New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Demands Atlantic City Budget Slim Down for Municipal Workers

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is no longer crisscrossing the nation on the campaign that is presidential, and thus the Republican, now in his 2nd gubernatorial term, has more time to refocus his 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 take close control of the town. He made his situation built with colorful graphs showing the overspending that is reckless’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 their fellow legislators that it’s within the city’s best interest allowing their state to seize control of its finances.
‘Even because of the help as well as the advice of the Emergency Manager that we applied in 2015, Atlantic City took only modest steps to rein in their costs,’ Christie said at the statehouse this week. ‘They face a $100 million spending plan shortfall this $100 million budget deficit in 2010 . . year . These are the numbers, that is the math, and these are the reality, and there’s no debate concerning this.’
Park Destination & Boardwalk Salaries
In Christie’s arguments, the governor highlighted just what he believes to be gross overspending on municipal workers. Armed with charts and graphs, he showed that 119 city employees were paid over $100,000 throughout the last year that is fiscal a sum which doesn’t even are the ‘Lamborghini-level’ healthcare and benefits package that accompanies those salaries.
Christie also stressed the fact Atlantic City paid $6.6 million in 2015 to retiring public workers, primarily to compensate unused sick and vacation days. Part-time council people were collectively paid $300,000, a cost regarded as extravagant in the eyes of this governor.
Unless their state legislature takes action to provide control of the gambling that is flailing to Trenton, Christie says he lacks the power to renegotiate contracts with public sector unions to obtain the ‘exorbitant expenses of the city work force in order.’
Takeover is the Only Solution
Christie is contacting State Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D) to urge the chamber to pay control of Atlantic City towards the state. Prieto opposes that path, opting in favor of the PILOT (payment instead of taxes) program alternatively.
PILOT would allow casinos to pay taxes on a schedule that is fixed isn’t determined lightning link pokies grand jackpot on property value or gaming revenues, 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 outfit Moody’s appears to agree.
‘If only the PILOT bill passes [with no other measures instituted], the town will continue to face distress since the single bill is insufficient to restore Atlantic City’s fiscal health,’ the credit history corporation said recently. ‘ Although the PILOT bill produces additional revenues and avoids incurring casino that is additional liabilities, it is inadequate to avoid crippling deficits of $30 to $40 million a 12 months, over the next 5 years.’
Christie believes public workers require to step up to the plate into the interest that is best of these city, but it seems some are usually doing that.
After Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian (R) threatened a city closure of non-essential employees, various unions proposed having to pay employees every one month as opposed to two, a change that would enable the government to continue operating before the next quarterly taxation payments are received on May 1.
But that’s only 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 claimed that the free gaming platform offers ‘nothing more than camouflaged unlawful games of possibility.’
IGT’s DoubleDown social casino beat right back a class action lawsuit effort from a disgruntled Illinois on the web customer this week, whom claimed that its operations had been tantamount to ‘real’ gambling. (Image: onlinewin.minnim.org)
Plaintiff Margo Phillips blew $1,000 in real money on digital, value-less potato chips in the site before deciding she wanted to claw back every play cent. Phillips claimed that because DoubleDown utilizes ‘gambling mechanics’ in its games, its tantamount to actual gambling.
Well, except for real money being involved, but besides 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 was filed on behalf of all citizens associated with the state who had lost over $50 playing at DoubleDown, under the Illinois that is antiquated Loss Act (ILRA).
Claw-back Law Dragged Up
The 19th century law states that any Illinois gambler who loses $50 or more has the right to sue the champion to obtain the funds right back. It also states that should the losing gambler perhaps not sue the winner within sixth months, then ‘any person’ is permitted to sue on behalf of all losers, for approximately 3 x the total amount.
The legislation was originally made to protect destitute families who’d had their dollar that is last stolen loved ones, which was later gambled away.
Phillips says 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, along with ILRA, DoubleDown was in violation of the Illinois customer Fraud and Deceptive Business methods Act, and was guilty of unjustly enriching it self by using ‘gambling devices,’ another no-no under Illinois state law.
The filing would have had to establish that online social casino games is defined as ‘gambling devices,’ and that IGT had procured money from the plaintiff in an manner that is illegal.
Describe ‘Gambling’
But the judge, unlike Phillips, ended up beingn’t buying any of it.
JudgeEdmond Chang noted that ILRA calls for a winner and a loser from the upshot of a gambling proposition. Because virtual chips bought from DoubleDown can’t be cashed in for real money, the social casino site cannot lose such a thing from the proposition, and so Phillips had been on shaky ground.
In fact, generally, Phillips was asking the court to reconsider the very definition of gambling as it’s construed in basically every state in the US: specifically, the proposition that something of value is risked upon the results of a event or game that is susceptible to chance within the hope of receiving something else of equal or greater value.
While investing in virtual chips constitutes a stake that is financial without any financial reward involved, no form of gambling has occurred, by any legal definition, at the very least.
In fact, you can say that Phillip’s choice to sue DoubleDown is a much better exemplory instance of gambling than something that happens regarding the casino site that is social. And in this case, it was a losing bet.
Money Laundering and Suspicious Activity at Casinos Continues to increase, FinCEN Reports
Money laundering is serious company.
Unfortunately for anyone 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’ cash by trading it in for chips and then cashing it out again has develop into a preferred method of money laundering by crooks. Now FinCEN wants the industry to monitor itself for better potential crimes being committed by patrons, and the issues have become global. (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 task report (SAR) be completed in the event that patron is suspected of participating in the laundering of money.
With thousands of commercial banks into the United States, including smaller institutions that are regional FinCEN has been cracking straight down on cash laundering by threatening non-conforming banking institutions with financial penalties.
With no choice 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. Nonetheless, a unexpected decline in SARs followed in 2014, and along with it came an increase in suspicious activity reports being filed by the casino, securities, and insurance industries.
What does it all mean?
Underground and Out of Sight
This week titled, ‘Losing Count: US Terror Rules Drive Money Underground,’ the argument is made that current FinCEN rules might actually be hampering the government’s ability to monitor suspicious activity and intercept potential terrorism in a Wall Street Journal report.
Afraid of dealing with significant financial penalties for facilitating a suspicious client’s demand, banking institutions are quickly closing accounts after filing SARs. This forces the perpetrator that is alleged use alternative methods to move money, and the funds effortlessly vanish from regulatory oversight.
‘What do we do, within the police force arena, when the money goes underground?’ FBI crimes that are financial Patrick Fallon pondered within the piece. ‘It’s what you don’t know that’s the frightening thing.’
As banks will not provide services for suspected launderers, those people who are indeed attempting to facilitate money movement illegally might be drawn more and more to the casino cage.
And while bank SARs dropped by nearly nine percent between 2013-2014, the reports increased in the casino industry by 69 percent during the time frame that is same.
Casinos Feeling the Heat
FinCEN Director Jennifer Calvery said her office’s 340 workers are successfully safeguarding the usa financial 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, foreign 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 itself.’
And imposing penalties they are, as Calvery’s team levied economic fines on four gambling companies a year ago alone. Especially had been the US Dept. of the Treasury’s $8 million penalty on Caesars Palace Las Vegas for what FinCEN found to become a violation that is willful of BSA and failure to stick to SAR protocols.
The recent alleged involvement of two Philippines banks in an $83 million cyber heist through the New York Federal Reserve has shined an even brighter light with this unpleasant issue, and you also can bet that regulatory hands globally will likely be moving in the casino industry for a better look.
The list of sites, which investigators have stated were considering servers outside Italy and now have been impounded, are the following: 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 in accordance with CalvinAyre.com, two of the web sites may have been targeted in error. Austria’s SKS365 Group, which operates Planet365, has categorically distanced itself from any involvement, saying that the criminal group had exploited Planet365’s brand reputation to lure bettors to copycat web sites.
OIA solutions Ltd, meanwhile, which has Betaland, says that Betaland.com has been closed to Italian players for over a year, and the web sites associated with the gambling ring that used the Betaland expansion did so without authorization and had been ‘rightly currently darkened to access, as unlicensed.’
Tancredi Links
Italian authorities said that the ring additionally had links to Luigi Tancredi, a guy known 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 dog owner of DollaroPoker, and was arrested in January and accused to be the mastermind of a gambling ring that operated 12,000 gaming that is online lottery video terminals in bars, cafes and gaming halls throughout Italy.
