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Saturday, October 1, 2016

New York State: Group Cries Foul on NY's Fantasy Sports Law





The lawsuit coordinated by Stop Predatory Gambling, an anti-gambling group, argued that New York State Constitution §9.1 prohibits gambling and ...


Group Cries Foul on NY's Fantasy Sports Law
By JOSH RUSSELL 


ALBANY, N.Y. (CN) - A new lawsuit filed in Albany Supreme Court challenged the constitutionality of the New York legislature's legalization of "Interactive Fantasy Sports" gambling.
     The lawsuit coordinated by Stop Predatory Gambling, an anti-gambling group, argued that New York State Constitution §9.1 prohibits gambling and pool-selling, except for specifically granted exemptions, including wagering on horse races, charitable contests, a limited number of commercial casinos and the state-operated lottery.
     The lawsuit seeks a judgment declaring Chapter 237 of 2016 New York State law unconstitutional and injunction prohibiting the implementation of the legalization of "Interactive Fantasy Sports" gambling.
     FanDuel and DraftKings, major daily fantasy sports websites, suspended their operations on March 21, 2016, amidst lawsuits filed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in New York Supreme Court calling the online contests gambling and also alleging consumer fraud and deceptive advertising.
     Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is named as a defendant in the latest lawsuit, signed legislation on August 3, 2016, legalizing daily fantasy sports in New York.
     At the time of the signing Cuomo said, "This new legislation strikes the right balance that allows this activity to continue with oversight from state regulators, new consumer protections, and more funding for education." 
     The lawsuit points out that the August legislation legalized online sports gambling just in time for the Sept. 16 kickoff of the National Football League's 2016 season.
     New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman blasted DraftKings and daily fantasy sports gambling in a November 2015 cease-and-desist letter, in which he said "Like most gambling operations, DraftKings' own numbers reveal a far different reality."
     Schneiderman elaborated in his cease-and-desist order, "In practice, DFS [daily fantasy sports] is far closer to poker in this respect: a small number of professional gamblers profit at the expense of casual players. To date, our investigation has shown that the top one percent of DraftKings' winners receive the vast majority of the winnings."
     A spokesperson for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman commented that daily fantasy sports "are creating the same public health and economic concerns as other forms of gambling, including addiction. Finally, DraftKings' advertisements seriously mislead New York citizens about their prospects of winning"
     The lawsuit noted that fantasy sports are included in Gamblers Anonymous' list of activities it defines as gambling.
     New York supporters of Stop Predatory Gambling helped bring the lawsuit.
     "We believe in improving the lives of the people of New York," said Les Bernal, Stop Predatory Gambling's National Director. "Daily fantasy sports gambling is a huge rip-off for all citizens, regardless whether you gamble or not."
     The New York State Gaming Commission offered no comment, referring inquiries to the New York State Attorney General's Office, which is handling the litigation.
     The plaintiffs are represented by Cornelius Murray at O'Connell & Aronowitz in Albany, New York.
     The complaints were not made available to the public by the court as of press time. Courthouse News obtained the complaints on the Stop Predatory Gambling site as part of this blog post: http://stoppredatorygambling.org/blog/spg-helps-to-file-constitutional-challenge-of-nys-internet-gambling-law/. 


http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/10/06/group-cries-foul-on-nys-fantasy-sports-law.htm


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UPDATED: Court strikes down casino payments to host communities in Pennsylvania




Geoff Freeman, CEO of the American Gaming Association, said as the ... made by casinos since the state passed the casino gambling law in 2004.


After rejecting city budgets in 2014 and 2015 and withholding about $20 million in gambling tax revenues, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that ...


The Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem provides its host city with almost $10 million annually in slot-machine revenues. (Express-Times file photo).


HARRISBURG, Pa. (CN) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that a municipal tax on slot machines outside Philadelphia violates the state ...


With revenues at every casino always falling below $500 million a year, the $10 million has always been higher than the percentage take would be.

Casinos, with their flashy slot machines, lavish buffets and smoky table games, came with heavy strings attached that now serve as fiscal lifelines in ...


Former Harrison Mayor Jeff Crockett said he saw enough economic potential in the proposedcasino amendment that he hosted petitions for people in ...


Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, for example, pays $16 million in fees to local communities. The $8.8 million Bethlehem gets is equivalent to 100 ...



The state's highest court on Wednesday ruled a formula in the state gaming act that determines how much gaming revenue casinos are required to ...




The state Supreme Court has struck down casino host fees that cities have come ... By striking down the tax paid by casinos, the court strips more than $16 ... state gaming law imposes a 2 percent fee on gross slot machine revenues, ...

High court strikes down casino payments to host communities
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's highest court is striking down the tax that casinos pay their host communities, potentially devastating local ...

Local Governments Could Lose Funding From Casinos - Erie News Now
Millions of dollars are given to local governments each year, from fees paid by Presque Isle Downs, and other casinos in the state. But now, those ...


Hollywood Casino at Penn National Racetrack in Dauphin County. A court ruling will force the state legislature to reconsider payments to casinos' host ...


That difference cost nine Pennsylvania casinos a total of $48.5 million in the year ended June 30, according the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's ...


Luzerne annually receives approximately $12 million on average in Local Share Account program money from gambling revenues from the Mohegan ...


HARRISBURG, Pa. —Pennsylvania's highest court on Wednesday struck down a requirement that has forced casinos to pay tens of millions of dollars ...


PLAINS TOWNSHIP — Communities where Pennsylvania's casinos are located could lose tens of millions of dollars, thanks to a state Supreme Court ...



People sit at the bar at Mohegan Sun Pocono casino on Christmas day. ... because it is not uniform and affects Pennsylvania's 12 casinos differently.


HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's highest court on Wednesday struck down a requirement that has forced casinos to pay tens of millions of dollars to ...



Farmland preservation could suffer if state lawmakers fail to restore $16 million in casino host fees paid out by Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.

Court strikes down casino payments to host communities in Pennsylvania

Published  12:16 PM EDT Sep 29, 2016

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the roughly 4 percent "local share assessment" is unconstitutional because it is not uniform and affects Pennsylvania's 12 casinos differently.
The justices said they would delay the effect of their decision striking down the tax for four months to give lawmakers an opportunity to fix it.
"We are mindful that our decision may significantly affect many counties and municipalities that have ordered their affairs in reliance upon" the casino tax revenue, Justice David Wecht wrote in the 18-page opinion.
Under the state's original 2004 casino law, casinos must pay at least 4 percent of gross slot-machine gambling revenues to their host communities. That includes 2 percent to counties and 2 percent or $10 million, whichever is greater, to municipalities.
  
SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia is exempt, as are two smaller "resort" casinos: Valley Forge Casino in suburban Philadelphia and Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin in southwestern Pennsylvania.
  
But Mount Airy Casino in northeastern Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains had asked the court to strike down the $10 million host fee, arguing that it violates the state constitution by imposing a heavier tax burden on lower performing casinos.
  
Some $141 million in slots revenue was paid in the last fiscal year to counties and municipalities, according to Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board data. That included about $48 million paid by casinos to satisfy the $10 million host fee requirement.
  
Gov. Tom Wolf's office declined comment on the ruling Wednesday. Senate officials said the decision could have far-reaching effects.
  
"We will take action and we'll do it in such a way to maintain the casino obligation to our local communities," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Browne, R-Lehigh, told the Morning Call of Allentown. "This would absolutely devastate these towns."
  
Douglas Hill, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, said the money is significant for counties.
  
"Very clearly, the gaming revenue has gone to legitimate and worthwhile local purposes, all aimed at improving the community, and equally for the host municipalities," Hill said.
  
The amount of the host fee is equivalent to the cost of 100 police officers, Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez told the Morning Call.
  
"So this is something that we're very concerned about," Donchez said.
  
The court also awarded relief to Mount Airy Casino, although the amount was not immediately clear.



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Trump’s Decades Of Insults Against Native Americans Send Tribal Leaders Toward Clinton



Trump’s Decades Of Insults Against Native Americans Send Tribal Leaders Toward Clinton

For years Donald Trump has questioned the rights of Native American tribes. Now tribal leaders are bracing for the election.
posted on Sept. 29, 2016
Nidhi Subbaraman

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
President Barack Obama and members of his cabinet welcomed Native American leaders of the 567 federally recognized tribes at the White House Tribal Nations Conference in Washington, DC, this week.
It was the eighth such annual meeting, but especially meaningful in the wake of high-profile protests in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where more than 300 tribes, led by the Standing Rock Sioux, are fighting to block construction of an oil pipeline that they say threatens the water supply of reservations there.
After feeling largely ignored by previous presidents, tribal leaders have seen the Obama administration enact legislation over a raft of issues important to their communities, including law and order on reservations, violence against women, land ownership, and health care. And earlier this month, as tensions in North Dakota reached a peak, a federal order temporarily halted construction of the pipelinebefore a Washington, DC, district court put a longer-lasting moratorium on the project.
But now tribal leaders are bracing for an incoming president who would make tribal relations less of a priority.
“We’re extremely worried because if Donald Trump gets elected history already shows us that we probably won’t be able to move forward,” Michael “Mic” Isham, chairman of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, in Wisconsin, told BuzzFeed News. “His comments about tribes and his history with the tribes don’t bode well for us.”
The most recent of Trump’s comments that have antagonized Native Americans was directed at Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren earlier this year: He called her “Pocahontas,” referencing her claims of Cherokee ancestry, which she has struggled to document.
Trump has also questioned tribal sovereignty since the early 1990s, after the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 laid down rules by which tribes could open casinos on reservations. Wary of the competition, Trump went on a media offensive, making disparaging remarks about tribal identity, questioning their right to run the casinos, and insinuating that reservations were overrun with criminals.
One comment that particularly rankles Isham dates to 1993, when Trump told a House Natural Resources subcommittee on Indian affairs that the people running tribal casinos “don’t look like Indians to me.” Eight years later, he defended that comment, adding that Indian casinos were “a scam” and that “Indian reservations really have hurt other places, like Las Vegas and like Atlantic City, which pay a lot of tax.”
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
Trump has not spoken publicly about the Standing Rock protests, but an adviser to Trump on energy, Harold Hamm, stands to profit from the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Hillary Clinton’s relationship with tribes has been less fraught, and she has the backing of some prominent leaders, like the vice president of the Navajo Nation, Jonathan Nez. Her campaign has made some vague promises to tribes, including “meaningful consultation with Tribal officials” and an intention to continue the White House Tribal Nations Conference as a formal forum. But she has made no public comment about the protests over the oil pipeline in Standing Rock.
“I think the tribes are looking more favorably towards Hillary,” Leech Lake Chairman Faron Jackson, from Minnesota, told BuzzFeed News.
President Obama hosted the first Tribal Nations Conference in 2009, following a promise he made in 2008 while visiting the Crow Tribe in Montana. The administration launched a number of programs and laws that have addressed long-standing issues on reservations.
For example, the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act gave Native American women who were victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse from non-tribal members legal recourse for the first time. And Obama’s Justice Department has settled — to the tune of $3.3 billion — a “majority” of the 100-plus lawsuits from tribes suing the government over mismanaging resources and land held in trust by the Departments of Treasury and Interior.
“As we close out President Obama’s administration it reminds us that there is no guarantee that going forward we will have the same commitment from the next administration,” Brian Cladoosby, president of the National Congress of American Indians, said during a panel discussion.
Nidhi Subbaraman for BuzzFeed News
The conversations skirted some controversial issues, however, such as the Navajo Nation’s lawsuit against the EPA over the Colorado River spill, and the persistent troubles facing federally run hospitals in South Dakota and Nebraska.
Obama said the tribes gathering in North Dakota had succeeded in capturing the world’s attention. “I know that many of you have come together across tribes and across the country to support the community at Standing Rock,” he said. “And together, you’re making your voices heard.”
Secretary Sally Jewell, who leads many tribal programs within the Department of the Interior, told the meeting attendees that they should continue to speak up: “If a president comes in and wants to undo the executive orders of the past president, it’s up to all of you to raise a stink.”


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