Well, the deal has been done. The fix was in as Nevada Gaming Control Board members trotted out their signifying-monkeys impersonation, rubber-stamping MGM Mirage’s indirect alliance with Stanley Ho. MGM’s Alan Feldman has been known to bristle, perhaps rightly, at the assertion that his company is "in business with Stanley Ho," but if it isn’t, it’s not for a lack of desire.

MGM tried to get into bed with Ho five years ago. That was more than stateside regulators could stomach but they have now blessed a "lavender marriage," in which daughter Pansy Ho is seen by many as the "beard." It’s true that we don’t choose our parents, but it ought to give authorities in Nevada pause that Pansy Ho’s father used to rent out a VIP gambling room in Ho’s flagship Casino Lisboa to self-avowed triad leader Wan Kuok-koi.

"Broken Tooth" Koi wasn’t shy about his triad affiliation nor about his ties to Stanley Ho. Given the elder Ho’s omnipresence in the Macao economy, American casino companies ought to put patriotism first, profit second and give the wily old S.O.B. a wide berth. And, for regulators, the Ho/Koi connection was the smoking gun they needed. Individuals in Nevada have been denied licensure for far less.

That’s not a perspective likely to be heard in the local mainstream press. The R-J’s coverage of the five-hour suitability hearing for Pansy Ho was remarkably mild and columnist Jane Ann Morrison followed up by applying a thick coat of whitewash to the whole, sordid affair. (The Sun, meanwhile, remains conspicuously silent.) One local reporter told a colleague of mine that a controversial dossier, allegedly gleaned from some very informed sources, had been proven "a hoax" at the Control Board hearing. Nothing of the sort took place. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.