Nj-new Jersey Governor Chris Christie Demands Atlantic City Budget Slim Down for Municipal Workers

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is no longer crisscrossing the united states on the campaign that is presidential, and therefore the Republican, now in his 2nd gubernatorial term, has more time to refocus their efforts on issues facing his or her own state.
Nj-new Jersey Governor Chris Christie said enough is sufficient on Thursday, calling on state lawmakers to seize control of the city. He made his case loaded with colorful graphs showing the reckless overspending that’s become rampant in Atlantic City.
No concern is more vital in New Jersey right now than Atlantic City’s current economic crisis. On Thursday, Christie told his fellow legislators that it’s into the city’s best interest allowing hawaii to take control of its finances.
‘Even with all the help and also the advice regarding the Emergency Manager that we applied in 2015, Atlantic City took only modest steps to rein their costs in,’ Christie said during the statehouse this week. ‘They face a $100 million budget shortfall this $100 million budget deficit this year . . year . These are the numbers, this really is the math, and these are the facts, and there’s no debate relating to this.’
Park Destination & Boardwalk Salaries
The governor highlighted what he believes to be gross overspending on municipal workers in Christie’s arguments. Armed with charts and graphs, he showed that 119 city workers were paid over $100,000 during the last year that is fiscal an amount which doesn’t even include the ‘Lamborghini-level’ healthcare and benefits package that accompanies those salaries.
Christie also stressed the fact that Atlantic City paid $6.6 million in 2015 to retiring public workers, primarily to compensate unused sick and vacation days. Part-time council users were collectively compensated $300,000, a cost seen as extravagant in the optical eyes regarding the governor.
Unless the state legislature takes action to give control of the gambling that is flailing to Trenton, Christie claims he lacks the energy to renegotiate contracts with public sector unions getting the ‘exorbitant expenses of the town employees under control.’
Takeover is the Only Solution
Christie is contacting State Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D) to urge the chamber to give control of Atlantic City to the state. Prieto opposes that path, opting in favor of the PILOT (payment instead of taxes) program rather.
PILOT would enable casinos to pay taxes for a schedule that is fixed isn’t determined on property value or gaming revenues https://lucky88slot.org/, which have both significantly diminished over the years, as tourism to the area has fallen.
Christie believes the PILOT system is a solution that is short-term won’t help Atlantic City’s long-term forecast. Financial analyst ensemble Moody’s seems to agree.
‘If only the bill that is PILOT [with no other measures instituted], the town will continue to face distress since the single bill is insufficient to restore Atlantic City’s fiscal wellness,’ the credit history corporation said recently. ‘ Even though the PILOT bill produces additional profits and avoids incurring casino that is additional liabilities, it is inadequate to avoid crippling deficits of $30 to $40 million a year, over the next five years.’
Christie believes public workers need to step up to the plate in the best interest of these city, but it appears some seem to be doing that.
After Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian (R) threatened a city closure of non-essential employees, various unions proposed spending employees every one month instead of two, a modification that would let the government to continue operating until the next quarterly tax payments are received on May 1.
But that is just one away, so action will need to be taken, and soon month.
DoubleDown Social Casino Illinois Customer Lawsuit Dismissed, Angry Patron Lost $1K in Virtual Chips
IGT’s DoubleDown multiplatform casino that is social has survived a class action lawsuit attempt from the disgruntled Illinois customer who advertised that the free video gaming platform offers ‘nothing more than camouflaged unlawful games of opportunity.’
IGT’s DoubleDown social casino overcome back a class action lawsuit effort from the disgruntled Illinois online customer this week, who claimed that its operations were tantamount to ‘real’ gambling. (Image: onlinewin.minnim.org)
Plaintiff Margo Phillips blew $1,000 in real money on virtual, value-less chips in the web site before determining she wanted to claw back every play cent. Phillips claimed that because DoubleDown utilizes ‘gambling mechanics’ in its games, it is tantamount to gambling that is actual.
Well, except for real money being involved, but other than that.
In a course action lawsuit filed at the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Phillips said she wanted the DoubleDown site to be shut down and money refunded to customers in Illinois. The lawsuit ended up being filed on behalf of all citizens for the state who’d lost over $50 playing at DoubleDown, under the Illinois that is antiquated Loss Act (ILRA).
Claw-back Law Dragged Up
The 19th century legislation states that any Illinois gambler who loses $50 or more gets the right to sue the champion getting the funds straight back. It also states that will the gambler that is losing sue the winner within sixth months, then ‘any person’ is allowed to sue with respect to all losers, for up to 3 x the total amount.
The legislation was originally made to protect destitute families who’d had their last dollar stolen by family relations, that has been later gambled away.
Phillips claims she started playing on DoubleDown in January of 2013, and soon began purchasing virtual (and value-less) chips with real money, once she had played through the supply that is original of chips. She argues, they had a monetary value, just like chips purchased in a casino, and therefore the services offered by DoubleDown were tantamount to illegal gambling because she paid for the chips.
According to Phillips, in addition to ILRA, DoubleDown was in violation of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business tactics Act, and was guilty of unjustly enriching itself through the use of ‘gambling devices,’ another no-no under Illinois state legislation.
The filing would have had to establish that online social casino games could be defined as ‘gambling devices,’ and that IGT had procured cash from the plaintiff in a manner that is illegal.
Define ‘Gambling’
But the judge, unlike Phillips, ended up beingn’t buying any of it.
JudgeEdmond Chang noted that ILRA requires a winner and a loser from the upshot of a gambling proposition. Because virtual chips bought from DoubleDown cannot be cashed in for a real income, the social casino site cannot lose such a thing from the proposition, and therefore Phillips had been on shaky ground.
In fact, broadly speaking, Phillips was asking the court to reconsider the very definition of gambling as it is construed in basically every state in the US: specifically, the proposition that something of value is risked upon the end result of a event or game that is susceptible to possibility within the hope of receiving another thing of equal or greater value.
While investing in virtual chips constitutes a stake that is financial with no financial reward involved, no type of gambling has occurred, by any legal definition, at the least.
In fact, one could say that Phillip’s decision to sue DoubleDown is a better example of gambling than anything that happens regarding the casino site that is social. And in this situation, it was a bet that is losing.
Money Laundering and Suspicious Activity at Casinos Continues to Rise, FinCEN Reports
Money laundering is serious business.
Unfortunately for people in the casino industry, criminals have long relished the attractiveness for the floor cage as being the instrument that is perfect clean dirty money into purportedly legitimate funds.
‘Washing’ money by trading it in for chips then cashing it out again has develop into a method that is preferred of laundering by criminals. Now FinCEN wants the industry to better monitor it self for prospective crimes being committed by patrons, and the problems have become worldwide. (Image: i5design.com)
A bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury, requires institutions to file Currency Transaction Reports when a customer transacts over $10,000 in a single day since 1996, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ( FinCEN. In addition, federal legislation mandates that a dubious activity report (SAR) be completed if the patron is suspected of participating in the laundering of cash.
With thousands of commercial banks in the US, including smaller regional institutions, FinCEN is cracking down on money laundering by threatening non-conforming banking institutions with financial penalties.
With no option but to comply with FinCEN, SARs filed by banks rose from 288,343 in 2003 to 972,037 in 2013, a 70 percent increase in just 10 years. Nevertheless, a decline that is unexpected SARs followed in 2014, and along with it came a growth in suspicious activity reports being filed by the casino, securities, and insurance coverage industries.
What does it all mean?
Underground and Out of Sight
In a Wall Street Journal report this week titled, ‘Losing Count: US Terror Rules Drive Money Underground,’ the argument is made that present FinCEN rules might actually be hampering the government’s power to monitor suspicious activity and intercept potential terrorism.
Afraid of dealing with significant financial penalties for facilitating a dubious customer’s request, banking institutions are quickly closing accounts after filing SARs. This forces the alleged perpetrator to use alternative solutions to move cash, and the funds efficiently vanish from regulatory oversight.
‘What do we do, in the law enforcement arena, as soon as the money goes underground?’ FBI crimes that are financial Patrick Fallon pondered in the piece. ‘It’s what you don’t understand that’s the frightening thing.’
Those who are indeed trying to facilitate money movement illegally may be drawn more and more to the casino cage as banks refuse to provide services for suspected launderers.
And while bank SARs dropped by nearly nine percent between 2013-2014, the reports increased in the casino industry by 69 % during the same time framework.
Casinos Feeling the Heat
FinCEN Director Jennifer Calvery said her office’s 340 workers are successfully safeguarding the US economic system and promoting national security, and SARs play an essential role in those efforts.
‘The information that casinos and other banking institutions provide is used to confront terrorist organizations, rogue countries, WMD proliferators, international grand corruption, and increasingly serious cyber threats,’ Calvery said in 2014. ‘Violating the BSA (Bank Secrecy Act) might result in FinCEN imposing penalties that are civil the casino it self.’
And imposing penalties they are, as Calvery’s team levied economic fines on four gambling companies last year alone. Most notably was the US Dept. of the Treasury’s $8 million penalty on Caesars Palace Las vegas, nevada for just what FinCEN found to be a violation that is willful of BSA and failure to adhere to SAR protocols.
The recent alleged participation of two Philippines banks in a $83 million cyber heist through the New York Federal Reserve has shined a level brighter light on this issue that is troubling and you can bet that regulatory arms worldwide are moving in the casino industry for the better look.
The list of internet sites, which detectives have stated were based on servers outside Italy and also been impounded, are as follows: www4.dgbpoker.com; www.pkgambling373.com; www.pkwildpoker.net; www.betfaktor.com; www.planetwin365.com; www.new5.betaland.com; www.new4.betaland.com; www.new2.betaland.com; www.new1.betaland.com; www.new.betaland.com; and www.betaland.com.
But according to CalvinAyre.com, two of the web sites was targeted in error. Austria’s SKS365 Group, which runs Planet365, has categorically distanced itself from any involvement, saying that the group that is criminal exploited Planet365’s brand name reputation to lure bettors to copycat internet sites.
OIA Services Ltd, meanwhile, which has Betaland, says that Betaland.com has been closed to players that are italian over a year, and the internet sites related to the gambling band which used the Betaland expansion did so without authorization and were ‘rightly currently darkened to access, as unlicensed.’
Tancredi Hyper Links
Italian authorities said that the ring also had links to Luigi Tancredi, a person understood in Italy as ‘the King of Slots’ for his operations in the legal gambling world that is land-based.
Tancredi is thought to be the owner of DollaroPoker, and was arrested in January and accused of being the mastermind of a gambling ring that operated 12,000 online gaming and lottery video terminals in pubs, cafes and gaming halls throughout Italy.
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