marshmallow is that it would eliminate the need for pesky airlocks, etc.

Which makes little sense at all given that the revolving doors are absolutely no problem whatsoever for the thousands of people that enter and exit the stadium from the outside right now.

But.....

What if, as Sheila Orr* suggested on Sean Holman's radio show yesterday, the new Casino Industrial Complex itself is actually being designed to ensure that every single patron entering and exiting the stadium had to do so by passing directly through the Circus itself?

Wouldn't that be lovely?

And, again, would it not demonstrate that Gordon Campbell and his Merry Band of Insiders are actually spending $500 million dollars of very scarce public money to make a bunch of fine folks from Las Vegas (and at least one of those very Merry Insiders) happy, rather than the people of British Columbia who are paying for it, or even, for that matter, a gaggle of semi-pro soccer players that were used as the original justification for the stupid thing?



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Background on the story of the Vegas Casino builders' emissary who is also operating on the inside of the Campbell Government braintrust (crown-corp-capo divison), broken in its entirety by Sean Holman, can be found here, here, here, here and here.
Oh, and here's a recent, and I think very illuminating, tidbit....After he broke the story in the middle of last week Sean Holman asked the Merry Insider/Casino Builder, a fine fellow named T. Richard Turner, for an interview but was rebuffed due to what was described to him as a very heavy schedule through to good Friday (ie. the beginning of the Four Day breather from the Media-Maw)...But, it turns out that Mr. Turner turned around and granted Jonathan Fowlie of the VSun an interview on Thursday....The result was Mr. Fowlie's 'He-Said/She-Said', 'Deal Breaker/No Deal Breaker' piece late Thursday (on Day -1 of The Breather)....Now, why would Mr. Turner grant an interview to the VSun but not to Sean Holman and PublicEye?....Is it possible that one is considered to be a 'friendly' and the other not-so?....Perhaps.....But, regardless, anyone who has been paying attention can only wonder if maybe, after this (listen for the inquisitory voice from the person that cannot be seen on camera), the Braintrust suddenly became worried that there might be a column coming from Vaughn Palmer, a column that ultimately ran early Friday (Day 1 of The Breather), and thus decided to bite the bullet and play the innoculation game....So.....If that was, indeed, the case, did the gambit work?....Well today, Monday, is Day 4 of The Breather....And what, exactly, are you hearing on this story now from the VSun, The Province, The Globe, CKNW, Global, CTV??????......Cricket(s)..... Anyone?.....
*Apologies to Ms. Orr.... I originally mis-identified fellow Rabble Rousing panel member Eleanor Gregory as the utterer of the 'Connect-The-Doors' design suggestion....Clearly, I'm a little better at identifying the voices of Deans than Rabble Rousers...


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Redemption Songs

WhatWouldJesus
ReallyDoVille


Look.

Tiger Woods cheated on his wife.

Over and over and over and over again.

Which stinks.

But, to the best of my knowledge, he never assaulted any of his 'victims'.

And he never held them against their will.

And he never beat them.

And none of them were systematically kept helpless in the face of such behaviour.

And, most importantly, none of them were children.

So, given all that, I actually have no real problem with all this sycophantic sports show babble about how Mr. Woods will be 'redeemed' if he wins his next golf tournament.

As long as he makes peace with his wife and does his level best to take care of his kids by giving them all the things that money can't buy.

Which is a tall order.

That last part, I mean, not the winning of stupid golf tournaments.

But it can be done.

****

Now.

As for the Catholic Church and the people that run it.....

It is clear that many people in that Church have done all of the terrible things listed above.

To many, many, many helpless children.

So, given all that, I honestly cannot understand why anyone cares about celibacy, or conspiracy theories, or hierarchies, or rigid ways, or ancient protocols, or any of the other ridiculous excuses that are being made to defend the Church.

Because none of that codswallop will help even one kid who has been, or even now is being, abused by members of that Church.

And as long as every single member of that Church does not move, with force and without excuse, to stop that abuse immediately, and forever, there can be no hope of redemption for any of them.

Put another way, if Jesus himself were alive today, what would he do if he read this?



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And please do not misunderstand me because, despite the fact that I am an atheist, I do believe that many of the central tenets of christianity do matter. Especially the stuff about loving and helping one another.

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