“It’s been a lengthy process, but our tribe has been here forever,” she said. “We have always been a people of strong will. We are always people who will stand up for our rights. We always knew that we would prevail.”
—Carol Evans, chairman of the 2,900-member Spokane Tribe, on the opening of the tribes’ Spokane Tribe Casino in Washington after many years of waiting
“We are moving forward because we believe we are on the right side of history, and that’s it. And so, unless that changes, which we doubt, we continue to move forward as fast as we can.”
—Mario Kontomerkos, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment CEO, commenting on the plans by the Mohegan and Pequot tribes to build a satellite casino in East Windsor, Connecticut
“It’s incomprehensible to me why that didn’t result in further investigative work, and attempts to ensure that people demonstrated where they got the money from.”
—David Eby, attorney general of British Columbia, criticizing casinos that weren’t made suspicious by large amounts being bet by “housewives” and “students”
“When we see a law that prohibits the smoking of tobacco in some public spaces and allows people to continue to smoke in workplaces, such a law only merits our vehement protest and our deepest repulsion for being discriminatory and offensive to our health and dignity.”
—The Union of Hotel, Tourism and Restaurant Workers (CGTP) protesting a new smoking law in Portugal
“The collection of higher qualifying fees in all casinos could be a practical way to discourage those who do not have enough money to spend.”
—Proposed ordinance that would levy entrance fees on anyone in the Philippines who enters a gaming hall
“The involvement of triad societies and organized crime in the gaming sector shows no sign of diminishing—rather, it is institutionalized.”
—Steve Vickers and Associates Ltd., which asserts in a new study that Chinese secret societies are still embedded in the Macau casino industry
“If they open up casino gambling in hotels, foreign tourists’ arrival and income would increase. But they should systematically restrict the law for local people.”
—U Khin Zaw, advisor to Myanmar’s Union Minister of Hotel and Tourism, who thinks casinos in the Southeast Asian country should be foreigners-only
