Written by :
Published on :
Vice President of Government Relations for the Las Vegas Sands Corp., Andy Abboud, referred to Poker Player Alliance Twitter followers as “creepy” during an Internet gambling conference debate this week, as relayed by noted industry analyst Nolan Dalla.
Sure it was hostile territory at this year’s iGaming North America Conference for presumably the only man in the room who is against legalized online gambling in the US, but Dalla considered the comment a low blow.
Abboud also admitted to getting “lost” during a discussion of tech issues and misspoke about the Sands supposed long-held position on Web gambling when, as Dalla points out, the Sands owned Venetian Casino once hosted a poker event owned and operated by the world’s largest real money online poker room, PokerStars.
Dalla writes of Aboud’s gaffe during a high-tech presentation:
About midway into the debate, Mr. Abboud talked about a high-tech presentation he attended which was about online poker. The presentation provided information about industry safeguards, security, operations, support, and other facets of the details that go into running an online poker site. As Mr. Abboud was telling his story, on his own and without provocation, he admitted “they lost me,” causing astonishment among many in the crowd. Just to make it clear — the person debating about online poker’s impact, the person who cites concerns about underage gambling, addiction problems, money laundering, and so forth says “they lost me,” when the industry safeguards were explained to him? Unfortunately, the follow-up question no one got to ask was, “so then why are you up there telling this industry’s own experts about their business?”
And then there was the climatic finish in which, Abboud mad the unflattering comment directed at PPA Twitter followers.
For unknown reasons, Mr. Abboud decided to take an unwarranted shot at the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) and poker player activism. As he was discussing the future prospects of legalized online poker Mr. Abboud said, “….then, you have the PPA and all their creepy Twitter followers….”
Huh? What did he just say?
Just about everyone I was around looked at each other in stunned disbelief. There were audible gasps from many sitting in the audience (likely the PPA’s Twitter followers). Later, several observers gathered outside the room expressed utter shock that poker player activists would be called “creepy,” by someone no less with the title of “President of Government Relations.”
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
