internet gambling

And his newly-minted Board of Elections doesn't have a rug big enough to sweep this stuff under:

Sweepstakes operator William George says a longtime business partner asked him early last year to write a $4,000 check to the campaign of Pat McCrory, then the presumptive Republican nominee to become North Carolina's next governor. George, 67, said he handed his donation to Hagie, who he then saw add it to a stack of checks from other sweepstakes operators. Those checks and others are the subject of a sworn complaint to the N.C. Board of Elections, which is investigating whether some 2012 political donations from sweepstakes operators violated state campaign finance laws. The elections board was scheduled to meet by telephone Tuesday for the first time since the April 22 complaint was filed, and a new five-member board McCrory appointed takes office Wednesday.

This is gonna get real interesting, real fast. If this new board tries to dismiss the complaint, the story will go national, and quickly.

At least one of the L's in Moore & Van Allen LLP stands for "Laundry":

Many of the sweepstakes checks were mailed to state lawmakers shortly before the November election, in envelopes printed with Moore & Van Allen's letterhead, postmarked from the firm's Charlotte ZIP code and containing the business card of firm lobbyist Tommy Sevier, according to documents obtained by the AP through a public records request. Sevier previously worked as a deputy chief of staff for Senate leader Berger and deputy chief of staff to then-U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, current chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party.

Before you run off to the shower to wash the slime off, see where that money originated from:

But some connections are hard to cut:

“I wouldn’t know him if I saw him,” said McCrory, a Republican. “I think we got it (the checks) through the mail.” Four lobbyists at Moore & Van Allen, including a former spokesman for McCrory’s 2012 gubernatorial campaign, filed paperwork with the state Thursday severing ties with IIT.

You don't need to hire a private investigator to detect that connection. The spokesman for McCrory was also the spokesman for Chase Burns. Not only does that make McCrory's "plausible deniability" much less plausible, it also narrows the field on who asked for this money back in November:

As seen on Twitter:

NCSweepstakes 10:42am via Safari on iOS
Trying to keep 1,000's employed during the holidays and revenue flowing to local governments. #NCGov #NCPol #NCGA newsobserver.com/2012/12/28/256…

On the employment angle, I'd say preserving the incomes of tens of thousands, so that money can be spent on family needs instead of compulsive wealth drain, is a tradeoff with which I'd have no problem. And as far as local governments, do you think they really want this in their communities? The main purpose behind taxes and license fees is to exert some form of control, so they won't be overran with sweepstakes parlors on every corner.

Welcome to bizarro world:

Gov. Bev. Perdue announced on Thursday that she would like to see North Carolina tax online games. In doing so, Bev joins a bevy of politicians across the state, including our own local legislator Garland Pierce, who want to tap into the cash cow that sweepstakes gambling has become.

While you're at it, why don't you come up with a fee for pimps and coke dealers, too? That's not just a cash cow, it's a whole damned herd.

Straightening out those pesky campaign finance reporting issues:

"There's no effort to hide anything. All this will be covered in an amended report. Some information didn't get there quickly enough," said Jordan Shaw, a Tillis spokesman.

In the meantime, here's one of them: