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offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

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The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link No, Roberta Cowell Was Not ?Transgender? Fri Feb 14, 2025 15:11 | Zack Stiling
The Science Museum has repeated the claim that Roberta Cowell was Britain's 'first transgender woman'. This is false, says Zack Stiling. She was biologically female. Worse, she would have hated the trans movement.
The post No, Roberta Cowell Was Not ‘Transgender’ appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Academia Fights Back in the War on DEI Fri Feb 14, 2025 13:21 | Dr Roger Watson
As major corporations see the light over DEI and Trump flushes it out of the US Government, true to form, academia is manning the woke barricades in its determination to fight back, says Dr Roger Watson.
The post Academia Fights Back in the War on DEI appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Giant Gas Field Discovery Could Power Britain for a Decade Fri Feb 14, 2025 11:28 | Will Jones
A giant gas field has been discovered under Lincolnshire that could fuel the UK's entire needs for a decade, reducing?dependence on imports?and generating tens of thousands of jobs, an energy company has said.
The post Giant Gas Field Discovery Could Power Britain for a Decade appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Queer Cambridge Fri Feb 14, 2025 09:00 | James Alexander
"King's was not queer, completely, and Cambridge elsewhere was certainly not as queer as King's." Prof James Alexander reviews Simon Goldhill's Queer Cambridge: An Alternative History.
The post Queer Cambridge appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link In Episode 28 of the Sceptic: Peter Hitchens on Lucy Letby, FSU Barrister Adam King on the Acquittal... Fri Feb 14, 2025 07:00 | Richard Eldred
In Episode 28 of the Sceptic: Peter Hitchens on Lucy Letby, FSU barrister Adam King on the acquittal of Jamie Michael and Eugyppius on how immigration is upending German politics.
The post In Episode 28 of the Sceptic: Peter Hitchens on Lucy Letby, FSU Barrister Adam King on the Acquittal of Jamie Michael and Eugyppius on How Immigration Is Upending German Politics appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?120 Fri Feb 14, 2025 13:14 | en

offsite link Did the IDF kill more Israelis on October 7, 2023, than the Palestinian resistan... Fri Feb 14, 2025 13:00 | en

offsite link Donald Trump and the conflict in Ukraine, by Thierry Meyssan Wed Feb 12, 2025 05:10 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?119 Fri Feb 07, 2025 15:26 | en

offsite link Donald Trump plans to displace Palestinians from Gaza and build a riviera on the... Fri Feb 07, 2025 13:33 | en

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national / miscellaneous Monday March 13, 2006 10:22 by Gambler Anonymous

The end of casinos and card rooms in Ireland?

featured image
Blurry eyed from the adrenalin...

About four years ago I got a job working for security in a large Vegas-style casino in Auckland, New Zealand. On my first morning I was introduced to the manager and other people I would be working with, handed a swipe pass, and given a list of my daily duties. The casino and adjoining conference centre and hotel were open 24 hours, all year round, and employed roughly 2,000 people in total. The majority of these were food/drink and cleaning staff on three rotating eight hour shifts. I had started on a Monday morning at 8am, and after being shown the ropes in the control room, my team leader asked me if I'd like to go on a tour of the gaming floor. Why not, I replied.

So off we went down to the enormous gaming floor. Bear in mind this was before 9am on a Monday, so I expected the place to be near empty, maybe a few cleaners hoovering the deep green carpets or polishing the roulette wheels in anticipation of a few people drifting in later on in the afternoon. Not a bit of it. Tables were full, cards being dealt, lights flashing and buzzers sounding, chips being stacked and counted. The "one armed bandit" areas were the worst. Red-eyed, gaunt, pasty, slouching, with their change bucket in one hand and the other eternally poised over the button, these people looked like they'd been there all night, all week, all their lives.

This was in huge contrast to the other "casinos" I'd previously been in - namely the Merrion, and the Jackpot (now closed, as far as I know) on Montague Street. These were card rooms, with no more than 60 people playing in a knockout Texas Hold'em tournament. There was no alcohol, they certainly werent open 24 hours, and the atmosphere was intimate and reasonably relaxed. They were operating in a legal grey area, and even though I'd been playing poker for a good while with friends in private house games, very few people seemed aware of their existence. In the last four years though, there's been a huge upsurge in people playing poker, and the casinos have multiplied in Dublin, and beyond.

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