Casino Jack in Toronto

[zero]

I presumed when I read Spacey was filming Casino Jack in Toronto and Hamilton that they would be appearing as Washington but I get the sense there may be some Toronto as Toronto parts to the movie.

He's playing Jack Abramoff the biggest lobbyist to fall in the last, well ever. It wasn't much of a news story in Canada but played out in the NY Times and Wall Street Journal for most of the year a couple years back.

I've always been surprised that the Toronto Star didn't run an angle on the Toronto connection- the 'Casino' part of the story. Basically Abramoff got ahold of the SunCruz ocean casino line for a very cheap $60 mil. after Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis (a major player in the Canadian mafia scene) was gunned down in Toronto by a Gambino family hitman apparently.

Abramoff then used these floating casinos off of Florida to entertain and lobby politicians. Just think about that for a minute. Miami, cocaine, whores, politicians... international waters.

Abramoff went on to become a much much bigger player lobbying politicians on both sides of the fence in Washington. Most laughably he actually owned a restaurant in Washington called Signatures that was entirely intentionally a complete money losing proposition. It was effectively a meal counter for politicians. Nobody paid for anything.

When Abramoff was exposed EVERYONE had taken money from him down both sides of the aisle. The biggest casualty was Tom Delay having to resign as leader of the GOP but there were numerous other casualties. Everyone was tarred with his brush.

Spacey is the perfect individual to play Abramoff with his deep involvement in politics and understanding of human nature.

For anyone interested in this sort of thing I found an article from the Executive Intelligence Review that details how far back the Abramoff family goes in their connections to Canadian mafia figures like Canada's Paul Volpe and the Bonanno crime family which is of course one of the five families and most connected to the Montreal mafia and it's major figures.

I had thought the only Toronto connection was the death of Big Gus Konstantinos (who was huge, and HUGE in the ecstasy business) but apparently Jack's father Frank and uncle Bernard were buying up major chunks of real estate on behalf of the Bonnanos for years.

The New York Times then reported on May 28, 1979, "Millions of dollars in underworld money is being funneled through Toronto into real-estate investments in Atlantic City, according to an unusual television documentary broadcast tonight by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.... [A woman working for the mob told Canadian reporters that her] 'Toronto connections' have become convinced that the number of casinos in Atlantic City will grow rapidly in coming years. [They] cannot go into casinos [openly] so we buy buildings for them ... we front it."[4]

Edited June 18, 2009 by Guest

[zero]

The Abramoff Family

[Schwa.]

thanks zero. good read.

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My mafia fixation wasn't total delusion- I actually know a shitload about that shit in Canada. I've talked to guys like Nicaso before. Curious to see if my theory's right and they do some of the Toronto angles in the movie.