Gambling suspension
Admiral gambling

Vice Admiral Used Counterfeit Chips at Iowa Casino

As more than 700,000 government employees trudge home without pay as the budget failed to get through government, another man is joining them: Vice Admiral Tim Giardina. Oh, but Giardina isn’t any normal Vice Admiral, and his suspension is rather unusual. In fact, Tim Giardina is the 2nd most important man in the US nuclear program, and his suspension is for gambling.

So what did the Vice Admiral do exactly? Well, it seems like his casino table manners may have been a bit off while gambling at the Horseshoe Casino at Council Bluffs, Iowa. Oh, and we don’t just mean hitting on a dealer: Giardina allegedly counterfeited a significant sum in casino chips.

Whoa there! This man had the power “with help from another, of course” to launch a nuclear warhead, and he had been using counterfeit chips. I don’t think I’d particularly like to trust him with the fate of the world if the stories are true.

Of course, it’s not the first piece of casino gambling news involving a major US figure, after Senator John McCain’s now infamous poker splurge at a Senate meeting on Syria. Considering that mobile poker is still technically illegal outside of Nevada, the Senator was lucky he was only playing a free play game.

Meanwhile, David Dales of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said Tim Giardina’s misdemeanors would be a “class D felony in the state of Iowa.” It’s probably not a good idea to listen to the Vice Admiral’s casino strategies, therefore: it could land you in rather a lot of hot water. At least you’re not in charge of your country’s nuclear weapons.