Since Tim Eyman places so much emphasis on following the money of campaign contributions, it is interesting to note once again that I-892’s biggest backer is Richmond B.C. based Great Canadian Gaming Corporation… to the tune of $210,000 (US) thus far. (That we know of.)
How important is I-892 to Great Canadian? Important enough that Canadian investment bankers are closely following the initiative.
How do I know? Web stats.
My web stats will sometimes show me the domains of visitors, and the search words they used to find my site. And lately I’ve noticed quite a few Canadian visitors, some clearly identifiable as financial institutions.
For example, today alone I’ve seen a number of visits from Toronto based TD Bank Financial Group, googling phrases like “initiative 892 latest poll” or “latest poll on washington state slots”.
TD Bank has a lot riding on this initiative. On September 30, 2004 they led a $150 million bond offering on behalf of Great Canadian, and agreed to provide an additional $100 million in credit. Some of that money will surely be used to finance Great Canadian’s plans to dominate the WA gambling market… and if I-892 passes, the return on investment will soar.
So if a Canadian bank with over CDN $300 billion in assets is following I-892 so closely, you get an idea of how profitable its passage would be for its corporate sponsors.
I have been following the Canadian financial papers, too.
Like Bloomberg – see http://quote.bloomberg.com/app.....fer=canada and “The funds will be used to repay existing debt, finance construction of casinos and renovate a horse-racing track”.
Good catch. Methinks the Corporate Canadian invaders want to take over our initiative process. One of the things I tell people is that this could be a Pandora’s Box not for Washington State but the nation. Corporate Canada will percieve this as a green light to “play” in our states’ initiative process. I sure wish Michael Moore would do a DVD on it – even though half of it will be distortion. Oh, that’s right: Eyman’s all distortion.
Ooops – I forgot to add that GC Gaming has put out an update today on the litigation you wrote about at http://www.gcgaming.com/invest.....27-04.html. Thank God, I say.