Adam Laxalt has the campaign money and connections, but does he have Nevadans’ hearts?

This coming November 6^th, Laxalt, Nevada’s current Attorney General, will be running as the Republican Party Primary to be Nevada’s next governor against Democratic Party Primary Sisolak. While Laxalt’s campaign is to replace current Republican incumbent Brian Sandoval who cannot run for re-election due to term limits, many of Laxalt’s critics claim he intends to replace all Sandoval’s hard work through removing online poker, online gambling, and through cutting education funds. Despite education being a number one issue in Nevada, Republicans in the state are more concerned with maintaining their 20-year stronghold as a red governorship state.

Nevada is the current leading industry in the country for online gambling, whether it is poker or sports betting. However, in 2015 Laxalt had said he intends to remove online gambling from Nevada and reinstate Nevada to its pre-online poker era.

The Governor candidate also added his name to the list of state Attorney Generals in support of a bill to prohibit all online gambling known as RAWA, as well as, begging President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence before their transition into office to change positions on the Wire Act to include prohibitions toward online gambling whether they are domestically licensed and operated or offshore.

Sources confirm Laxalt acted without consulting then-Governor Brian Sandoval, a supporter of online gambling who spearheaded the 2013 NV online poker bill, or any of Nevada’s online operators on such a matter which they would be directly affected by. Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman AG Burnett confirmed these statements before being bullied to resign after Laxalt accused Burnett of colluding with Democrats to undermine the Attorney General.

However, numerous individuals and records show why Laxalt takes his anti-online gambling stance including statements made by same-party candidate State Treasurer Dan Schwartz who, during the Republican Primary Pick for Nevada, confirmed Laxalt was sitting in Sheldon Adelson’s pocket.

Sheldon Adelson is a Nevada casino billionaire who founded and is the CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. He is also is a large donator to the Republican party across the US and has a distaste for online gambling.

Adelson has been a significant contributor to Laxalt’s political career beginning with Laxalt’s Attorney General campaign in 2014 where Laxalt’s campaign received $210,222 from the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Prior to the Republican Primary Pick, Adelson donated $30,000-40,000 to Laxalt’s Governor campaign, as well as, a $5,000 donation from Adelson’s own daughter.

In addition to connecting the money to politicians, Adelson, his family, wife, and even top officials from Sands Corp. have donated over $100,000 to Laxalt’s “Morning in Nevada” PAC in 2015. This PAC mostly supports an annual Basque Fry, where Laxalt attempts to woo Nevadans by showing his “country side” through food, music, and festivities. Laxalt has strong financial ties and loyalty to Adelson and his contributions, which only confirms statements made concerning Adelson and Laxalt’s political relationship.

However, Laxalt received a personal blow to his campaign after an op-ed piece written by 12 of Laxalt’s family members in the Reno Gazette Journal confirmed Laxalt’s inauthenticity, lack of values, false claims of being a Nevadan, and phony props. The members urged voters to choose the right choice: a Governor with true interests in the state’s wellbeing over out-of-state donors and corporations and stated anyone other than Adam Laxalt would be best for Nevada.

Within their op-ed, they included Laxalt’s anti-immigration sentiments despite being a descendant of immigrants, as well as, against businesses and individuals coming to Nevada from another US State, his anti-choice agenda, stance on health care and education funding, and serving the interests of the powerful rather than “real Nevadans”.

To continue, the family debunked Laxalt’s claims of being raised in Nevada stating while Adam Laxalt was born in Reno, he left as an infant and was raised in Washington D.C and remained there well into his adult life. This is where most individuals speculate Laxalt’s political connections had been sown.

They also commented Adam Laxalt only came back to Nevada in 2013 to begin his political career one year later and leverage the family name as a political tool; Laxalt’s grandfather was a Nevada Governor between 1967 to 1971 and US Senator from 1974 to 1987 and a close friend of former President Reagan.

The family continued by spoiling Laxalt’s biggest yearly event, the Basque Fry, as a phony event orchestrated by Washington D.C.’s most powerful individuals to sway Nevadan’s opinion of Laxalt. During the Basque Fry, Adam Laxalt often dawns a new western shirt with his campaign logo monogrammed on the shirt, clean unscuffed work boots, and new blue jeans and poses in front of a stage with an orange tractor and hay bales for promotional videos. They claim the phoniness runs deep from the setting, costumes, to the folky props used as photoshoot items meant to project authenticity and deep ties Nevada and its history.

Other issues face Laxalt though, as recent claims by the State Bar of Nevada attest Laxalt did not disclose all of his arrests before applying to practice law in Nevada. While Laxalt disclosed his 1997 DUI arrest on the application and has openly conversed about his addiction to alcohol as a teenager and entering rehab at the age of eighteen, Laxalt failed to disclose a juvenile assault arrest in Alexandria, Virginia in 1996 against a police officer. The State Bar states this information should have been disclosed upon his application and this information could lead to a possible internal investigation.

However, the State Bar of Nevada is not the only one concerned with this arrest as the Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers have also expressed their own concerns on the assault arrest as “extremely disturbing to Nevada’s law enforcement community”.

The association’s Executive Director stated, “When someone has a history of violence, especially toward officers of the law, it should be a concern for anyone around them…  This holds especially true for Nevada’s ‘top cop’ who now wants a promotion to Governor.” Laxalt has also received harsh criticisms from colleagues he practiced law with who stated, “[Laxalt’s] brief experience practicing law was a train wreck”.

Perhaps Laxalt does ignore the law to serve his own self-interests. Perhaps he is in the pocket of one of the wealthiest casino owners in the country. Perhaps Laxalt is a puppet for not only Adelson but those in Washington D.C. who hope to change the landscape of Nevada through him. Either way, November’s mid-term elections are closing in and current sportsbooks show Laxalt at -130 odds and Sisolak as Even, polls show lose margins between the two candidates with no clear favorite.

Did Trump really need the ego-boost or did W.H. Social media Director Dan Scavino orchestrate it all?

On August 23^rd, 2018 US President Donald Trump retweeted a tweet from his White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino Jr. who shared a Washington Examiner article detailing Trump’s favorable odds concerning the 2020 Presidential Election. The President was apparently pleased by the article which stated that bettors had their money on his win for a re-election, however, not enough to expand further on the subject or share his own insight.

Twitter, a popular social media site, is the most favored platform for this current U.S. president to speak directly from. In fact, many Americans are aware and even wary of President Trump’s late-night tweets which either spout nonsense or get the U.S. President in a bit of hot water the next day. The context of his tweets and reactions by the public and media differ based on political party affiliation.

Seeing how the President is active on Twitter, there is no doubt that he is notified every time a tweet mentions his username – whether he chooses to check each one is uncertain. A number of articles have speculated that the White House Social Media Director writes half of the Presidents tweets and controls most of Trump’s personal Twitter account aside from the official Presidential Twitter account. However, the authenticity of Trump actually retweeting Dan Scavino’s tweet has yet to be determined and most likely never will be as more pressing issues are addressed.

For the one writer who crafted the article on how well Trump was doing in the political betting market – well, he was incredibly lucky. With one retweet by the President, Trump fans and foes jumped on the content which spoke so keenly of Trump’s odds. The article detailed Trump’s re-election odds were more favorable than other competitors and explained, more individuals are betting on Trump in the 2020 election than any other candidate combined regardless of what action President Trump takes.

To reiterate, whatever negative comment Trump makes, no matter who he offends, and no matter what he does all odds show him as the favorite. Bettors are not shying away from the President regardless of dropping poll numbers, they continue to put their dollar on President Trump’s re-election. Whether these bettors are Trump fans or bettors who love favorable odds, no one knows.

According to BetOnline, Trump currently stands to win his re-election by 3-2. Other possible contenders are Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and other TV personalities like Dwayne “the rock” Johnson.

The 45^th POTUS Trump has received public criticism throughout his term over how he handles his presidency, what direction he leads the nation to – domestically and globally, his overall viewpoints, and speaking skills. Perhaps, in the most innocent of cases, the President was simply retweeting this personal yet minute win for his own egotistical purposes. On the other hand, the President may have not read the article and perhaps Dan Scavino retweeted his own tweet using the President’s personal account just to bring some positive news to the forefront of the Presidents daily rants.

Whether Trump is failing or winning is up to personal debate. However, bettors stand strongly beside him and continue to pour their dollars on his re-election success. Trumps 2020 Presidential Campaign odds were +275 mid-last year and have jumped to +130 mid-2018.

Currently, with the changing political climate anything can happen. If there’s anything this last election has taught me, it’s not to be surprised with anything anymore.  On January 11^th, a British gambling company, Ladbrokes, broke even odds that trump will be impeached or resign before the end of his first term. By 5pm that same day the odds rose.

These aren’t the only bets that are being offered by the British company. In fact, they have created a special group called the “Donald Trump Specials”. These include a bet on whether he will be reelected in 2020 (currently the odds are 2-1) and if he will visit Russia by the end of his first year (those odds are 5-4). Another UK based gambling company, Paddy Power, even took bets whether he would split with his wife, Melania, this year or if he would paint the entire white house gold.

Players registered at Ladbrokes can also now wager on which year Trump will leave office and even if he will try and stay in power longer than the constitution allows. They even have sections where you can make bets based on the frequency that Trump uses certain phrases. They call it “Buzzword Bingo”. Phrases like “make America great again” were heavy favorites in the odds.

Ladbrokes took over a thousand bets over the course of a week on trumps impeachment alone. Betting on US politics last year was the second-largest market that Ladbroke’s took bets on, only beaten by England’s grand national horse race.

It might be a good time to place a bet on Trumps impeachment, according to American University political historian, Allan Lichtman. Lichtman has correctly predicted the outcome of every presidential race since 1984 including Trumps win in November. According to cbsnews.com who interviewed Mr. Lichtman, he expects trump to get “impeached because of his lack of public service experience, past legal battles and unpredictable nature.”

The constitution explicitly states “Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors” are grounds for impeachment. It seems likely that through some channel Trump may even accidentally commit one of these crimes. Aside from the details in the leaked memo that everyone was talking about, Trump left business in the hands of his two sons, which is really not the same as placing your assets in a blind trust mind you, there is still some political leeway for from sketchy activity. What happens when foreign representatives stay at a Trump hotel? Well Trump himself as insisted that he will donate any and all of that money to the U.S treasury but under certain legal interpretations it can still be considered a bribe.

Whether Trump will be a terrible or wonderful president doesn’t seem to be ripe content for the election betting odds in Las Vegas just yet. People, so far are sticking to the topic of how long he will be able to hold office and what words he will use relatively in his speeches. Oh, and how long he will stay with his wife of course.

It is likely that everyone would agree that it is a sad day when we find odds being posted about the corruption of our nation’s government and its leaders. It is even sadder when it no longer surprises us, and the term corrupt becomes synonymous with our political leaders. This is precisely what is transpiring in America today, with a presidential race that has clearly gotten out of control. Due to the fact that this election has had every grueling detail closely followed on the world stage, more of the voting public has participated in the unfolding of the 2016 US presidential race than ever before.

The gambling entertainment industry is not about to pass up an opportunity to satisfy an American voter base that is looking to place bets on the outcome of the election and all the drama that goes with it. When we say drama here, we are referring to the ongoing FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Clinton Foundation. While the Vegas election odds on who will win the presidency do not include the indictment predictions in any of the betting lines at this time, the odds are still presented if you’re willing to look closely, and considerately read between the lines.

No, we can’t show you a singular betting line with specific odds on the likelihood of a Hillary Clinton indictment, but we can show you how the Vegas presidential betting odds are indirectly addressing the concept. It is obvious really, and boils down to a simplistic interpretation of the strength of Clinton’s lead as the frontrunner.

This shift in the presidential betting odds that took place following the FBI’s announcement that they were reopening the case indicates that the oddsmakers are convinced that the FBI investigation will affect the results somewhat. The shift was noticeable, but not significant enough to derail Clinton’s position as the frontrunner. In fact, despite all these FBI, email and charitable foundation scandals surfacing, Clinton still remains the favorite to win the presidency, just by a smaller lead at this point.

Based on the fact that her lead in the spread between herself and Trump did diminish somewhat following the FBI’s announcement, we would have to conclude that the sportsbooks that offer political betting odds do see the indictment as a possibility that will affect the level of support she ends up with at the end of the day. However, the fact that HRC is still the favorite to win the 2016 Presidential Election, reveals that the oddsmakers also feel that the possibility of indictment is not a deal breaker for her, and that it is not enough of an issue to significantly threaten her position as the frontrunner.

As you can see, the Vegas presidential odds do actually present the opinion of the oddsmakers regarding the likelihood of indictment without actually saying it out loud. We would not be surprised to see odds for a Clinton indictment emerge as a prop bet, though this may not actually occur until after the election. With FBI sources openly admitting that they may expect interference from the Department of Justice concerning the potential indictment, it is possible that the whole matter will still get swept under the carpet and become a moot point. If things were to play out this way, then we will not likely see any posted odds on the possibility of charges being brought against the former Secretary of State.