Casino Probing Bennett Privacy Violation

NewsMax.com ^ | May 6, 2003 | Carl Limbacher

[Carl/NewsMax]

A casino named in news reports on morals czar Bill Bennett is investigating how confidential records detailing his personal gambling habits were leaked to Newsweek magazine and the Washington Monthly, NewsMax.com has learned.

"We view with great concern the disclosure of any information about any of our guests," said Brian Cahill, a spokesman for Park Place Entertainment, which operates Caesar's Boardwalk Regency in Atlantic City. "This was contrary to all the policies the company has about the privacy of our guests."

In the Washington Monthly report, Caesar's was cited as one of the casinos Bennett frequented.

Cahill said that Park Place had launched an investigation into the violation of Bennett's privacy caused by the Newsweek and Washington Monthly reports, explaining: "We are taking a look internally at the circumstances that surrounded these two articles. We're going to do all we can to find out how this information was disclosed."

He stressed: "It is the unambiguous policy of Park Place Entertainment to do our very best to safeguard the privacy of all of our guests, whether they're high rollers or average patrons."

In its report divulging details of Bennett's personal gambling habits, Newsweek magazine said Friday that it had been "provided" 40 pages of "internal casino documents" on the Republican ethicist's conduct.

A companion report in the Washington Monthly named the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas as well as Caesar's in Atlantic City. The Bellagio did not respond by press time to requests for information on its privacy policy regarding guests' gambling habits.

According to industry sources, because of the way credit information on casino guests is shared, details from Bennett's casino credit file could have been leaked by any of the mainline gambling establishments he patronized. If that's what happened, the result could be a public relations nightmare for the gambling industry, which depends in part on confidentiality to attract business.

Earlier this year, Las Vegas casinos launched a TV advertising campaign with the slogan "What happens here, stays here." But after Bennett's experience with Newsweek and WM, high-profile casino patrons may worry that information on their private conduct will find its way onto the public record.

One industry source noted that supermarket tabloids had a history of offering casino employees significant sums of cash for information on the gambling habits of their celebrity patrons. But he added there was no evidence so far that either Newsweek or WM had paid for the documents on Bennett.

In a case with parallels to Bennett's, confidential records of Monica Lewinsky's bookstore purchases were sought by independent counsel Kenneth Starr to corroborate claims by Linda Tripp that she'd purchased certain publications as gifts for President Clinton.

At the time, civil libertarians were livid over what they said was a gross violation of Lewinsky's privacy rights, even though she was then under investigation for possible obstruction of justice.

[martin_fierro]

I didn't see Bennett's gambling as a big deal. It's not like he sexually harassed women in the workplace and suborned perjury to cover it up.

He gambled legally and didn't harm his family financially.

Was surprised that he got so little support from the panel on Brit Hume's Special Report.

Leaks like this concerning relatively high rollers must be MURDER to a casino's public relations.

[John Lenin]

The 'holier than thou' atitude in the GOP sucks, let's not be hypocrits. Whats the old saying 'he who has no sins should cast the first stone'.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Leaks like this concerning relatively high rollers must be MURDER to a casino's public relations.

Nah--it's only Republicans who have the problem . . . Democrats don't claim to have any morals, so their peccadillos are not news. Since journalists and Democrats are joined at the hip.

[ilgipper]

I gamble, and although my total spending in the casino is minimal, it probably has a larger impact on my overall spending than Bennett has had from his activities. This is the biggest non-issue since....since....well, since last week's Santorum debate.

[martin_fierro]

Democrats don't claim to have any morals, so their peccadillos are not news. Since journalists and Democrats are joined at the hip.

That nihilism bugs me like crazy. By that reasoning, the only way to be "bulletproof" is to not stand for ANYTHING. The strongest statement one can make is thus, "I don't care."

Bennett's leisure activities sure didn't kill anyone. I say the next time Fat Teddy gets on his high horse, someone should bring up Chappaquiddick real fast.

[Bedford Forrest]

Tubby Bill ain't in it for the hunting, folks. He is a fraud five ways from Sunday and in due course truth will out. Only psychos like being raped in Vegas or Atlantic City. And only a real family man is in a "special" room in Vegas at zero dark thirty yanking the crank on the $500 slots, right? Drain the vat. His Blubberosity has been rendered. What a pantload.

[nothingnew]

Whats the old saying 'he who has no sins should cast the first stone'.

As much as I don't like gambling, what was Bennet's sin?

Whats the old saying 'he who has no sins should cast the first stone'.

FMCDH

[kristinn]

Thank you for pursuing the real story in this matter.

Years back, Judge Bork's video rentals files were leaked to the press. He rented John Wayne movies, not John Holmes movies, much to the disappointment of liberals everywhere.

[John Lenin]

I think it's rediculous to to blow this story up like it has been. I gamble occasionally, big deal, I'm not out robbing gas stations to pay for my gambling habit.

[nothingnew]

I say the next time Fat Teddy gets on his high horse, someone should bring up Chappaquiddick real fast.

I'm with you. Every time he spoke in the senate, I would stand to speak and sneeze:"ah ah ahhh chappaqidic!" OR: "ah ah ahhh KOPECHNE!"

FMCDH

[nothingnew]

I think it's rediculous to to blow this story up like it has been.

Really?

I gamble occasionally, big deal, I'm not out robbing gas stations to pay for my gambling habit.

And Bennet is?

What's your point?

FMCDH

[isthisnickcool]

Whats the old saying 'he who has no sins should cast the first stone'.

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” is hardly an "old saying". It's the words of Christ as He was speaking of a woman that was about to be stoned to death because of adultery.

Some people seem to believe that Christ was teaching that we should not judge the sinful if we are sinful too. Which to me is absurd. Since we are all sinful.

Maybe He was simply saying that you should not kill people for adultery? I'm pretty sure we really don't know exactly what He meant. So, I'll listen to the "he who has no sins...." line as long as it comes from Him Himself. I don't pay any attention to the typical human using the line.

[Fifth Business]

Casion Probing Bennett...

The house always wins.

[Wolverine]

Tonight Paula loved the story about Bennett gambling. All she could talk about was "the hypocrisy".... She didn't talk about the pornography sold by her parent company thru cable TV owned by Time Warner, and this comes into my home "IF I CHOOSE."

 

Further, Time Warner/CNN sells lots of cable into large hotels where some of the largest porno sales are made to hotel guests. What is Time Warner's take on the sale of pornography...why didn't Paula talk about that? If you want to talk about hypocrisy...why not talk about how much is being made by Time Warner?

 

And, I want to see Paula cover the 13 year CNN cover-up of complicity with Saddam Hussein over the years. How about a special program on the hypocrisy of CNN's position over the years.

 

LETS TALK ABOUT HYPOCRISY...IS PAULA really a true blond? If not...what about the hypocrisy that represents...???

 

I fully support Bennett!

[wife-mom]

I have been wondering how so much private information about Bennett's playing got into the media. I hope that whoever snitched ends up out in the Mohave breathing sand. The big casinos don't appreciate their best customers being humiliated by scum.

As for all the posters who are shocked, SHOCKED! by the fact that Bennett is such a "sinner", etc., it is obvious that they know nothing about video poker, gambling or sin.

Video poker is a GAME. Ever hear of pinball? Pinball is a game where you put a coin in a slot and get to play for a few minutes. Video poker is much more fun than pinball, but it is the same principle. Except, sometimes, you get your coin back in video poker.

As for $8.5 million lost, anybody who buys that is more ignorant than a stump. Everybody who knows what they are talking about knows that the bigger the bet, the bigger the payback. I bet those $500 machines pay back 99%, at least. The casinos keep track of how much you spend, not how much you win or lose. And with a 99% payback machine, a minmium of $8.25 mllion of that "loss" was casino money. But he may have not lost anything. He may have won.

Video poker (and some other games they play in casinos) can be won over the long haul. All you need is time, money and patience. The casinos want you to think they can't be beaten, but they can. I know. They like the young, stupid players who lose their bankroll and leave the casino flat broke with a shrug and a feeling that everybody loses. But everybody doesn't lose. In fact, my first thought was that the casinos blew the whistle on Bill because he was winning too much.

All those little old ladies sitting at slot machines hour after hour are making their pocket money playing the nickle and quarter machines. Bill was not playing nickle machines.

If I was Bennett, I would set up a game room in my house, buy six or so of my favorite machines and play all I wanted, whenever I wanted. The only problem with that is that there's not much fun in winning your own money.

[John Lenin]

My point is gambling is not a crime nor a sin and to have conservatives eating their own over a big non story probably set up and leaked by the RATS is just plain dumb.

[Shermy]

I didn't see Bennett's gambling as a big deal.

It's a big deal to a lot of his readers and persons willing to listen to him. Gambling is a sin for some, others see it as having destroyed families.

WIth the amount of money involved calling it "recreational" or a "hobby" sounds like lame spin.

[goodnesswins]

Actually, if I remember correctly, Mr. Bennett's statement said he about broke even......which was one of my first questions when this story came out - how come they are only talking about how much he lost...how about how much he won? And, while I would not like my husband spending four times a year in Vegas playing video poker....I sure am not going to tell some other couple how much one of them can spend on playing LEGAL games.