Don't think you're different because this is a pattern repeated across the nation....and if you watch, you'll see Massachusetts genuflect as we repeat the same.....
Brazen!!!! DeNaples wants restrictions lifted!! Where there's smoke ... | PoconoRecord.com Tablet Edition
Where there's smoke ...
The Denaples family that owns Mount Airy Casino Resort wants gambling regulators to lift restrictions that limit patriarch Louis DeNaples' involvement in the casino. But the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board should think long and hard before granting the request. Louis DeNaples' history is checkered, and even today, after more than one investigation and a grand jury report, disagreements persist over whether he ever was fit to operate the multimillion-dollar gambling enterprise he himself built.
DeNaples, of Scranton, made his fortune in the auto parts and landfill businesses, became a successful banker, and by 2004 — the year the Pennsylvania General Assembly legalized slot machine gambling — he bought the erstwhile Mount Airy Lodge property near Mount Pocono with an eye toward building a casino. This was two years before the PGCB awarded the coveted licenses.
Somehow DeNaples got one of the five available licenses despite having a felony record. (In 1978, DeNaples pleaded no contest to a felony conspiracy charge in a scheme to defraud the federal government of more than half a million dollars in reimbursements for a Hurricane Agnes cleanup.)
By 2007, a grand jury was investigating DeNaples' earlier statement to the Gaming Control Board denying ties to organized crime.
DeNaples' gaming license was suspended in February 2008 after Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico charged him and an associate, the Rev. Joseph DeSica, with perjury for testifying during the licensing hearings that they had no associations with the Bufalino crime family. In 2009, the DA agreed to drop the charges against DeNaples after DeNaples consented to transfer ownership of the $400 million casino resort to his daughter Lisa. DeNaples' gaming license was restored, but he could not run the casino, which continues to operate under the so-called "Lisa Trust." By 2012, he successfully petitioned the board to cut all ties, including financial ties, to the resort and divide its ownership among his children and grandchildren.
Now the casino has asked the board to lift restrictions that prevent DeNaples' auto-parts and landfill enterprises from doing business with Mount Airy. That would reverse the current agreement that bars DeNaples from receiving, either directly or indirectly, any remuneration, cash or property distributions from the Lisa Trust. Lifting the ban would enable the resort to use DeNaples-owned trash hauling or vehicle repair businesses.
The board's enforcement arm does not oppose the move as long as DeNaples undergoes another background check, as a casino service provider, and passes it. DeNaples' lawyer wants the board to lift the ban first, and vet DeNaples later only if they determine proposed contracts would hit the $100,000 mark that calls for a background check.
Followers of the Mount Airy saga could reasonably conclude that Louis DeNaples was following the strategy of letting things blow over before working his way back into the lucrative gambling enterprise. DeNaples' history suggests gambling officials should remain vigilant.
http://t.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20140113%2FNEWS04%2F401130319&template=tabletart
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