Kiss, Kiss

I did a piece for the paper that ran Sunday about how closely politics is intertwined with the casino selection process in Pennsylvania.

The guy I focused on is Louis DeNaples, a Scranton-area businessman-mogul, who has bought the old Mt. Airy Lodge near Mt. Pocono and wants to turn it into a slots parlor.

Using the state's contribution database, I found that Louis has been a generous giver to political campaigns, spreading the money fairly evenly between D's and R's.

I put the figure at $270,000 since 2000.

Turns out I vastly understated the DeNaples giving. Through two of his companies, D&L Realty and RAM Consultants, DeNaples has contributed abother $400,000-plus to state pols in recent years.

Thanks to Dave Ralis of The Daily Rant for pointing this out to me. Ralis also listed the particulars of the donations on his site.

This underlines -- in thick, black ink -- my point in the column about politics and gambling being intertwined closer than a pair of 16 year olds necking in the back of a car.