Illinois gaming officials show Louisiana video poker mogul the door ~ Joseph Ryan, Chicago Tribune 7/20/12
Video poker protections questioned ~ Joseph Ryan, Chicago Tribune 10/6/13
But in the denial of one application, court records show the Gaming Board took issue with the criminal record of one of (Nicky) Nichols’ Illinois partners and Nichols’ association with his father-in-law, Robert Guidry, who once testified to paying bribes to land a Louisiana casino license.
The Gaming Board also said Nichols “engaged in questionable business practices related to business transactions” with Tim Whitmer, once a Louisiana parish official.
Whitmer had a deal to invest in a gambling firm co-owned by Nichols at around the same time that firm was seeking approval from Whitmer’s parish to build a truck stop casino, the Times-Picayune reported in 2009. (A parish is Louisiana’s political equivalent of a county.)
Whitmer later pleaded guilty to covering up a felony in an unrelated federal case.
Transparency, you bet – easy to see right through action of Jefferson Parish Council ~ Whitmergate comment bump
This says it all as I quote Click Jeff’s Walt Bennetti:
At the last council meeting, Councilwoman Cynthia Lee-Sheng was criticized for receiving tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions in a single day from a group of businesses owned by the same individuals. “I’m not going to apologize for receiving campaign contributions,” Lee-Sheng said. “I’m happy to help my contributors.
http://www.clickjefferson.com/npps/story.cfm?ID=2506
Those businesses and their owners just so happen to be in the video poker truck stop gaming business as her father was and that she is by inheritance. And one of the most repulsive sidebars to this is yet again gambling crap, is the corrupting influence of that supreme POS Bobby Guidry. It is his son-in-law, Nicky Nichols, through his Redman gaming business, that entered into contract negotiations with Whitmer and the Coulons, Tim and son Chris, for the proposed new video truck stop on HWY 90 past Westwego. A location necessitating Byron Lee’s sponsorship of a zoning change to accommodate all the ‘connected’ parties; and a Parish Council voting to exempt Redman from Code requirements in direct contravention to the opinions of the JP Planning Dept.!!! Continue reading “Meantime in Louisiana nary is heard a discouraging word……..”