How did Sheldon Adelson get his Macau casino license?

Apparently by successfully lobbying Tom DeLay to block a House bill that might have derailed Beijing’s Olympic bid (on human-rights grounds).

Now maybe that bill was a bad idea. But there doesn’t seem to be much doubt that Mitt Romney’s biggest donor is carrying water for the Chinese tyranny, and that his influence means that Chinese money is flowing in American politics, just as John McCain said.

All of this worries me a lot more that Adelson’s apparent violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, just because corruption in Washington bothers me more than corruption in Macau. As to Adelson’s dealings with the triads, they don’t threaten my future nearly as much as his dealings with the Chinese politboro.

Yes, this is one more reason to overturn Citizens United, which we now know presents a substantial threat to the national security. But it’s also one more question for Mitt Romney to answer, after he tells us why we can’t see his tax returns.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com

4 thoughts on “How did Sheldon Adelson get his Macau casino license?”

  1. If Bush the Elder could make political hay by announcing his support for a flag-burning constitutional amendment (after an unpopular Supreme Court decision in 1989), then why cannot Team Obama hold this example up as showing the need for a constitutional amendment stipulating that the protections afforded to persons under the Constitution shall not be construed to apply to corporations? The idea is not to get the amendment passed and ratified; hell, presidents have nothing whatever to do with amendments to the Constitution. But it would give Obama a chance to slam the current Court ruling without attacking any of the guilty justices.

    Unlimited money from Chinese gambling operations allowed to influence our campaigns, necessitating an appeal to the American people to protect their elections after the Court has shown its disinclination to protect them: hell, writing the ad copy should be so easy that it could be a class assignment for a college course in advertising.

    1. Nice point, although you have to be careful with this. Corporate First Amendment rights are pernicious; corporate property rights are very useful things indeed. (btw, several Constitutional protections still do not apply to corporations, such as the right to be free of self-incrimination.)

  2. Sheldon Adelson should be tried for being crooked. now he is trying to buy the united states, so he can make more money in china.get rid of these rich people buying our government.

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