FILE - In this Aug. 4, 2014, file photo, the unfinished community center sits on the Aquinnah Wampanoag reservation in Aquinnah, Mass., on Martha's Vineyard. The tribe began work in July 2015 to convert the building into gaming hall. U.S. District Court Judge Dennis Saylor heard arguments Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015, in the state's bid to block the tribe from opening a casino on the resort island. Lawyers argued that the tribe forfeited its gambling rights when it reached a settlement for tribal land on the island. But the tribe said federal law allows it to offer "high stakes" bingo-style games on the property. (AP Photo/Phil Marcelo, File)(Phil Marcelo)
Fate of tribal casino on Martha's Vineyard up to judge
By Philip Marcelo
Associated Press
Posted Aug. 13, 2015 at 11:15 PM
BOSTON — An Indian tribe planning to build a casino on Martha's Vineyard doesn't exercise enough governmental oversight on its tribal land there to be allowed to operate a gambling hall, Massachusetts and other opponents of the plan argued in federal court Wednesday.
"The police force, the fire and ambulance service are all provided by the town, not the tribe," said Felicia Ellsworth, a lawyer for the Aquinnah/Gay Head Community Association, which has joined the state and the town of Aquinnah in a lawsuit seeking to block the project.
"The tribe doesn't have a school system, there's no taxing system, no health board, no criminal code, no prosecutor, no jail," she said.
But the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe pushed back, saying it fills the positions of two tribal rangers and a harbormaster and provides housing, health care services and other programs for its approximately 1,200 members who live on Martha's Vineyard and the mainland.
"What you have here is a thriving tribal government that is looking to do more but is already doing far more than what's required," said John Duffy, the tribe's lawyer.
U.S. District Court Judge Dennis Saylor took the arguments under advisement and will issue a ruling.
The tribe started work on its proposed gambling hall last month, raising the ire of town officials, who complained that the tribe had not secured the proper permits. The town then sought — and received — a federal court order demanding the tribe stop constructing the hall until a decision is reached in the lawsuit.
The hearing also comes just days before the tribe is to hold a Sunday referendum on the proposal.
The tribe wants to build a gambling hall offering electronic, "high stakes" bingo-style games at the site of an unfinished tribal community center. They are not proposing to offer traditional casino table games, such as blackjack, craps and roulette.
The arguments in court pivoted around whether the tribe's plan fell under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, passed by Congress in 1988, which the tribe says allows it to offer bingo-style games on tribal lands.
But Assistant State Attorney General Juliana deHaan Rice argued that even if the federal law applied, it still would not override a land settlement reached between the tribe, state, town and a local community association.
12, 2015, in the state's bid to block the tribe from opening a casino on the resort island. Lawyers argued that the tribe forfeited its gambling rights when ...
ATLANTIC CITY – A New Jersey casino destroyed playing cards involved in a lawsuit against a professional gambler it says cheated it out of $9.6 million, but only as part of its routine business practices and before it knew of the alleged scheme, according to a legal filing Friday.
The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa responded Friday to a countersuit filed last month by professional poker player Phil Ivey and co-defendant Cheng Yin Sun, whom the casino alleges took advantage of a defect in cards made by Gemaco Inc. that enabled them to sort and arrange good cards in baccarat.
Ivey said in his countersuit that the Borgata knew the card manufacturing process didn’t produce perfectly symmetrical card backs and that the casino purposefully destroyed evidence, “eviscerating the defendants’ ability to prove the lack of any defective cards.”
The Borgata said it destroyed some of the cards in the regular course of business and before it became aware of the alleged scheme. The Borgata “admits that there were circumstances where Gemaco, Inc. playing cards were delivered in a mis-cut fashion.”
The casino claimed the technique, called edge sorting, that was used by Ivey and Sun violates New Jersey casino gambling regulations. The lawsuit claimed the cards were defective in that the pattern on the back of them was not uniform. The cards have rows of small white circles designed to look like the tops of cut diamonds, but the Borgata claims some of them were only a half diamond or a quarter of one.
The Borgata lawsuit claimed that Ivey and his companion instructed a dealer to flip cards in particular ways, depending on whether it was a desirable card in baccarat. The numbers six, seven, eight and nine are considered good cards. Bad cards would be flipped in different directions, so that after several hands of cards, the good ones were arranged in a certain manner — with the irregular side of the card facing in a specific direction — that Ivey could spot when they came out of the dealer chute.
The casino also said in its response that Ivey and Sun can’t sue because any injury they suffered was a result of their own conduct.
Ivey lost a similar lawsuit last year in Britain’s High Court by the Malaysia-based Genting Group, a major casino operator. The court agreed that the casino didn’t have to pay Ivey $12.4 million he had won through edge sorting. He denied any misconduct and said in a statement after the ruling that he believes his strategy to exploit the casino’s “failures to take proper steps to protect themselsves against a player of my ability” was a “legitimate strategy.”
Ivey has won nine World Series of Poker bracelets and is considered one of the world’s best players.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - A New Jersey casino destroyed playing cards involved in a lawsuit against a professional gambler it says cheated it out of ...
Prosecutors told to disclose more evidence in Wynn case
Information affects criminal case against former owners of Everett property
UPDATED 8:54 PM EDT Aug 14, 2015
BOSTON —A federal magistrate has ordered prosecutors to disclose any information about what Wynn Resorts might have known regarding alleged criminals associated with the Everett land it's developing into a $1.7 billion casino.
Magistrate Marianne Bowler ruled Friday in Boston that the information affects a criminal wire fraud case against three former owners of the property.
But she said federal prosecutors don't have to provide further information about allegations Wynn representatives had unauthorized access to a state and federal criminal probe into the land deal. That allegation has figured prominently in the case and in Boston's civil lawsuit challenging Wynn's gambling license.
Charles Lightbody, Dustin DeNunzio and Anthony Gattineri are accused of trying to conceal that Lightbody, a convicted felon, was illegally profiting from the land deal.
It read: “The biggest regret I have is starting to play fruit machines as a teenager which led to a gambling addiction which I was unable to control.”
Alan’s heartbreaking case highlights the devastating impact gambling is having on Britain.
A Sunday People probe has discovered a boom in bookies in some areas, with nine on a single street.
PA
Gambling machine
We also found police callouts to tackle threats and violence to staff, as well as damage to betting machines, have rocketed.
The problem is so bad that some have had to employ bouncers on their door.
But the truly corrosive consequences of gambling come as no surprise to Anne, a retired teacher.
She spoke bravely about her tragic son, telling how Alan’s habit had cost him his relationship with the mother of his two daughters and his car salesman’s job.
Anne said: “It is such a sad story and I want to share it so other people like Alan realise they can get help.
“He was a lovely man with so much to live for, with lots of friends but gambling took hold and came before everything.
“Alan came to me and his dad time and time again to borrow money. We’d help him, which I now know was wrong.”
nbpress
Get help: Anne Evans hopes son Alan's death won't be in vain
She said Alan, the youngest of three, first played a fruit machine at 12 and when he inherited £300 from his gran six years later gambled it all away.
She said: “He said he’d spent it. Looking back, I can see he had a problem. He started work but no amount of money he earned was ever enough. He was always wanting money to pay bills and it snowballed out of control.
"I know if he had a win, he’d put it straight back in a machine or on a horse.
“Then Alan would come to us begging for help. He’d promise not to gamble and to pay off his debts with the money we gave him. He’d play on machines and bet on football, horses and snooker.”
Alan’s debts soared and he had to sell his home. A cafe he opened went bust as he lost the takings gambing. In June 2010 he was found hanged when his landlord went to collect the rent.
Now Anne wants young people to be aware of how dangerous even a seemingly harmless fruit machine can be. She said: “We hear so much about people being addicted to drink and drugs. But with gambling, it’s like it’s just a bit of fun.”
Expose: How the People reported on the problem in November
She said adverts for free bets make gambling look attractive.
“As a mother who has lost her son and seen his children’s lives torn apart, I want to tell people how it really is when it takes hold. It’s not fun. Gambling’s not something anyone can deal with on their own.
“It is time the Government realised the devastating effect it has. It’s mentally crippling for the addict which can cause depression and mental health issues. It can lead to theft, fraud and violence which impacts on the police.
“I want to see it treated in the same way substance addictions are, where people have access to help. Alan was a lovely young man and the church was packed at his funeral. His death has left a huge void in our lives.”
Shocked by the lack of health support in her home town of Doncaster, South Yorks, Anne launched a gambling awareness week and enlisted the help of local MP Rosie Winterton who raised Alan’s case in Parliament.
Research shows Doncaster has one of the highest concentrations of bookies. Others in the top ten are London’s Chinatown; Newcastle; Rotherham, South Yorks; Bradford, West Yorks; Newmarket, Suffolk; Wembley, North West London; Ilford, Essex; Liverpool and Peterborough, Cambs.
Figures reveal the total number of bookies have fallen from the 70s peak of 144,000 to 9,000.
Yet the numbers taking over closed high street shops, in the wake of Labour’s relaxing of gambling laws, rose 43 per cent between 2014 and 2012.
MSP
Road to ruin: Green Street in East London has the largest amount of betting shops in one single street in the UK
London has seen an 80 per cent rise in the number of high street bookies.
Last week the Sunday People visited Green Street, near Premier League team West Ham United’s East London ground – where there are nine bookies, one every 200 yards.
There are three branches of Paddy Power, three Ladbrokes, two William Hill and a Jennings Bet.
One local cafe worker said: “There are far too many – and they seem to attract all sorts of undesirables.”
A mum shopping said: “You see young lads just pumping their wages into the machines in those shops, it just can’t be right.
“Do we really need to have so many? Something should be done to stop it.”
MSP
Bookie: Paddy Power at 111 Green Street, London E7
MSP
Bookie: Ladbrokes at 365 Green Street
MSP
Bookie: William Hill at 405 Green Street
MSP
Bookie: Jennings Bet at 448 Green Street
MSP
Gambling mesage: Even West Ham's stadium in Green Street features advertising for Betway
Meanwhile Gambling Commission figures, released under Freedom of Information rules, show police were called to betting shops 9,083 times from January to September 2014 – 1,647 more often than in that period of the previous year.
The situation is so bad in some areas that door staff are being drafted in.
Areas using security include a Coral branch in St Paul’s, Bristol.
One regular there said: “It can get a bit dicey.”
The Sunday People in November found more than a third of betting shops in the country are in the poorest areas.
The Campaign for Fairer Gambling opposes the expansion of fixed odds betting machines.
The campaign’s Adrian Parkinson said: “We’ve got a major problem on our high streets and one that is sucking billions from deprived communities across the country.
“Betting shops and their high-stake casino machines are swarming around the most vulnerable and economically disadvantaged.
"There’s no economic benefit to communities plagued by these machines only the misery of huge losses and the despair of problem gambling.
"It is a sad reflection of this Tory Government’s attitude toward those in more deprived communities that they refuse to act against these highly addictive machines.
“Instead they are leaving the bookmakers to continue preying on the most vulnerable.”
Alamy
Campign: The People has led the way
How we've campaigned to end gambling scandal
The Sunday People was the first newspaper to launch a national campaign against hated fixed odds betting terminals.
Our Stop The FOBTs purge launched in 2013 called for an upper limit of £2 per spin on the casino machines.
We have also insisted there is only one of them per shop – down from a maximum of four.
In April we won a major victory when planning laws were changed.
It meant that bookies needed to win a planning application to open new shops in premises that previously had not been used for betting.
The switch gives local councils the chance to consider and refuse bids.
Bookmakers have also dedicated shop window advertising space to warnings about problem gambling.
If you need someone to speak to, the Samaritans are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 08457 90 90 90 or by emailingjo@samaritans.org
If you want to talk to someone about a problem with gambling, you can find out more by visiting the Gamblers Anonymous website HERE
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