After contributing as much as $150 million to Republican campaigns and causes to become the top GOP political donor this year, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson isn’t putting away his checkbook.

Instead, the billionaire casino magnate has vowed to double his contributions during the 2016 wide-open White House contest, becoming an unparalleled political power broker courted by Republican leaders on Capitol Hill and presidential hopefuls alike.

Adelson’s millions also may help rebuild the Republican Party in Nevada and finance efforts to reach out to Hispanics, a key voting bloc, GOP insiders and fundraisers say.

“By the time 2015 rolls around, Adelson will probably be on a first-name basis with every Republican candidate serious about pursuing the nomination,” said Jennifer Duffy, an analyst with The Cook Political Report.

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Hard as it seems, Peter Carlino and the folks at Penn National Gaming outdid Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn and Donald Trump in terms of political lunacy this year.

And it only cost the regional gaming giant $42 million to embarrass itself.

Adelson, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp., dumped at least $53 million of his own money into a variety of super PACs that supported Republican candidates around the country, including GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Other than U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., all his picks fell flat.

Wynn, chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts Ltd., seemed to spend more time appearing on Fox News than in his company’s boardroom. Wynn used any and every occasion to attack President Barack Obama’s policies.

“It would be a complete disaster if Obama wins, which is why I’m urging my employees to vote for Romney,” Wynn told the Huffington Post the week before the election.

Obama beat Romney in Nevada by more than 66,000 votes.

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After a customer placed a $47,000 wager in a Manchester, England, sports book on President Barack Obama to win re-election today, William Hill was forced to update its odds overseas on the U.S. presidential election.

The updated odds were released Monday as Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, spent their final day on the campaign trail before Election Day.

William Hill shorted Obama’s odds to 2-9, with Romney at 10-3 [the day before the election].

After their final debate in October, the bookmaker trimmed Obama’s odds from 4-9 to 2-5, while Romney was shifted from 7-2 to 15-8.

“With the race to the White House entering the final furlong, political punters appear to believe Obama is beginning to pull clear,” said William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe.

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The line on the U.S. presidential election has shifted again.

After Tuesday’s debate between President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney, William Hill Plc, a British bookmaker with about 2,350 shops in the United Kingdom, adjusted the odds overseas on the election.

Obama’s improved performance from the first debate resulted in him going from a 4-9 favorite to a 2-5 favorite Wednesday. Meanwhile, Romney bumped from a 7-4 underdog to 2-1 to win the Nov. 6 election.

“The consensus of opinion seems to be that Barack Obama may not have won the second debate against Mitt Romney, but neither did he lose it, and punters have taken that as a signal to back him again after a couple of weeks during which momentum had swung towards the challenger,” William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said in a statement Wednesday.

A reminder for local gamblers – you can’t place a wager at any of William Hill’s 159 sports books or kiosks in Nevada. The bookmaker did not seek regulatory approval to post odds and take bets in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

Contact reporter Chris Sieroty at csieroty@review journal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @sierotyfeatures on Twitter.
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Copyright 2012 Stephens Media Interactive GamingWire.
All rights reserved.

Ya know, no one in poker really wants segregated poker, as far as I know … I mean sure, have it as an option to declare a Frenchies-only online champion, or Iowans-only for that matter … but one of the things that makes poker great is that where else can you seat people together from many different countries, regions, and cultures and engage in a competition of serious (real-money) import. Could you have the World Cup or the Olympics if they were limited by dot-country domains? Can only imagine where Brazil will be in four years. For now, in poker they are 29th, right behind Israel and Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, @ElkyPoker may have moved into the top spot on the GPI 300, but the Frenchies actually dropped a spot to the Russians … reminding us that one man cannot carry a nation – even if he’s best player in the world.

GPI 300 BY COUNTRY

		COUNTRY	PLAYERS
1.		United States	158	—	53%
2.		United Kingdom	19	—	6%
3.		Russia	17	—	6%
4.		France	16	—	5%
5.		Canada	15	—	5%
6.		Germany	14	—	5%
7.		Italy	12	—	4%
8.		Belgium	6	—	2%
9.		Sweden	5	—	2%
10.		Ukraine	4	—	1%

Until recently, it appeared Steve Wynn had abandoned politics.

Wynn spent three years as the de facto voice of the gaming industry’s unofficial anti-Obama coalition, a high-profile membership of two than included Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson.

Wynn provided the rhetoric. Adelson provided the money.

The chairman and chief executive officer of Wynn Resorts Ltd., never missed an opportunity to appear on Fox News or other conservative media outlets to bash President Barack Obama’s administration for what he considers its failings in handling the economy.

Wynn often peppered his remarks with bombastic comments.

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A few days after Las Vegas Sands Corp. disappointed investors with quarterly earnings declines that sent the company’s share price tumbling and had analysts breaking out in a cold sweat, Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson jetted to Israel to watch presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney deliver a speech in Jerusalem.

“It was a great speech. Loved it,” Adelson told Bloomberg News.

In Israel, he was treated like a rock star. Adelson, 78, was swarmed by Israeli citizens, Romney donors, and the press as he slowly made his way to his wheelchair after the speech.

Back in the U.S., Argus Research downgraded its view of Las Vegas Sands stock. The firm placed a Hold recommendation on the shares, a change from its previous Buy rating.

The weaker outlook reflected Argus’ concerns that revenues and profits from Las Vegas Sands’ four Macau casino developments were in trouble. During the quarter, net income from Macau declined 40 percent. Argus said the Chinese economy seems to be slowing. Also, results from the first phase of the company’s $4.4 billion Sands Cotai Central were lower than expected.

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We hear a lot about Sheldon Adelson. Poker players love to hate on the cranky old billionaire because how dare the primary beneficiary of the Venetian’s awesome Deep Stack Extravaganza be against online poker! Wasn’t the Venetian its biggest supporter when they welcomed PokerStars and the NAPT into the USA to someday maybe challenge the supremacy of the WSOP? OK, I’m editorializing and asking you to connect dots here that we haven’t even connected yet on paper. But regardless, Adelson seems to have more problems these days than opposition to online gambling.

Here’s Rachel Maddow (the Vanessa Selbst of cable News?) laying out why the GOP’s big sugardaddy — originally a Newt Gingrich guy — is finding himself in some liberal (and government) crosshairs over the appearance of less than ethical behavior in Macau.

And here is NPR on that same story of Adelson possibly facing legal heat for criminal violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Get the sense the liberal media elite ain’t gonna let this one go?

The following reminder that Nevada will be the place of political buzz this weekend comes via Lupe Soto, Nevada State Director of the PPA. While there are plenty of tournaments to play and press releases to spin — not to mention all the NL/PLO to heavily pimp! — it really would be a shame if these four key influencers of current national conversation rolled through Las Vegas, the poker capital of the world, and weren’t made to address the issue of online poker (and our right to play it with American money transfered through our own bank accounts without use of a sketchy third party payment processors). Because when it comes down to it, Pete Lubrano was right — “they took our fugkin jobs!” And right now before the federal government, right here (our state is ready to go!), are measures to give back these jobs and create thousands of others while guaranteeing freedoms and protections and net-positive taxes ftw … we all know the talking points.

And if online poker isn’t gonna be at least a bullet point to the national conversation now … well then, really, perhaps poker players will be getting exactly what we deserve?

This Saturday, February 4, 2012, the Nevada Republican Presidential Caucuses will be held throughout the Battle Born State. These caucuses will elevate Nevada into the national political spotlight, with all four candidates making appearances in the state in the next few days.

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Have you seen this new reality show on CNN called “The Republican Tea Party Debate”? LOL, the new season is just getting underway, but already I’m looking forward to seeing who gets voted off the island. The first episode last night was full of groaners and OMGs and gawkable moments … the characters are about as good as any Real World/Survivor crew I’ve ever seen before. You can already tell Michelle Bachman is gonna be the Omarosa and Rick Santorum the Puck.

The poker-player’s candidate, Gary Johnson, apparently didn’t make the cut … but poker did enter into the debate when Mitt Romney challenged Texas Governor Rick Perry’s record on job creation … essentially calling him a luckbox.

Not quite the “licensed and regulated online poker” stuff we mighta hoped for … but hey.

Unfortunately, not only do these two look-a-likes reveal an inherent conservative opposition to “regulation” that the Barton Bill will have to overcome, but also they seem to be talking 5-card draw or maybe 7-stud with the four Aces analogy — as if they’re totally unaware that much of the country is playing Pot-Limit Omaha.