One way of paying someone off is losing to him at poker. So you don’t have to be a Puritan to worry about a contractor throwing poker parties for a government contract officer and some Congressmen.
Compared to prostitution, poker games sound sort of innocent.
However, when a contractor organizes a game for a contract officer and some Congressmen, red flags ought to go up.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
High Stakes poker was the principal method of bribing Louisiana Governor Edwin "Lucky" Edwards. He and his contractor buddies would publicly fly to Vegas, play poker in view of everyone, and somehow the governor turned out to be the best damn poker player in the crowd every time.