STATESIDE
Stateside T
Sharon Harris implores you to see the big picture
housands of smart, conscientious women work in gaming, across all management levels. As they attain professional stature in 2012, they are now a political issue…not for talent or successes, but contraception.
The Obama healthcare law requires contraception
…insist on attention to jobs, businesses and economic futures. Skip the nonsense and demand an environment where all women reach their potential.
coverage from all employers, excluding houses of worship but including their affiliates. A backlash motivated the White House to recalculate its parameters. Next, national hysteria followed a 30-year-old student’s testimony before Congress, which lamented her yearly uncovered $1,000 birth control costs from her Catholic law school, Georgetown University. In the U.S. Title X law provides anyone free contraception at federal clinics… end of story. The average contraception method costs $380 maximum annually. Then, controversial conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh perpetuated the chaos, labeling this woman a “slut” and “prostitute”. That drove President Obama to personally enter the circus by calling this woman and publicly defining decency while mentioning his daughters to the media. Democrats, considering themselves women’s
advocates, accused Republicans of waging a “war on women”. Their selective outrage, and a compliant media, rationalize and ignore their side’s inventory of slurs against conservative women. Comedian/political commentator and once-clever Bill Maher has devolved into the new poster boy of sleaze. He donated $1 million to the Obama super- PAC…the one Obama condemned, but now approves. Maher has regularly slammed women, specifically
Sarah Palin’s, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s and Hillary Clinton’s anatomies and children, in the most vulgar, unprintable terms. Incidentally, Obama has never called them. Many conservatives and liberals think Obama should instruct the super-PAC to return the money as a sign of leadership. So far, the cash remains in the bank. I urge smart women to recognize this cheap, political
ploy and examine both sides’ records on women. Reject the madness in this economy and competitive world. Instead, insist on attention to jobs, businesses and economic futures. Skip the nonsense and demand an environment where all women reach their potential. For example, amazing female executives like Judy
Patterson, American Gaming Association; Jan L. Jones, Caesars Entertainment; Virginia McDowell, Isle of Capri Casinos; Patti Hart, IGT; and Sheila Morago, Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association were 2011 G2E “State of the Industry” panelists. They have climbed
14 APRIL 2012
their corporate ladders through years of hard work. I don’t know or care about their politics. Playing
these politics minimizes their achievements, inhibiting the ambitions and aspirations of savvy, bright women. I too have confronted sexism in my career. Once,
following a business disagreement with a competitor, a guy publicly called me a spoiled brat. Would he say that to a man? Accomplished women of gaming, or any business,
must cut through the verbal garbage and see the big picture. Positive federal and state economic career growth policies will hasten their advancement and guarantee them well-deserved respect. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for teaching me to not wish anyone dead or make vile, crude remarks. My upbringing was apparently better than these highly- paid screamers on both sides. I’ll support politicians who promote women’s professional opportunities. They can then control their own destinies and buy their own contraception.
his beloved Atlantic City to Las Vegas, mourns. Praising the flamboyant, entrepreneurial visionary, Atlantic City erected a tribute highway billboard at the city’s entry. In a 40-year career, Gomes managed two Atlantic
O
City casinos, plus multiple Nevada properties. Martin Scorsese chronicled Gomes’s law enforcement background and tenure as Nevada’s top casino corruption investigator in his 1995 film “Casino”. Gomes was “everyman”. He once stood behind me
in a Las Vegas airport line after G2E. Able to fly in grander style, Gomes traveled like a regular guy. He proved his fearlessness by recently chasing and capturing a hotel thief at his Resorts’ casino. Gomes’s legendary marketing promotions included using a live chicken to play tic-tac-toe against Tropicana customers. In Indiana, Gomes hired an Obama impersonator to urge gamblers to bring their “change” to the casino. The White House repudiation provided tremendous publicity. In Atlantic City, Resorts new co-owner/CEO Gomes
contracted a highway billboard of a dancer’s bare derriere to promote a stage show. Located on state transit property, Gomes battled and won a court case. He also opened “The Naked Circus” for adults and Atlantic City’s first gay casino nightclub. Resorts’ future leadership is unclear. What is certain is that the industry has lost an iconic giant.
n a sad note, gaming executive Dennis Gomes died suddenly in February. The industry, from
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