The Characters in Film and in Real Life
This immensely entertaining, yet frightening story about the modern political scene is based on true events which involved prominent and powerful people, including senators, members of Congress, and the US president himself. Therefore, you need the right cast to portray the characters in a way that adequately represents their real-life counterparts. The main role is played by Kevin Spacey who impersonates Jack Abramoff in a brilliant way. This seems an obvious choice given Spacey’s legendary roles throughout his career, such as the mastermind behind the card-counting team in the film 21.
Jack Abramoff (middle) and Grover Norquist (right) meeting with President Ronald Reagan in 1981“Washington is Hollywood with ugly faces”
– Character Jack Abramoff in Casino Jack (2010)
Abramoff’s right hand, Michael Scanlon, is played by Canadian actor Barry Pepper. Before working with Abramoff, Scanlon’s most notable job was as press secretary at the office of Tom DeLay in the 1990s. There he met his future fiancée Emily Miller, who was believed to be a major factor in exposing the political scandals that revolved around Scanlon and Abramoff. Tom DeLay became a House majority leader and a very powerful connection in D.C. for Abramoff and his associates. In the film DeLay is played by actor Spencer Garrett. Since this story is about political scandals involving multiple individuals, the cast is too long to be covered in a couple of paragraphs. We reveal more detail about key characters and the actors who play them further in the text.
The Plot
The events and connections in the film are quite complex. Some of them are presented briefly and without too much action, while others are depicted in greater detail. As the film title suggests, the significant part of the story emphasises on Abramoff’s work for the casino industry. His involvement in fraud schemes and even a murder case were all in relation to his work with casino owners. While the film represents almost all of Abramoff’s major achievements as a lobbyist, the chronology of the events is mixed up. Although the timeline is not accurate, the character’s actions are represented adequately, in the sense that his real-life counterpart did these things.
The Casino Connection
As mentioned above, there’s a reason this movie is called Casino Jack and not Lumberjack. A huge portion of Abramoff’s enormous wealth was accumulated through defrauding Native American tribes that owned casino establishments. He also got involved in the purchase of a fleet of casino cruise ships from Gus Boulis – an entrepreneur of Greek descent who was killed by the mafia in 2001. It’s ironic that Abramoff developed his fraudulent schemes while working for otherwise legit casino operators. Apparently, when politics are involved, the casino doesn’t always win. Here are some more details on these endeavours.
Lobbying for Native American Tribes
In the movie, just like in real life, Abramoff made the bulk of his wealth by lobbying for Native American casino owners. In the film, everything starts with the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Nation of Michigan, who had serious concerns about interstate gambling. The prospects of growing competition by other tribes in nearby states motivated the Chippewa to hire Abramoff despite their initial reluctance. The goal was clear – to prevent other tribes from opening gaming establishments in neighbour states. To deliver what was promised, Abramoff gets help from Ralph Reed, played by actor Christian Campbell. Reed mobilizes a vast community of Christian conservatives to form a fierce opposition against the opening of tribal casinos in Texas.
Long story short, Abramoff succeeds and therefore justifies the obscenely high service fees paid by the Chippewa. Then he uses his success story to pitch his services to other tribes, who suffered the collateral damage from his work for the Michigan tribe. And while we mentioned Michigan, you should definately check out the top Michigan online casino sites. Moving on to the subject in hand, a notable example are the Tigua Indians of Texas, who took massive damage from the mentioned anti-gambling movement in the state. In other words, the clients Abramoff recruited later, were the same people he buried in the first place while working for their competitors. This is where the famous “Gimme Five” scheme is mentioned, which we describe in greater detail further in the article.
SunSail Casinos – Cruises to Nowhere
By the end of the 1990s Konstantinos ‘Gus’ Boulis, owner of Florida based SunCruz Casinos, started facing serious legal issues. His company, which in the movie is renamed to SunSail Casinos, offered the so-called cruises to nowhere. The fleet of casino ships regularly travelled outside US territorial waters to circumvent gambling restrictions. The trouble began with police raids on some of the boats due to alleged operation within areas where gambling is restricted. Boulis resolved this in court, but later it was found out that he became the owner of the ships before he became a US citizen. This is against the law, which forced the owner to sell the company and its assets. This is where Abramoff stepped in, as pictured in the film.
Jack Abramoff offered to buy the entire cruise ship business. The deal was arranged in 2000 through frontman Adam Kidan, played by actor Jon Lovitz. Kidan had his own legit business but also had connections with the underworld. While trying to secure a bank loan to fund the deal, the buyers fabricated a transfer for over $20 Million. After finding out, the infuriated Boulis assaults Kidan with a ballpoint pen and stabs him in the face multiple times. This short, but intense action scene depicted in the movie, also happened in real life.
Other Notable Depictions of Real Places Events
The movie is based on real events and a lot of what you’ll see in the footage actually happened. However, certain events and interactions are oversimplified for the purpose of fitting the entire narrative in a two-hour film. Other depictions are entirely fictional. If you are interested in finding more about Abramoff, we recommend that you see “Casino Jack and the United States of Money”. This documentary was also released in 2010, a few months before the Casino Jack movie. It presents the events in a less dramatic, but far more accurate manner.
The Gimme Five Scheme
This fraudulent scheme is not well explained in the movie. It’s mentioned very briefly while Abramoff and Scanlon play racquetball. Despite the lack of detail in the film, this is basically true, because in real life Abramoff and Scanlon come up with the idea on a racquetball court. In a nutshell, while recruiting desperate tribal chiefs, Abramoff pretended to be outraged by the great injustice done to the Indian tribes and their casino operations. He promised to charge minimum fees for his service but insisted that the gravity of the situation required additional help. He recommended Michael Scanlon’s company for its valuable experience in grassroots lobbying. Then Scanlon overcharged the tribes and secretly returned half of the revenue to Abramoff under the table.
Who Blew the Whistle?
In the film, things go downhill for Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon when Emily Miller finds out that Scanlon has been cheating on her. She breaks up with him and leaks critical details of her former fiancé’s schemes to Susan Schmidt, an investigating journalist who worked for the Washington Post at the time. In the real world, by the time the scheme was exposed, it was believed that this is true. However, Scanlon’s infidelity played little part in unveiling the scandal. It was the defrauded tribal leaders who began to leak documents to local reporters. They slowly and patiently piled up evidence material and had a serious case by the time they got attention from major media. Susan Schmidt, played by Ruth Marshall, shared a Pulitzer prize in 2006 with two other colleagues for working together on the investigation and exposure of Abramoff’s criminal activity.
The Death of Gus Boulis
During the acquisition of the casino boat fleet from Gus Boulis, the Greek tycoon proved to be a hard nut to crack. He kept coming up with new demands and insisted he should stay on board by keeping a 10% share. After Boulis assaulted Adam Kidan and stabbed him with a pen, the latter sought help from his Italian mob connections. In the movie, Boulis was approached by Anthony “Big Tony” Moscatiello, played by Maury Chaykin. Once again Boulis didn’t want to listen, which lead to his demise. He was gunned down in a mafia-style hit, in which Moscatiello participated, according to the film. In reality, Big Tony gave the order for the murder of Boulis but didn’t take part personally. He was found guilty in 2015 and received a life sentence in a process where e Kidan’s testimony was pivotal.
Golf Trips to Scotland and Other Treats
Taking good care of people is a subtle means of persuading key officials to support new legislation, or oppose it, depending on who’s paying. In real life, Abramoff used to arrange very expensive treats for people of interest. His arsenal included golf trips to Scotland, overly expensive meals, and permanently hired stadium skyboxes. Abramoff even opened a restaurant which later became his workplace, after he was fired from lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig for malpractices. The restaurant was a place where one could bring “friends”, buy them a meal, and “discuss business”. This is very well depicted in the movie. Despite inaccuracies about the exact people, places and times, the way the lobbying machine works is presented quite well.
Mariana Islands Sweatshop Factories
This is another briefly presented, but factually correct depiction of Abramoff’s activity in the movie. One of his earliest successful lobbying campaigns was in favour of owners of apparel factories on the Northern Mariana Islands in the 1980s. Being a US territory with special statute, the Marianas became a hot spot for Asian style sweatshop factories, due to exemptions from Federal immigration and minimum wage laws. This allowed production of US made brand clothes at the fraction of the normal labour cost in America, boosting profit margins for factory owners at the expense of discriminated employees. Through campaign contributions and guided trips to the islands, Abramoff arranged the support of Tom DeLay and other officials for the growing economy of the pacific nation. This practically secured political support for abusive factory owners.
Abramoff as a Philanthropist
In the movie, just like in real life, Abramoff funded the establishment and operation of a private school called the “Eshkol Academy”. The school existed between 2002 and 2004 and was closed after official inquiries about the sources of funding. In the film, Abramoff expresses distrust in the modern US educational system, as well as an ambition to provide real quality education for his children. The academy is presented as a product of Abramoff’s ambition to create something of high value to society and is in strong contrast with the greed and corruption surrounding him.
Campaign Donations and Money Laundering
Two figures from Abramoff’s inner circle are presented quite vaguely in Casino Jack. These are Ralph Reed, who helped with the mentioned Christian opposition to gambling, and Grover Norquist. Actor Jeffrey R. Smith, who impersonates Norquist, has a rather small share of screen time. In real life, however, the involvement of both Norquist and Reed was vital to the channelling of money for political purposes. Most politicians wouldn’t openly accept campaign contributions from Native American gambling lobbies. Therefore, the money they received was covered under layers of transactions to obscure the original source. Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed were heads of multiple NGOs and think tanks. These entities were used as money conduits in a fashion that resembles the mechanics of money laundering. In the movie, this is bluntly presented as handing out envelopes with fat checks to publicly elected officials. In reality, things were organized in a far more elaborate way.
Abramoff, Foreign Politics, and the President of the United States
In addition to corporate lobbying interests, Abramoff worked with foreign governments as well. A notable example is his support for the effort of the Malaysian government to improve the political and economic relations with the US. It is said that Abramoff literally delivered the US president, because of his help in arranging an official visit of George W. Bush to Malaysia. This achievement was not shown in the film. What the movie shows, however, is a documented statement of the President who publicly denied knowing Abramoff. This happened right after the scandals involving the “super-lobbyist” gained publicity, and provoked numerous media inquiries into his connections to high profile officials. Despite the abundant photographic material that documented several meetings between the two, George W. Bush officially distanced himself from Abramoff, claiming they were not acquainted.
Committee Hearings
One of the most brilliant scenes in Casino Jack depicts an emotional outburst in which Abramoff denounces all members of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. The committee investigated the tribal lobbying scandal in 2006 and included individuals who previously received huge amounts from Abramoff in the form of campaign donations. This scene is entirely fictional and is presented as alternative testimony that Casino Jack (the character) wanted to give but didn’t. Instead, both in the film and in real life, he abstains from answering all questions and keeps invoking his Fifth Amendment rights throughout the entire session. That said, the scene is more of artistic speculation about what was going through his mind during the testimony. Ironically, the committee chairman at that time was John McCain, whose presidential campaign in 2000 was literary buried by Abramoff’s counter-effort in critical states. This practically made George W. Bush President of the United States. It also turns out that McCain was one of the many beneficiaries of the mentioned campaign donations. Apparently lobbying interests are defended by buying politicians on either side of the political spectrum.
