Meetings & Information




*****************************
****************************************************
MUST READ:
GET THE FACTS!






Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Plainridge owner buys competitor casino firm for $2.8 billion



Plainridge owner buys competitor casino firm for $2.8 billion



Plainridge Park Casino file photo
Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville is setting out to make sure people know it’s more than just a casino.
Paul Connors / The Sun Chronicle//
PLAINVILLE — The owner of Plainridge Park Casino has agreed to acquire a gambling industry competitor for $2.8 billion in stock and cash.
Penn National Gaming will buy Pinnacle Entertainment and its 16 casinos, extending its reach across the United States and Canada.
Pinnacle stock holders will receive $20 and 0.42 shares of Penn National stock for each share of Pinnacle stock.
“The combined company will benefit from enhanced scale, additional growth opportunities and best in class operations, creating a more efficient, integrated gaming company,” Penn National Chief Executive Officer President Timothy Wilmot said.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

CLG: 'Betting on the downfall': George Soros had a $42 million short open on MGM



 News Updates from CLG
12 October 2017
 
Previous edition: Terror in Las Vegas: People run for their lives as at least one gunman opens fire near Mandalay Bay
 
Special Las Vegas Shooting 'Oddities' Edition - compiled by LRP --An online copy of this edition can be found here: http://www.legitgov.org/Las-Vegas-Shooting-Oddities-Compiled-CLG-News.
 

'Betting on the downfall': George Soros had a $42 million short open on MGM | 10 Oct 2017 | On Tuesday, September 5th, 2017, the board of MGM Resorts International decided to approve a $1 billion share repurchase program. At 17.7 billion today, the program represented a significant portion of its current market cap. By the end of the week, MGM's CEO, James Murren, had coolly divested himself of 80% of the shares he owned in his company. The divestment came just days before the ex-dividend date on September 8th, 2017. The sales were originally disclosed in a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Murren had previously divested 57,269 shares on July 31st and August 9th, 2017. It's currently unclear why Murren chose to sell when he did...Mr. Murren and his fellow board members were not the only speculators who were bearish on MGM's prospects. Billionaire investor George Soros also bought $42 million worth of puts on the company, according to SEC filings from mid August. [Notes: MGM Resorts International is the owner of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, the site of the October 1, 2017, shooting. See definitions of 'put option' (here) and 'Short (or Short Position)' (here). More info can be found here. --LRP]

CLG needs your support.
Or, please mail a check or m*ney order to CLG: Citizens for Legitimate Government (CLG) 
P.O. Box 1142 
Bristol, CT 06011-1142
 
Contributions to CLG are not tax deductible.
Feel free -- and CLG encourages you -- to forward this newsletter to your lists and friends!
Those who wish to be added to the list can go here: http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg and add your name. Please add clg_news@legitgov.org to your contacts or approved senders list. For subscription questions, please write signup at legitgov dot org.
 

CLG News Editor-in-Chief: Lori Price. Copyright © 2017, Citizens for Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved.


Thursday, October 5, 2017

Stop Predatory Gambling: Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was not a “professional gambler”



EXCERPT BELOW CLICK ON LINK TO VIEW ADDITIONAL INFORMATION!





Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was not a “professional gambler”



The facts coming out of Las Vegas are becoming clearer every day that the Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock had a serious gambling addiction. But virtually no one has said it publicly. Read the latest New York Times reporting on his gambling behavior. It was the center of his life.
The powerful corporate gambling operators in Las Vegas have a lot to lose if Paddock is revealed as a gambling addict. No credible gambling addiction expert unaffiliated with gambling operators (and their funding) would describe him as a “responsible gambler.” ‘Responsible gambling’ is little more than a marketing slogan made up by commercialized gambling operators and their partners. Its intent is to place the spotlight on the citizen and shield their predatory and fraudulent business practices.
The mass media continues to use terms like “professional gambler” when describing Paddock. While he may have even said that about himself, he was not a professional gambler.
No professional gambler uses slot machines and video poker machines like Paddock didThe machines create the allusion of skill, but you’re playing against the house, which means you’re mathematically guaranteed to lose all of your money the longer you play them. Once you press the button on the machine, there is no skill involved. The computer inside the machine decides whether you lose or win.
The Times story has a concise description of how the machines work:
“There are no opponents. There is no bluffing or worrying about competitors’ hands. Five virtual cards are drawn from a 52-card virtual deck- instantly on the video screen- and players decide which ones to “hold” or keep, and which ones to exchange for new cards. Players calculate the possibilities remaining in the 47 other virtual cards.”
Paddock was playing hundreds of hands per hour (about one hand every six seconds) for many hours straight. Over and over again.
The business model of casinos is based on people like Paddock losing over and over again. While he may have won occasionally, it’s a statistical certainty that he lost the longer and more frequently he played.
While it’s uncommon for the millions of American citizens who’ve become addicted to electronic gambling machines to become mass shooters, it is very common for them to harm themselves and others close to them (often in the form of domestic violence.) 
http://www.stoppredatorygambling.org/las-vegas-shooter-stephen-paddock-was-not-a-professional-gambler/




Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Stephen Crosby: Beating a Dead Horse?



Taxpayers are subsidizing a Dead Industry....and now what?

Extensive HEARINGS were held in Beacon Hill....lawmakers genuflected to the racing industry, gave them what they wanted.....

The Gambling Vultures OWN you once you invite them in....lawmakers will genuflect...YOU can bet on it!



Crosby to lawmakers: Give me the power to save horse racing
 
Gaming Commission chairman Stephen Crosby really doesn’t want to give up that multimillion-dollar state horse-racing fund. From SHNS’s Colin Young: “The chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission pressed lawmakers Tuesday to give the commission the ability to restructure oversight of the horse racing industry in hopes of a sparking a revitalization. While standardbred racing has seen a resurgence tied to the slots parlor in Plainville, Thoroughbred racing is near its all-time low in Massachusetts.”
SHNS (pay wall)



The Ultimate 1% SCAM!







FROM MASSTERLIST:

MGM reassures nervous Springfield after it unveils plan for $675M casino in Bridgeport, Conn.
In a major escalation of the ongoing casino war in southwestern New England, MGM Resorts announced yesterday ambitious plans for a new $675 million waterfront casino in Bridgeport, Conn., halfway between New York and New Haven and 80 miles south of Springfield, Mass., where MGM is building a $950 million casino in the city’s downtown. The Hartford Courant has the details. It’s just the latest development in the ongoing battle between MGM, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, which, it should be noted, has its own proposal for a new casino in East Windsor, Conn., just across the border from Springfield.
In Springfield, Mayor Domenic Sarno said he’s spoken to MGM CEO James Murren and has been assured that the company remains focused on building a "very successful and robust" casino in Springfield, reports Dan Glaun at MassLive. But how successful and robust, with so many current and planned casinos in the region, is the question.
Hartford Courant





Read The Atlantic | “How Casinos Enable Gambling Addicts”







Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Worst casino fears coming to fruition




 Senator Jamie Eldridge shared a link.

IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG for the powerful casino industry to muscle its way into…

COMMONWEALTHMAGAZINE.ORG
  • The new law that allows casinos to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. is a troubling example of the influence that corporate special interests wield on Beacon Hill. Concerned residents need to be more aware, and wary, of the next demands that are made from elected officials as the casinos in Everett and Springfield come closer to opening.

Worst casino fears coming to fruition

IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG for the powerful casino industry to muscle its way into Massachusetts politics. Beginning in the early 2000s, corporate lobbyists began giving unprecedented amounts of money to elected officials on Beacon Hill to convince them to support expanded gambling. By 2009, leadership in the House, Senate, and the corner office all supported legalized casino gambling in Massachusetts. Back then, opponents of expanded gambling emphasized that casinos would hurt local communities and snatch customers away from small businesses. We also warned that powerful corporate interests would begin clawing away at the limited legal protections put in place for Massachusetts residents in the casino law.
Now, our worst fears about casinos are coming to fruition. The Wynn Casino hasn’t even opened, and yet it already managed to sneak a provision into the fiscal 2018 House budget that would allow casinos to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. This provision became law when Gov. Charlie Baker failed to veto it by the end of July.
This exemption from our state’s alcohol laws is a danger to public safety and gives casinos an unfair advantage over local bars and restaurants. As opponents have argued for nearly a decade, casinos can have devastating impacts on the health and success of local economies.
When casinos arrive, existing businesses suffer. Local businesses see fewer profits and greater personnel costs as the result of increased drug and alcohol problems among employees after the introduction of gambling. Moreover, because of these costs, new businesses generally do not relocate to areas that already have casinos. In Atlantic City, the number of restaurants dropped from 311 to 66 in the 19 years following the introduction of casinos.
Casinos are especially dangerous to local communities because they differ from other forms of entertainment. Unlike sports stadiums or concert venues, casinos are designed to meet the customer’s every need. Casino patrons can access restaurants, shopping centers, lodging, and entertainment within the casino complex. This means that local businesses will not receive an increase in business from the traffic brought in by casinos. In fact, residents might relinquish local goods and services in favor of gambling. As more Massachusetts families spend money at casinos, less money will flow to small businesses, non-profits, municipal governments, and the arts.


Several studies have suggested that legalized gambling hurts the state lottery. A decrease in demand for the lottery could have a negative impact on small business owners. The lottery brings people into small, family-run convenience stores where they also make other purchases. When casinos intervene, this money is instead funneled to big corporations, almost entirely out of state.
Meet the Author

Jamie Eldridge

Senator from ActonMassachusetts Senate
The new law that allows casinos to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. is a troubling example of the influence that corporate special interests wield on Beacon Hill. Concerned residents need to be more aware, and wary, of the next demands that are made from elected officials as the casinos in Everett and Springfield come closer to opening.


Jamie Eldridge is a state senator from Acton.


Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Beacon Hill Genuflects to More Drunks on the road


Beacon Hill Prostitution disregards PUBLIC SAFETY!

No debate, no fanfare, no discussion! Just slip it in?

What happened to  Senator Stanley Rosenberg opposition?

Review the costs of:  HAPPY HOUR

FROM MASSterlist:

Casinos’ last-call perk has its share of critics
Public safety officials and casino opponents are among those sounding warnings after the state budget process resulted in the state’s future casinos being able to request the right to serve alcohol until 4 a.m., then start serving again at 8 a.m. Local bars and restaurants say the carve-out puts them at a competitive disadvantage. Dan Atkinson and Jordan Graham of the Herald have more.  
Boston Herald

Interesting budget tidbits: 4 a.m. liquor hours for casinos and T pension transfer
Gov. Baker yesterday signed, amended or rejected a number of policy riders within the state budget, two of which caught our attention, via the Globe: “Baker approved language, sought by the casino industry, to extend alcohol service at the gambling palaces until 4 a.m., two hours past what is permitted at the latest-serving restaurants and bars. Baker’s budget message also includes authorization for the state to transfer control of the MBTA employees pension fund into the state’s general pension program, a measure lawmakers have rejected previously.”


MASSACHUSETTS DRUNKS ON THE ROAD? Conn. ended push for 24-hour bars at casinos after crash


EXPANDED FREE ALCOHOL IS NOT  ''another little change'! 
Massachusetts has only Plainridge Slot Barn open at this time and already CHANGES?



How many DRUNKS do you want on the road? 
Masachusetts is unable to reduce ALCOHOL RELATED fatalities now. 




Reported by MASSterlist 04/14/2017:


Rosenberg ‘not a fan’ of extending casino last calls to 4 a.m.
The House budget unveiled earlier this week has an outside section that would allow casinos to sell liquor to gamblers an extra two hours till 4 a.m. But Shira Schoenberg at MassLive reports that Senate President Stan Rosenberg is “not a fan of the idea,” in his words. "We said we're not going to chip away at the statute because this is how it happens in state after state,"Rosenberg said. "First there's one little change, then another little change and before you know it the commonwealth loses control of the industry."
MassLive



Conn. ended push for 24-hour bars at casinos after crash

State had hoped to collect more slot machine profits

DRIVER CHARGED A sailor, Daniel E. Musser, 24, is charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence and faces up to 19 years in prison.DRIVER CHARGED
A sailor, Daniel E. Musser, 24, is charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence and faces up to 19 years in prison.
By Gregory B. Hladky
Globe Correspondent / March 22, 2009

HARTFORD - Officials looking to help solve Connecticut's multibillion-dollar deficit thought they had found an easy way to raise another $5 million a year: allow casinos to serve alcohol 24 hours a day.

A sailor, Daniel E. Musser, 24, is charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence and faces up to 19 years in prison.
DRIVER CHARGED
More hours of bar service would mean more gambling, they figured, which would mean the state could collect more slot machine profits.
But the proposal by Governor M. Jodi Rell's administration came to a sudden end at about 3:30 a.m. on March 7, when a car leaving the Mohegan Sun casino turned the wrong way down Interstate 395, headlights off, and slammed into a van full of college students on their way to Logan International Airport. They were scheduled for a flight to Uganda, where they had plans to help out at an orphan age over spring break.
Elizabeth Durante, a 20-year-old pre-med student at Connecticut College in New London, was killed.
The car's driver, Daniel E. Musser, 24, a sailor from the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, was charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence and faces up to 19 years in prison.
The next day, Rell called Durante's death "an unconscionable tragedy" and pulled back her budget proposal to make alcohol available 24 hours at the casinos.
"Even though this accident occurred under the laws as they have been for many years, the governor said it does give one pause to question the wisdom of extending liquor service hours at the casinos," Christopher Cooper, Rell spokesman, said recently. "We don't believe the bill is going to move forward this session."
Chuck Bunnell, chief of staff for the Mohegan Tribal Council, agreed.
"The Tribal Council in general has taken the position that it's time to pause and mourn the loss of this very bright light of humanity," Bunnell said, "that it's not appropriate to have those discussions right now."
Bunnell said the tribe was originally "approached on a bipartisan basis" by lawmakers looking for ways to increase state revenue.
Lori A. Potter, a spokeswoman for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, said analysts at the tribe's Foxwoods Resort Casino stand by their prediction that extending casino bar hours would result in an increase in state revenue.
"It is important to note that it would be impossible to find a more heavily regulated serving establishment in the state of Connecticut than the two casinos," Potter said.
Connecticut law requires the casinos' bars to stop serving by 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and by 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. One of the arguments originally used in favor of allowing longer serving hours was that their competitors in Atlantic City serve alcohol 24 hours a day.
Legal hours for bars to serve alcohol vary greatly across the United States, according to Steven Schmidt, vice president for public policy at the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association.
In Massachusetts, for example, state law allows service until 11 p.m., but local governing bodies can extend the hours to 2 a.m. In states such as New Jersey and Nevada, Schmidt said, local authorities are allowed to set bar closing hours.
Charles H. Gartman, one of the students with Durante in the van that night, has difficulty understanding why anyone thought round-the-clock liquor at the casinos was a good idea.
"Twenty-four-hour bar service is a little bit ridiculous," Gartman said last week in a phone interview from his New York City home. "You can't trust everyone to drink and drive safely."
Gartman, 19 and a sophomore at Connecticut College, has not yet recovered from injuries he suffered in the crash.
The five other passengers also suffered injuries, some minor.
"Both my legs were pretty banged up, and at first I couldn't walk," he said. "I have pretty severe lacerations on my chin."
Nor has he recovered from the loss of Durante, of West Islip, N.Y. Gartman said it was Durante who got him interested in going to Uganda to aid orphaned children. "It was her enthusiasm for helping people," he recalled.
Stephanie Hinman, who was Durante's roommate and one of the students on the Uganda trip, finds it ironic that her friend would die at the hands of an accused drunk driver.
"Neither Liz nor I ever drank," Hinman said from her home in Norfolk, Conn.
"We lived together in the substance-free dorm."
In a 2007 interview with a college publication, Durante said she wanted to become a surgeon and work in Africa with Doctors Without Borders.
For Janice Heggie Margolis, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Durante's death provided tragic evidence of why casino liquor hours should never be expanded.
She said the potential price to society of more fatal crashes is simply too high, no matter how much money might flow to the state. "This is exactly the reason why," Heggie Margolis said.
"You can never put on paper the cost of a life."


http://archive.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2009/03/22/conn_ended_push_for_24_hour_bars_at_casinos_after_crash/

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Casino tax winds up with state’s well-heeled horse owners





The only source for this fund at this time is the Plainridge Slot Barn.

Casino tax winds up with state’s well-heeled horse owners

Jack EncarnacaoMatt Stout Thursday, July 06, 2017



Credit: John Wilcox

COMPETING INTERESTS: Horses leave the gate at Suffolk Downs, above, which has received millions in casino taxes that critics would like to spend elsewhere.

Taxpayers have been fattening the winning purses of wealthy horse owners at Suffolk Downs the past two years thanks to the Bay State’s horse racing fund, which is fueling their six-figure payouts at a time critics are howling for the money to go to better priorities for the budget-strapped state government.

The cumulative winnings, detailed in a Herald analysis of payouts from the East Boston track, have been financed entirely by the $35 million in tax dollars the Race Horse Development Fund has taken in since 2015, when the state’s first slots parlor opened.

The fund was meant to bolster the purses — the winnings paid out to horse owners — that struggling Massachusetts tracks can offer to attract top thoroughbreds. The fund is made up mostly of taxes on casino revenues, and is parceled out to tracks by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.

The fund has become a popular target for lawmakers facing a potential $1 billion budget shortfall, including a Senate proposal to tap it for $13 million for “pressing environmental, conservation and recreation needs.”

The well-heeled owners of winning horses at Suffolk Downs since 2015 include:

• Patricia Moseley ($176,350 in winnings), the widow of former Suffolk Downs owner James
B. Moseley and daughter of Crocker Snow, who founded one of Boston’s first commercial airlines. She lives on the family estate in Hamilton;

• Teresa Horky ($160,900), the CEO of Pegasus Solutions, a successful tax preparation, health care consulting and financial consulting firm she founded; and

• Joseph DiRico ($157,950), a VP at his family’s third-generation company, Hub Folding Box in Mansfield. His late father, Alfred, also took home $45,000 in purse winnings from Suffolk Downs in 2015.

Greg Sullivan, a former state inspector general now with the Pioneer Institute, said it “makes no sense” for casino taxes to end up in wealthy horse owners’ pockets, especially after Suffolk Downs lost a bid to build its own casino and in May, cashed in on the $155 million sale of the property.

“Now here we are, Suffolk Downs is being sold, and they’re sitting on this pile of money, which is winding up in the pockets of millionaires at a time when Massachusetts is essentially broke,” Sullivan said.

“This should be terminated immediately, and those funds should be used for important purposes in Massachusetts.”

State Rep. Brad Jones, who has proposed diverting a portion of the fund to community preservation, said the payouts illustrate how the racing industry plays to wealthier residents.
“Generally speaking, it’s an older clientele and a more affluent clientele,” Jones, the House minority leader, said of horse racing. “That’s a very finite universe. And I think it does raise the question, is that the best place to put these resources from gaming?”

Where were you when GAMBLING LEGISLATION was proposed? Silent? 

The owners defended the six-figure hauls, arguing the data don’t show how much they are investing to support local horse farms and related trades with the winnings.

Paul Umbrello, executive director for the New England Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said it could often take $35,000 to $50,000 to breed and train just a single horse.

“They’re not going to put (purse winnings) in their pocket and buy a car — they’re going to turn it back into whatever it takes to raise these horses, which is considerable,” Moseley told the Herald. “I don’t know what form racing’s going to take, if any, but it won’t take any if they don’t have some of this support.”

Horky argued that in her 20-plus years in the industry, she’s lost money the vast majority of the time, adding that she’s “paid more to Massachusetts farms than I won.”

“You put it all back into that industry in hopes to keep it open and running, and having some space for children to see there’s something with four legs besides a dog,” she said.

Commission spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said tracking who ends up winning money from the purse fund “suggests a misunderstanding of its purpose and operation.” She said it helps support an entire network of breeders, trainers, veterinarians and jockeys.

Since 2015, the fund has taken in $35.4 million and paid out $22.4 million, 80 percent of which is earmarked for purses. Prior to the that, when Suffolk Downs ran scores of races each year, purses were funded by whatever was left of the money wagered — dubbed the “handle” — after taxes were taken out and the track took its cut.

Suffolk Downs is hosting six days of racing this summer, with the first scheduled for Saturday and, again, the fund supporting all the purses.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2017/07/casino_tax_winds_up_with_state_s_well_heeled_horse_owners