Christie for President?

So Governor Christie is exploring the possibility of running for President.  Should horse racing interests be salivating at the possibility?  After all, if Governor Christie were to become President in 2013, Christie would have to resign from the Governorship and Lt Governor Kim Guadagno, whose main job appears to be being seen in every photo-op of the Governor.  Could this speed up the arrival of slots at Racetracks or at a minimum, the Meadowlands?

According to an article in The Record, Governor Christie is still seriously thinking about running for President after receiving appeals from GOP Leaders and fundraisers.  The problem for New Jersey is the possibility of the billions of dollars planned to be invested in Atlantic City may dry up if Christie were to run for President.  If the funds to dry up, it certainly would hamper the possibility of Atlantic City making a recovery; in theory making it easier to get slots at the Meadowlands.

First of all, don't get your hopes up to much.  There are a couple of big assumptions in this theory.  First of all Governor Christie would have to decide to run for President; something I am not sure he would do.  Assuming Christie would not resign frorm the Governorship if he decided to run for President so he would have a job if a Presidential campaign failed, he would still be around to keep encouraging the development of Atlantic City.  Even if he did resign from the Governorship, I tend to doubt the Lt Governor would have the gravitas to challenge Senate President Sweeney's refusal to post any slots bill for a vote.

Of course, there would be one positive it the Governor decided to run for President, it may put him in disfavor with New Jersey voters if his campaign for President failed and he sought re-election as Governor. 

All in all, it is a nice thought, but don't hold your breathe waiting for it to happen. 

It has been reported that Betfair, owner of TVG, had a data theft approximately 18 months ago and did not inform their customers of the security breach which included banking and credit card information.  Betfair claims it did not report this security breach to its customers as their security practices made this information unusable.  From the report it can't be determined if TVG account holders information was included in this security breach, though I would think not as European privacy requirements is much more tight than in the United States.

It is nice to know that Betfair employs such security to make this stolen information useless.  However, it failed badly when it didn't notify their customers of the security breach.  Once the security breach was known, Betfair should have informed their customers of the breach and while reassuring their customers, it should have advised their customers to check their banking or credit card information to ensure their private information has not been used.

Yes, some of Betfair customers may have scared by receiving an email or letter outlining the data theft, but what is the potential loss to Betfair when customers are only learning now of the breach?  As with any company that handles your financial information, it is necessary to disclose to your customers the information had be obtained, even if the possibility of wrong doing is minimal.  Without confidence in an ADW, everyone loses.