Slot Decline Slows At Mohegan Sun
Topics
Tourism and Leisure Pennsylvania Games See more topics »
XCasino and Gambling Industry Casino and Gambling
By ZEKE MILLER
The Hartford Courant
August 6, 2009
E-mailPrintShareVote
Slot machine revenue declined at Mohegan Sun in the past quarter over the same period last year, but at a slower pace than in the recent quarters, and table-game revenue increased — positive signs for an industry hoping to emerge from its downturn.
Total gaming revenue, including slots and tables, fell by 3.1 percent to $273 million in the April-June quarter. In the January-March quarter of this year, gaming revenue dropped a steep 27.5 percent from the previous year.
Slot machine revenue fell by nearly 8 percent in the April-June quarter, but it was offset by a larger hold percentage in table games. Revenue on table games, such as blackjack and poker, rose 5.7 percent in the quarter.
"Much of our improved performance is attributable to a more normalized table games hold as compared to the third quarter of last year, as well as continued cost savings achieved through our cost containment program implemented this past winter," said Mitchell G. Etess, president and CEO of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority.
Overall, the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which also owns the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in Pennsylvania, showed net income of $23.5 million, more than four times the April-June quarter of last year, with growth at the Pennsylvania casino buoying the company's bottom line. Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
Thursday, August 6, 2009
MOHEGAN SUN NUMBERS FOR THE LAST QUARTER
Mohegan Sun reports jump in income
Gains linked to cost cutting, not increases in gambling.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By William Sokolic
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Aug 05, 2009 @ 11:25 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.Contradiction is what Mohegan Sun CEO Mitchell Etess termed the casino’s third quarter results.
Gaming revenues declined. Food and beverage and hotel revenues dropped. The number of events at the arena decreased, as did ticket sales.
Yet the casino’s income from operations increased by 58 percent, said Leo Chupaska, Mohegan Sun’s chief financial officer.
And table game hold grew.
“We are pleased with our results from corporate, despite experiencing declining revenues,” Etess said. “Much of our improved performance is attributable to a more normalized table games hold as compared to the third quarter of last year, as well as continued cost savings.”
But income from operations was affected by declines in slot and nongaming revenues.
Slot and nongaming revenues were affected by competition. The gross slot win per unit per day fell to $319, in part because some customers in markets in New York City and Boston chose to frequent closer locales in New York and Rhode Island.
“Revenues continue to be a challenge,” Etess said. “We had the lowest quarter slot revenues since 2002. We also had large declines in higher-end table play customers.”
A $3.7 million decline in food revenues resulted from a 22.1 percent reduction in the number of meals served at Mohegan Sun-owned food outlets. Revenues were negatively affected by the September 2008 opening of Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Restaurant, a third-party outlet.
The drop in hotel revenues is the result of falling demand for business travel as corporations trim their travel spending. The average daily room rate decreased to $92 for the quarter, compared to $114 in the third quarter of fiscal year 2008.
“The daily rate is impacted by lower rates at Foxwoods and Atlantic City. Fiscal 2009 and 2010 will be a challenge for group business,” said Jeffrey E. Hartmann, executive vice president of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority.
Hotel revenues also were affected by a decrease in Mohegan Sun’s entertainment offerings. During the quarter, there was a significant decrease in the number of scheduled shows at the Mohegan Sun Arena, including fewer headliner shows. That resulted in a 37.9 percent decrease in tickets sales.
Looking forward, Etess said he is excited about the recent re-opening of the Winter Entrance, along with new dining outlets, including Bobby’s Burger Palace and Pepe’s Pizza.
By the numbers Financial results for the third quarter ended June 30 (in thousands, unaudited):
Adjusted EBITDA* $72,902 $55,995 $16,907 30.2%
Income from operations $54,536 $34,547 $19,989 57.9%
Operating costs and expenses $252,712 $292,350 -$39,638 -13.6%
Net revenues $307,248 $326,897 -$19,649 -6%
Gaming revenues $273,474 $282,356 -$8,882 -3.1%
Nongaming revenues $61,112 $77,710 -$16,598 -21.4%
*Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: The numbers really say that Mohegan Sun had about $19 Million to bring over to the Mohegan Tribal Government, doesn't the Tribal Government need at least $20 Million brought over? On the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs it shows about $10 Million, however there is at least $10 Million needed to pay out in interest, so in my opinion, we didn't make any money there either. It looks good on paper, but in reality it is terrible. In my opinion, those are the facts. What do you think?
Check out the real story at www.feathernews.blogspot.com.
Gains linked to cost cutting, not increases in gambling.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By William Sokolic
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Aug 05, 2009 @ 11:25 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.Contradiction is what Mohegan Sun CEO Mitchell Etess termed the casino’s third quarter results.
Gaming revenues declined. Food and beverage and hotel revenues dropped. The number of events at the arena decreased, as did ticket sales.
Yet the casino’s income from operations increased by 58 percent, said Leo Chupaska, Mohegan Sun’s chief financial officer.
And table game hold grew.
“We are pleased with our results from corporate, despite experiencing declining revenues,” Etess said. “Much of our improved performance is attributable to a more normalized table games hold as compared to the third quarter of last year, as well as continued cost savings.”
But income from operations was affected by declines in slot and nongaming revenues.
Slot and nongaming revenues were affected by competition. The gross slot win per unit per day fell to $319, in part because some customers in markets in New York City and Boston chose to frequent closer locales in New York and Rhode Island.
“Revenues continue to be a challenge,” Etess said. “We had the lowest quarter slot revenues since 2002. We also had large declines in higher-end table play customers.”
A $3.7 million decline in food revenues resulted from a 22.1 percent reduction in the number of meals served at Mohegan Sun-owned food outlets. Revenues were negatively affected by the September 2008 opening of Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Restaurant, a third-party outlet.
The drop in hotel revenues is the result of falling demand for business travel as corporations trim their travel spending. The average daily room rate decreased to $92 for the quarter, compared to $114 in the third quarter of fiscal year 2008.
“The daily rate is impacted by lower rates at Foxwoods and Atlantic City. Fiscal 2009 and 2010 will be a challenge for group business,” said Jeffrey E. Hartmann, executive vice president of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority.
Hotel revenues also were affected by a decrease in Mohegan Sun’s entertainment offerings. During the quarter, there was a significant decrease in the number of scheduled shows at the Mohegan Sun Arena, including fewer headliner shows. That resulted in a 37.9 percent decrease in tickets sales.
Looking forward, Etess said he is excited about the recent re-opening of the Winter Entrance, along with new dining outlets, including Bobby’s Burger Palace and Pepe’s Pizza.
By the numbers Financial results for the third quarter ended June 30 (in thousands, unaudited):
Adjusted EBITDA* $72,902 $55,995 $16,907 30.2%
Income from operations $54,536 $34,547 $19,989 57.9%
Operating costs and expenses $252,712 $292,350 -$39,638 -13.6%
Net revenues $307,248 $326,897 -$19,649 -6%
Gaming revenues $273,474 $282,356 -$8,882 -3.1%
Nongaming revenues $61,112 $77,710 -$16,598 -21.4%
*Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: The numbers really say that Mohegan Sun had about $19 Million to bring over to the Mohegan Tribal Government, doesn't the Tribal Government need at least $20 Million brought over? On the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs it shows about $10 Million, however there is at least $10 Million needed to pay out in interest, so in my opinion, we didn't make any money there either. It looks good on paper, but in reality it is terrible. In my opinion, those are the facts. What do you think?
Check out the real story at www.feathernews.blogspot.com.
FOXWOOD DEALER TAKES PLEA DEAL
Former Foxwoods dealer reaches plea deal in cheating case
Published on 8/6/2009
A former Foxwoods Resort Casino dealer agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors Wednesday and will not face time in prison for his role in a craps cheating ring.
Chandler Alfred Jr., 31, of Baltic pleaded guilty to fourth-degree larceny Wednesday in New London Superior Court, court officials said.
He was sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence and one year of conditional release. He was ordered to obey all laws and have no contact with his codefendants and was barred from returning to either Connecticut casino.
Alfred was facing felony charges of conspiracy to commit cheating at gambling and cheating at gambling.
Alfred testified earlier this year during the trial of Richard Taylor, a Memphis, Tenn., man who masterminded the scam.
Taylor was sentenced last month to 10 years in prison for masterminding a craps cheating conspiracy that cost Foxwoods an estimated $70,000 and ruined the careers of a dozen employees.
Witnesses testified that Taylor recruited dealers who were willing to pay players for late or illegal bets, then met up with the casino employees outside the casino to pay them for their services. The scam involved a dozen employees, including dealers and managers.
It was the first major cheating trial in the state that plays host to two of the world's largest casinos.
"Regional"
Published on 8/6/2009
A former Foxwoods Resort Casino dealer agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors Wednesday and will not face time in prison for his role in a craps cheating ring.
Chandler Alfred Jr., 31, of Baltic pleaded guilty to fourth-degree larceny Wednesday in New London Superior Court, court officials said.
He was sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence and one year of conditional release. He was ordered to obey all laws and have no contact with his codefendants and was barred from returning to either Connecticut casino.
Alfred was facing felony charges of conspiracy to commit cheating at gambling and cheating at gambling.
Alfred testified earlier this year during the trial of Richard Taylor, a Memphis, Tenn., man who masterminded the scam.
Taylor was sentenced last month to 10 years in prison for masterminding a craps cheating conspiracy that cost Foxwoods an estimated $70,000 and ruined the careers of a dozen employees.
Witnesses testified that Taylor recruited dealers who were willing to pay players for late or illegal bets, then met up with the casino employees outside the casino to pay them for their services. The scam involved a dozen employees, including dealers and managers.
It was the first major cheating trial in the state that plays host to two of the world's largest casinos.
"Regional"
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
TWIN RIVERS TO STOP GREYHOUND RACING
Twin River suspends greyhounds, cuts 27 jobs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Associated Press
Posted Aug 04, 2009 @ 11:34 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINCOLN, R.I. — The Twin River gambling parlor has cut 27 jobs as it prepares for a scheduled suspension of greyhound racing for the season.
The layoff notices were handed out to track announcers, betting clerks and other workers related to racing.
Twin River spokeswoman Patti Doyle tells The Providence Journal that these are the only jobs being cut as a result of the racing suspension, which is scheduled for Saturday.
Twin River has sought bankruptcy protection and wants to permanently end racing because it says the sport’s a money loser.
Gov. Don Carcieri last month vetoed legislation that would require Twin River to operate 200 calendar days of live racing even though current law only requires 125. Lawmakers could override that veto when they reconvene.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Isn't this pretty much the situation, we (the Mohegan Tribe) find ourselves in, at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs? Are we really making money from the horse racing there? Is it a loser? should we try to stop the horse racing? Is it a bad deal? What do you think?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Associated Press
Posted Aug 04, 2009 @ 11:34 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINCOLN, R.I. — The Twin River gambling parlor has cut 27 jobs as it prepares for a scheduled suspension of greyhound racing for the season.
The layoff notices were handed out to track announcers, betting clerks and other workers related to racing.
Twin River spokeswoman Patti Doyle tells The Providence Journal that these are the only jobs being cut as a result of the racing suspension, which is scheduled for Saturday.
Twin River has sought bankruptcy protection and wants to permanently end racing because it says the sport’s a money loser.
Gov. Don Carcieri last month vetoed legislation that would require Twin River to operate 200 calendar days of live racing even though current law only requires 125. Lawmakers could override that veto when they reconvene.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Isn't this pretty much the situation, we (the Mohegan Tribe) find ourselves in, at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs? Are we really making money from the horse racing there? Is it a loser? should we try to stop the horse racing? Is it a bad deal? What do you think?
Monday, August 3, 2009
WAMPANOAG CULTURAL CENTER BURNT DOWN
Wampanoag Cultural Center Burnt Down
by nopakuwese (Subscribe)
Posted on: Jul 30, 2009 at 6:19 PM EDT
Channel: News
Location: Assonet, Massachusetts
Tags:Building Wampanoag Massachusetts Arson
The Wampanoag Cultural Center built by the Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation was burned to the ground June 26 in a fire believed to have been arson.
The Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation's Cultural Center, set on Ledge Road on the 227-acre Wampanoag Reservation in the forest, was completely destroyed in the fire, according to a statement by the Freetown Fire Department.
At 7:30 a.m., firefighters responded to a report of smoke in the area of the Cultural Center and found the 30-foot by 25-foot single story wooden structure in flames.
It took 12 firefighters using three engines about 1 1/2 hours to extinguish the flames. Fortunately, no one was injured.
Ken Alves, chief of the Assonet Band, said he suspected arson, citing many other acts of vandalism that have occurred at the Cultural Center and a nearby pump house. The buildings have been broken into, shot with paintballs and covered with graffiti muliple times.
"The part of the forest that we're located on, we've been besieged by vandalism for quite awhile," he said.
Signs now posted at the site by the state Arson Watch Rewards Program offers a reward of up to $5,000 for information on the fire. Please call the town of Assonet police with any information.
The Cultural Center, which was built in the 1990s, was used as a gathering place for meetings, celebrations and teaching, Alves said.
According to the Freetown Fire Department, local police and fire and the State Fire Marshal's Office are investigating the cause of the fire.
Please help the Assonet Band rebuild by sending us your Prayers, love, and assistance.
To donate to the Rebuilding Fund, please use the following address. Please also include your email and other contact information so that we can update you on our progress.
Kutaputunumuw!
Assonet Band
Wampanoag Nation
PO Box 943
Assonet, MA 02702
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Will the Mohegan Tribal Government, help the Wampanoags in thier time of need? Should we (the Mohegan Tribe) help the Wampanoags? What do you think?
by nopakuwese (Subscribe)
Posted on: Jul 30, 2009 at 6:19 PM EDT
Channel: News
Location: Assonet, Massachusetts
Tags:Building Wampanoag Massachusetts Arson
The Wampanoag Cultural Center built by the Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation was burned to the ground June 26 in a fire believed to have been arson.
The Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation's Cultural Center, set on Ledge Road on the 227-acre Wampanoag Reservation in the forest, was completely destroyed in the fire, according to a statement by the Freetown Fire Department.
At 7:30 a.m., firefighters responded to a report of smoke in the area of the Cultural Center and found the 30-foot by 25-foot single story wooden structure in flames.
It took 12 firefighters using three engines about 1 1/2 hours to extinguish the flames. Fortunately, no one was injured.
Ken Alves, chief of the Assonet Band, said he suspected arson, citing many other acts of vandalism that have occurred at the Cultural Center and a nearby pump house. The buildings have been broken into, shot with paintballs and covered with graffiti muliple times.
"The part of the forest that we're located on, we've been besieged by vandalism for quite awhile," he said.
Signs now posted at the site by the state Arson Watch Rewards Program offers a reward of up to $5,000 for information on the fire. Please call the town of Assonet police with any information.
The Cultural Center, which was built in the 1990s, was used as a gathering place for meetings, celebrations and teaching, Alves said.
According to the Freetown Fire Department, local police and fire and the State Fire Marshal's Office are investigating the cause of the fire.
Please help the Assonet Band rebuild by sending us your Prayers, love, and assistance.
To donate to the Rebuilding Fund, please use the following address. Please also include your email and other contact information so that we can update you on our progress.
Kutaputunumuw!
Assonet Band
Wampanoag Nation
PO Box 943
Assonet, MA 02702
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Will the Mohegan Tribal Government, help the Wampanoags in thier time of need? Should we (the Mohegan Tribe) help the Wampanoags? What do you think?
SUN BEAT SHOCK ON SUNDAY
Sun snap three-game losing skid
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By From staff and wire reports
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Aug 02, 2009 @ 11:00 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — The Connecticut Sun certainly didn’t look like the team that played the previous night.
Lindsay Whalen scored 22 points, Asjha Jones had 20 and Connecticut snapped a three-game losing streak with a 83-65 win over the Detroit Shock on Sunday.
Sandrine Gruda added 11 points for Connecticut (10-9), which moved into tie with Washington for second place in the Eastern Conference — five games behind Indiana.
The win came after the Sun, playing for the fourth time in six days, lost 84-72 at Chicago on Saturday night.
“That’s a really a big win,” Connecticut coach Mike Thibault said. “We had a 4:30 wake-up call this morning. It says something to come out the way we did.”
Deanna Nolan scored 20 points and Cheryl Ford had nine points and 10 rebounds for sixth-place Detroit (6-10).
“Connecticut came out and, basically, hit us in the mouth,” Shock coach Rick Mahorn said. “They didn’t look like they played a back-to-back. They came out and executed and we didn’t execute defensively.”
Thibault changed his lineup by inserting guards Tan White and Anete Jekabsone-Zogota into the starting five. He also said Whalen hadn’t been shooting well, but she bounced back with a 9-for-16 performance.
“We were just trying to be really aggressive,” Whalen said. “The last week or so we’ve been in a little rough patch of our season. We just wanted to come out aggressively tonight and get us into our sets quick.”
Thibault poined to two keys two keys to the Sun’s strong start.
“Defensively, in the first half, we were great and we didn’t turn it over,” he said.
The Sun led 50-33 at halftime, matching their biggest lead of the first half, and stretched the advantage to 24 on White’s 3-pointer with 6:51 left in the third quarter.
"we talked about the start of the third. We were up 17 and we got it to 21 right away," Thibault said. "We said, 'We can't be happy the way it is. Start the third quarter like it was 0-0.' Rebounding and defense was the key. I don't think we had any turnovers in the first half."
“There was no defense,” Nolan said. “They got any shot they wanted. We needed to get stops. ... It didn’t get done. ... We need to get back to playing Shock defense.”
"We had three straight losses and we really needed to win," said Sun forward Asjha Jones. "We know every team is good and no matter how many points you're up, there's always a chance for a comeback. So we really wanted to keep the pressure on them."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By From staff and wire reports
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Aug 02, 2009 @ 11:00 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — The Connecticut Sun certainly didn’t look like the team that played the previous night.
Lindsay Whalen scored 22 points, Asjha Jones had 20 and Connecticut snapped a three-game losing streak with a 83-65 win over the Detroit Shock on Sunday.
Sandrine Gruda added 11 points for Connecticut (10-9), which moved into tie with Washington for second place in the Eastern Conference — five games behind Indiana.
The win came after the Sun, playing for the fourth time in six days, lost 84-72 at Chicago on Saturday night.
“That’s a really a big win,” Connecticut coach Mike Thibault said. “We had a 4:30 wake-up call this morning. It says something to come out the way we did.”
Deanna Nolan scored 20 points and Cheryl Ford had nine points and 10 rebounds for sixth-place Detroit (6-10).
“Connecticut came out and, basically, hit us in the mouth,” Shock coach Rick Mahorn said. “They didn’t look like they played a back-to-back. They came out and executed and we didn’t execute defensively.”
Thibault changed his lineup by inserting guards Tan White and Anete Jekabsone-Zogota into the starting five. He also said Whalen hadn’t been shooting well, but she bounced back with a 9-for-16 performance.
“We were just trying to be really aggressive,” Whalen said. “The last week or so we’ve been in a little rough patch of our season. We just wanted to come out aggressively tonight and get us into our sets quick.”
Thibault poined to two keys two keys to the Sun’s strong start.
“Defensively, in the first half, we were great and we didn’t turn it over,” he said.
The Sun led 50-33 at halftime, matching their biggest lead of the first half, and stretched the advantage to 24 on White’s 3-pointer with 6:51 left in the third quarter.
"we talked about the start of the third. We were up 17 and we got it to 21 right away," Thibault said. "We said, 'We can't be happy the way it is. Start the third quarter like it was 0-0.' Rebounding and defense was the key. I don't think we had any turnovers in the first half."
“There was no defense,” Nolan said. “They got any shot they wanted. We needed to get stops. ... It didn’t get done. ... We need to get back to playing Shock defense.”
"We had three straight losses and we really needed to win," said Sun forward Asjha Jones. "We know every team is good and no matter how many points you're up, there's always a chance for a comeback. So we really wanted to keep the pressure on them."
WEAR PINK TO CONNECTICUT SUN GAME SUNDAY
Learn about breast health at Connecticut Sun game
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Aug 02, 2009 @ 11:38 PM
Last update Aug 02, 2009 @ 11:50 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Norwich, Conn. — The William W. Backus Hospital and the Connecticut Sun encourage fans to “Pack the Place Pink” Sunday, when the Sun take on the Washington Mystics.
All fans who attend the game will receive a pink ribbon to promote breast health awareness. Information about breast health programs at Backus Hospital and other breast health awareness issues will be available through in-game features and along the Mohegan Sun Arena concourse during the game.
The game starts at 3 p.m. For tickets, call Katie Berube at (860) 862-4068 or e-mail kberube@connecticutsun
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Aug 02, 2009 @ 11:38 PM
Last update Aug 02, 2009 @ 11:50 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Norwich, Conn. — The William W. Backus Hospital and the Connecticut Sun encourage fans to “Pack the Place Pink” Sunday, when the Sun take on the Washington Mystics.
All fans who attend the game will receive a pink ribbon to promote breast health awareness. Information about breast health programs at Backus Hospital and other breast health awareness issues will be available through in-game features and along the Mohegan Sun Arena concourse during the game.
The game starts at 3 p.m. For tickets, call Katie Berube at (860) 862-4068 or e-mail kberube@connecticutsun
Sunday, August 2, 2009
CONNECTICUT SUN BEAT BY THE CHICAGO SKY
Sun Buried By 26-0 Sky Run
Topics
Basketball
Asjha Jones
Connecticut Sun
Staff and Wire Reports
August 2, 2009
E-mail Print ShareVote
CHICAGO - — Candice Dupree scored 20 of her 23 points in the first half to lead the Chicago Sky past the Connecticut Sun 84-72 Saturday night.
Trailing by six early in the second quarter, Chicago used a franchise-record 26-0 run to take a 46-26 lead on Shyra Ely's driving layup with 59 seconds left in the first half.
"I've never seen a run like that against us in the seven years I've been coaching this team," Sun coach Mike Thibault said. "We called timeouts. We tried different things. It didn't matter."
The Sky stretched the lead to 72-48 after three quarters on the way to their second straight win.
The Sky scored 28 points off 16 Sun turnovers.
"We turned the ball over, and they scored baskets off that," said Sun forward Asjha Jones, who had 10 points.
Tan White led the Sun with 16 points, and Anete Jekabsone-Zogota had 12 points and six assists.
Jia Perkins scored 16, Dominique Canty and Erin Thorn had 11 each and Ely 10 for the Sky. Canty also had two steals to reach 300 in her career.
Dupree and Eli each scored 10 in the big run, in which the Sky shot 11-for-13. In the first two meetings this season, Dupree totaled five points as the teams split a home-and-home in June.
"That was a long time ago," Jones said. "They're a totally different team. In this league you can't go off what happened before."
Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: The Connecticut Sun season record is now 9 and 9. At one point the Sun were down by 28 points. You can't win games playing like that.
This team is not the team of last year or the last few years. The expansion teams like the Sky are having a really good year.
The Sun should watch it, if they don't turn things around, they could be the fourth place team in the east and could end up playing the Fever, who at the moment are in first place.
The couch must be going nuts. What changes do you think the Sun need to do? What do you think?
Topics
Basketball
Asjha Jones
Connecticut Sun
Staff and Wire Reports
August 2, 2009
E-mail Print ShareVote
CHICAGO - — Candice Dupree scored 20 of her 23 points in the first half to lead the Chicago Sky past the Connecticut Sun 84-72 Saturday night.
Trailing by six early in the second quarter, Chicago used a franchise-record 26-0 run to take a 46-26 lead on Shyra Ely's driving layup with 59 seconds left in the first half.
"I've never seen a run like that against us in the seven years I've been coaching this team," Sun coach Mike Thibault said. "We called timeouts. We tried different things. It didn't matter."
The Sky stretched the lead to 72-48 after three quarters on the way to their second straight win.
The Sky scored 28 points off 16 Sun turnovers.
"We turned the ball over, and they scored baskets off that," said Sun forward Asjha Jones, who had 10 points.
Tan White led the Sun with 16 points, and Anete Jekabsone-Zogota had 12 points and six assists.
Jia Perkins scored 16, Dominique Canty and Erin Thorn had 11 each and Ely 10 for the Sky. Canty also had two steals to reach 300 in her career.
Dupree and Eli each scored 10 in the big run, in which the Sky shot 11-for-13. In the first two meetings this season, Dupree totaled five points as the teams split a home-and-home in June.
"That was a long time ago," Jones said. "They're a totally different team. In this league you can't go off what happened before."
Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: The Connecticut Sun season record is now 9 and 9. At one point the Sun were down by 28 points. You can't win games playing like that.
This team is not the team of last year or the last few years. The expansion teams like the Sky are having a really good year.
The Sun should watch it, if they don't turn things around, they could be the fourth place team in the east and could end up playing the Fever, who at the moment are in first place.
The couch must be going nuts. What changes do you think the Sun need to do? What do you think?
FREEDOM OF INFROMATION WORKSHOP IN CANTERBURY
Canterbury hosting FOI workshop
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Aug 01, 2009 @ 11:21 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Canterbury, Conn. — The town will host an informational workshop on the Freedom of Information Act at 7 p.m. Monday in the community room.
Thomas Hennick of the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission will be the speaker.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Aug 01, 2009 @ 11:21 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Canterbury, Conn. — The town will host an informational workshop on the Freedom of Information Act at 7 p.m. Monday in the community room.
Thomas Hennick of the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission will be the speaker.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
TURNING STONE SELLS OUT TICKET FOR PGA TOURNAMENT
Daily tickets to see Tiger Woods at Turning Stone sold out
Posted by The Post-Standard July 31, 2009 8:49PM
Categories: Breaking News
The $330 daily tickets to see Tiger Woods play in a skins game at Turning Stone Resort's Atunyote course on Aug. 24 have sold out. Some overnight hotel packages are still available, the resort announced Friday.
The number of tickets for the Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge have been limited to 3,000. The exhibition skins game will include PGA Tour players Mike Weir, Camilo Villegas and Begay, Woods' former college teammate and longtime friend. Proceeds will benefit Begay's health and wellness programs for Native American youths.
For additional information on overnight packages call 361-7711 or 1-800-771-7711.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: The Oneidas' have a golf course, that the PGA can play on.
What about the Mohegans and our golf course? It isn't the quality to have such a tournament.
We (the Mohegan Tribe) paid how much for it?
Is it someplace, the Tribal Council and their friends go and hang out? Are they doing business for the MTGA or are they out having fun, at how many thousands of dollars in salary?
Are you one of their friends and played on the course? Do you know people who have? Was it a good deal for the members of the golf course? Is this fair to other tribal members? Does this happen? What do you think?
Posted by The Post-Standard July 31, 2009 8:49PM
Categories: Breaking News
The $330 daily tickets to see Tiger Woods play in a skins game at Turning Stone Resort's Atunyote course on Aug. 24 have sold out. Some overnight hotel packages are still available, the resort announced Friday.
The number of tickets for the Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge have been limited to 3,000. The exhibition skins game will include PGA Tour players Mike Weir, Camilo Villegas and Begay, Woods' former college teammate and longtime friend. Proceeds will benefit Begay's health and wellness programs for Native American youths.
For additional information on overnight packages call 361-7711 or 1-800-771-7711.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: The Oneidas' have a golf course, that the PGA can play on.
What about the Mohegans and our golf course? It isn't the quality to have such a tournament.
We (the Mohegan Tribe) paid how much for it?
Is it someplace, the Tribal Council and their friends go and hang out? Are they doing business for the MTGA or are they out having fun, at how many thousands of dollars in salary?
Are you one of their friends and played on the course? Do you know people who have? Was it a good deal for the members of the golf course? Is this fair to other tribal members? Does this happen? What do you think?
Friday, July 31, 2009
KATIE DOUGLAS HELPS THE FEVER BEAT THE SUN IN OVERTIME
Katie Douglas Has 32 Points As Fever Beat Sun In OT
Topics
Basketball
Jessica Moore
Asjha Jones
The Associated Press
10:38 PM EDT, July 30, 2009
E-mail Print ShareVote
INDIANAPOLIS - Katie Douglas scored four of her 32 points in overtime and Indiana limited Connecticut to one point in the extra period as the Fever beat the Sun 94-85 on Thursday night.
The Fever (14-4) improved on the WNBA's best record and dropped Connecticut (9-8) 41/2 games behind them.
Douglas, who scored a career-best 34 points Tuesday against Washington, made 10 of 21 field goals and 10 of 12 free throws. She became the first Fever player to post consecutive 30-point games.
Tamika Catchings scored 23 points, and Jessica Moore, playing for injured center Tammy-Sutton Brown (toe), scored 12 for the Fever, who extended their longest single-season, home-winning streak to 10 games. Ebony Hoffman added 10 points.
Asjha Jones led Connecticut with 21 points before fouling out on the first play of overtime. Sandrine Gruda added 19 and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Anete Jekabsone-Zog scored 10 points.
The Fever outscored the Sun 10-1 in overtime.
Erin Phillips made the first of two free throws with 19.2 seconds to go in regulation, but missed the second, leaving the Sun with an 84-82 lead.
Catchings drove the baseline, scored, and was fouled by Jones with 11.6 seconds remaining. She missed the free throw, but Connecticut's Lindsay Whalen missed a baseline jumper at the other end as time expired.
Douglas scored 18 points in the first half.
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: The last time the Sun and Fever played, the Sun beat the Fever 67 to 61. At the time, I stated that Katie Douglas, didn't play her game. I said things could have turned out different. Last night the Fever, lead by Douglas proved what I had said. Go Sun, go. What do you think?
Topics
Basketball
Jessica Moore
Asjha Jones
The Associated Press
10:38 PM EDT, July 30, 2009
E-mail Print ShareVote
INDIANAPOLIS - Katie Douglas scored four of her 32 points in overtime and Indiana limited Connecticut to one point in the extra period as the Fever beat the Sun 94-85 on Thursday night.
The Fever (14-4) improved on the WNBA's best record and dropped Connecticut (9-8) 41/2 games behind them.
Douglas, who scored a career-best 34 points Tuesday against Washington, made 10 of 21 field goals and 10 of 12 free throws. She became the first Fever player to post consecutive 30-point games.
Tamika Catchings scored 23 points, and Jessica Moore, playing for injured center Tammy-Sutton Brown (toe), scored 12 for the Fever, who extended their longest single-season, home-winning streak to 10 games. Ebony Hoffman added 10 points.
Asjha Jones led Connecticut with 21 points before fouling out on the first play of overtime. Sandrine Gruda added 19 and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Anete Jekabsone-Zog scored 10 points.
The Fever outscored the Sun 10-1 in overtime.
Erin Phillips made the first of two free throws with 19.2 seconds to go in regulation, but missed the second, leaving the Sun with an 84-82 lead.
Catchings drove the baseline, scored, and was fouled by Jones with 11.6 seconds remaining. She missed the free throw, but Connecticut's Lindsay Whalen missed a baseline jumper at the other end as time expired.
Douglas scored 18 points in the first half.
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: The last time the Sun and Fever played, the Sun beat the Fever 67 to 61. At the time, I stated that Katie Douglas, didn't play her game. I said things could have turned out different. Last night the Fever, lead by Douglas proved what I had said. Go Sun, go. What do you think?
TAKE SAFE GUARDS FOR MOSQUITOES
Experts urge use of insect repellent, warn of risk of West Nile virus, EEE
By Judy Benson Published on 7/31/2009
Don't skimp on the insect repellent this summer.
So advised Theodore Andreadis, Connecticut's chief medical entomologist, after describing the explosion in the mosquito population this summer. Heavy rainfall this summer followed by the current spell of hot, humid weather made for perfect conditions for many more mosquitoes than normal to breed, hatch and reach adulthood, he said.
TAKING PRECAUTIONS
Empty all standing water on your property. Some of the places it can accumulate include discarded tires, buckets, rain barrels (put a screen over the top), abandoned boats, clogged gutters, bird baths, wading pools, empty flowerpots and wheelbarrows.
The Ledge Light Health District offers larvicide briquettes for free. They can be used to treat standing water on private property. Call 448-4882 to make arrangements to pick up the briquettes. They can also be purchased in many hardware stores.
To avoid mosquito bites, minimize time outdoors at dusk and dawn.
Use insect repellent containing 20 percent to 30 percent DEET.
Repair holes in door and window screens and make sure they fit tightly.
Use mosquito netting when sleeping outdoors.
Wear protective clothing such as long pants and long-sleeved shirts.
”We're trapping 8,000 mosquitoes a day,” said Andreadis, who heads the mosquito trapping and testing program at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. “Normally we trap a couple of thousand.”
The mosquitoes are collected in traps his staff sets during the summer at 90 sites
By Judy Benson Published on 7/31/2009
Don't skimp on the insect repellent this summer.
So advised Theodore Andreadis, Connecticut's chief medical entomologist, after describing the explosion in the mosquito population this summer. Heavy rainfall this summer followed by the current spell of hot, humid weather made for perfect conditions for many more mosquitoes than normal to breed, hatch and reach adulthood, he said.
TAKING PRECAUTIONS
Empty all standing water on your property. Some of the places it can accumulate include discarded tires, buckets, rain barrels (put a screen over the top), abandoned boats, clogged gutters, bird baths, wading pools, empty flowerpots and wheelbarrows.
The Ledge Light Health District offers larvicide briquettes for free. They can be used to treat standing water on private property. Call 448-4882 to make arrangements to pick up the briquettes. They can also be purchased in many hardware stores.
To avoid mosquito bites, minimize time outdoors at dusk and dawn.
Use insect repellent containing 20 percent to 30 percent DEET.
Repair holes in door and window screens and make sure they fit tightly.
Use mosquito netting when sleeping outdoors.
Wear protective clothing such as long pants and long-sleeved shirts.
”We're trapping 8,000 mosquitoes a day,” said Andreadis, who heads the mosquito trapping and testing program at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. “Normally we trap a couple of thousand.”
The mosquitoes are collected in traps his staff sets during the summer at 90 sites
Thursday, July 30, 2009
SCHAGHTICOKE APPEAL IN 2ND CIRUIT COURT
Schaghticoke appeal moved forward in 2nd Circuit
By Gale Courey Toensing
Story Published: Jul 29, 2009
NEW YORK – The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation has lined up its arguments for a restoration of its federal acknowledgment in a final brief filed in June in appellate court.
Tribal attorney Richard Emanuel filed the tribe’s brief in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals June 8. It is a consolidated response to objections to the restoration of the tribe’s federal status by the defendants and interveners – the Interior Department and its officials, and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, respectively.
“I’m looking forward to presenting our arguments to the 2nd Circuit,” Emanuel said, but declined to discuss the details of the case. The court will likely hear arguments in the fall.
The BIA recognized STN in a Final Determination Jan. 29, 2004, then reversed itself 20 months later in an unprecedented Reconsidered Final Determination, taking away both the Schaghticoke and Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation’s federal recognition.
The 2nd Circuit Court appeal challenges a decision by U.S. District Court Senior Judge Peter Dorsey last August that denied the tribe’s Administrative Procedures Appeal of the RFD. That appeal claimed the recognition reversal was due to unlawful political influence by powerful politicians, an anti-Indian casino group and its lobbyist, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, now known as BGR, who violated federal laws, agency regulations, congressional ethics rules and court orders in trampling the tribes’ due process rights.
Dorsey’s ruling granted the defendants’ summary judgment request to dismiss the case, and denied the tribe’s summary judgment request to restore its federal acknowledgment, or appoint a magistrate judge or special master to determine the tribe’s status, or remand the issue to the Interior for further consideration.
In the introduction to his brief, Emanuel reviews the actions that took place in the time between the BIA acknowledgment and reversal of STN’s federal status: politicians’ calls for investigations, congressional hearings where the tribe’s federal recognition was attacked, violations by Blumenthal of an ex parte prohibition against communicating with federal decision makers, ex parte communications with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals by members of Congress, a threat by Virginian Rep. Frank Wolf to tell the president that then Interior Secretary Gale Norton should be fired if she didn’t reverse the tribe’s recognition, and the introduction of legislation by former Connecticut Congresswoman Nancy Johnson to terminate the tribe, which castigated by name former Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Aurene Martin.
“As Judge Dorsey stated (or perhaps understated) in his ruling on cross motions for summary judgment, ‘what followed the Final Determination in the backrooms of Washington is the subject of much concern to STN.’ It should be of much concern to this court too,” Emanuel wrote in his brief.
Emanuel uses Dorsey’s own words frequently to support the tribe’s claim of undue political influence.
He quotes Dorsey at length, for example, to refute “the adversaries” claim that the political influence activities were unimportant and ineffective because they took place during the three-month period between the Final Determination and the filing of requests for reconsideration.
“There is no question that throughout 2004 and 2005 the Connecticut Congressional Delegation, Connecticut state and local officials, and other public and private stakeholders, including a community organization in the Town of Kent which hired the Washington lobbying firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers to advocate on its behalf, lobbied the secretary of the Interior, the BIA, the White House, and even this court about reversing the acknowledgment decision,” Dorsey wrote in his ruling.
The brief argues that the appeals court can and should consider the tribe’s claim of political influence not only under an “actual influence” standard, but also under a stricter “appearance of bias” or “appearance of impropriety” standard.
Dorsey was involved in an appearance of bias or impropriety issue during the tribe’s appeal in his court. The tribe discovered through a Freedom of Information request a letter he had written to Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell in August 2005, assuring her that he had extended a deadline to the tribe as a precautionary measure to avoid a possible future reversal of his decision – a decision he hadn’t made yet – by another court that might accept as valid the tribe’s claim of undue political influence.
“It reflects a caution intended to avoid a reversal by another court which might buy a due process argument,” Dorsey wrote.
The unnamed court is the 2nd Circuit Appeals Court where the tribe is now appealing Dorsey’s ruling. The tribe questions whether Dorsey’s letter meant he had prejudged the tribe’s due process claims unfavorably and was told he had not.
Emanuel also quotes Dorsey’s assertion that federal decision makers came under a tsunami of political pressure to reverse the STN’s federal recognition.
“There is no question that political actors exerted pressure on the department over the course of 2004 and 2005 in opposition to the Final Determination acknowledgment of STN, both publicly through congressional hearings and media publicity and privately through meetings and correspondence with the secretary and other agency officials,” Dorsey wrote.
But Dorsey denied STN’s appeal in part, he said, because federal decision makers said they were not influenced by the frenzy of political pressure that was brought to bear upon them.
That’s not good enough, Emanuel said in arguing that the district court misapplied the summary judgment standards.
“This court should not endorse the proposition that by the simple expedient of denying bias, a government official can wipe away all evidence of it. A political influence claim implicates mental processes like bias, motive and intent. Such issues are elusive, at best, and are difficult to prove. Bias and motive are generally proved by circumstantial evidence.”
Emanuel also refutes Blumenthal’s lengthy discussions on state recognition and marriage rates as a “stealth” harmless error argument – meaning that Blumenthal is saying even if error occurred in the process, it wasn’t “harmful” because the BIA reached the legally “correct” decision in its reversal.
In his argument against “harmless error,” Emanuel quotes the Supreme Court statement that, “Among those basic fair trial rights that can never be treated as harmless is a defendant’s right to an impartial adjudicator, be it judge or jury.”
Emanuel also cites fairness and justice as an imperative. The tribe respected the process and played by the rules as confirmed by Interior Inspector Earl Devaney in a 2004 report of an investigation he had conducted in response to requests from Connecticut Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joe Lieberman.
“Our investigation found no evidence to support the allegation that lobbyists or representatives for STN directly or indirectly influenced BIA officials to grant federal acknowledgment to STN,” Devaney wrote.
“Those rules now require that this court reverse the District Court’s judgment,” Emanuel wrote.
By Gale Courey Toensing
Story Published: Jul 29, 2009
NEW YORK – The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation has lined up its arguments for a restoration of its federal acknowledgment in a final brief filed in June in appellate court.
Tribal attorney Richard Emanuel filed the tribe’s brief in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals June 8. It is a consolidated response to objections to the restoration of the tribe’s federal status by the defendants and interveners – the Interior Department and its officials, and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, respectively.
“I’m looking forward to presenting our arguments to the 2nd Circuit,” Emanuel said, but declined to discuss the details of the case. The court will likely hear arguments in the fall.
The BIA recognized STN in a Final Determination Jan. 29, 2004, then reversed itself 20 months later in an unprecedented Reconsidered Final Determination, taking away both the Schaghticoke and Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation’s federal recognition.
The 2nd Circuit Court appeal challenges a decision by U.S. District Court Senior Judge Peter Dorsey last August that denied the tribe’s Administrative Procedures Appeal of the RFD. That appeal claimed the recognition reversal was due to unlawful political influence by powerful politicians, an anti-Indian casino group and its lobbyist, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, now known as BGR, who violated federal laws, agency regulations, congressional ethics rules and court orders in trampling the tribes’ due process rights.
Dorsey’s ruling granted the defendants’ summary judgment request to dismiss the case, and denied the tribe’s summary judgment request to restore its federal acknowledgment, or appoint a magistrate judge or special master to determine the tribe’s status, or remand the issue to the Interior for further consideration.
In the introduction to his brief, Emanuel reviews the actions that took place in the time between the BIA acknowledgment and reversal of STN’s federal status: politicians’ calls for investigations, congressional hearings where the tribe’s federal recognition was attacked, violations by Blumenthal of an ex parte prohibition against communicating with federal decision makers, ex parte communications with the Interior Board of Indian Appeals by members of Congress, a threat by Virginian Rep. Frank Wolf to tell the president that then Interior Secretary Gale Norton should be fired if she didn’t reverse the tribe’s recognition, and the introduction of legislation by former Connecticut Congresswoman Nancy Johnson to terminate the tribe, which castigated by name former Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Aurene Martin.
“As Judge Dorsey stated (or perhaps understated) in his ruling on cross motions for summary judgment, ‘what followed the Final Determination in the backrooms of Washington is the subject of much concern to STN.’ It should be of much concern to this court too,” Emanuel wrote in his brief.
Emanuel uses Dorsey’s own words frequently to support the tribe’s claim of undue political influence.
He quotes Dorsey at length, for example, to refute “the adversaries” claim that the political influence activities were unimportant and ineffective because they took place during the three-month period between the Final Determination and the filing of requests for reconsideration.
“There is no question that throughout 2004 and 2005 the Connecticut Congressional Delegation, Connecticut state and local officials, and other public and private stakeholders, including a community organization in the Town of Kent which hired the Washington lobbying firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers to advocate on its behalf, lobbied the secretary of the Interior, the BIA, the White House, and even this court about reversing the acknowledgment decision,” Dorsey wrote in his ruling.
The brief argues that the appeals court can and should consider the tribe’s claim of political influence not only under an “actual influence” standard, but also under a stricter “appearance of bias” or “appearance of impropriety” standard.
Dorsey was involved in an appearance of bias or impropriety issue during the tribe’s appeal in his court. The tribe discovered through a Freedom of Information request a letter he had written to Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell in August 2005, assuring her that he had extended a deadline to the tribe as a precautionary measure to avoid a possible future reversal of his decision – a decision he hadn’t made yet – by another court that might accept as valid the tribe’s claim of undue political influence.
“It reflects a caution intended to avoid a reversal by another court which might buy a due process argument,” Dorsey wrote.
The unnamed court is the 2nd Circuit Appeals Court where the tribe is now appealing Dorsey’s ruling. The tribe questions whether Dorsey’s letter meant he had prejudged the tribe’s due process claims unfavorably and was told he had not.
Emanuel also quotes Dorsey’s assertion that federal decision makers came under a tsunami of political pressure to reverse the STN’s federal recognition.
“There is no question that political actors exerted pressure on the department over the course of 2004 and 2005 in opposition to the Final Determination acknowledgment of STN, both publicly through congressional hearings and media publicity and privately through meetings and correspondence with the secretary and other agency officials,” Dorsey wrote.
But Dorsey denied STN’s appeal in part, he said, because federal decision makers said they were not influenced by the frenzy of political pressure that was brought to bear upon them.
That’s not good enough, Emanuel said in arguing that the district court misapplied the summary judgment standards.
“This court should not endorse the proposition that by the simple expedient of denying bias, a government official can wipe away all evidence of it. A political influence claim implicates mental processes like bias, motive and intent. Such issues are elusive, at best, and are difficult to prove. Bias and motive are generally proved by circumstantial evidence.”
Emanuel also refutes Blumenthal’s lengthy discussions on state recognition and marriage rates as a “stealth” harmless error argument – meaning that Blumenthal is saying even if error occurred in the process, it wasn’t “harmful” because the BIA reached the legally “correct” decision in its reversal.
In his argument against “harmless error,” Emanuel quotes the Supreme Court statement that, “Among those basic fair trial rights that can never be treated as harmless is a defendant’s right to an impartial adjudicator, be it judge or jury.”
Emanuel also cites fairness and justice as an imperative. The tribe respected the process and played by the rules as confirmed by Interior Inspector Earl Devaney in a 2004 report of an investigation he had conducted in response to requests from Connecticut Sens. Christopher Dodd and Joe Lieberman.
“Our investigation found no evidence to support the allegation that lobbyists or representatives for STN directly or indirectly influenced BIA officials to grant federal acknowledgment to STN,” Devaney wrote.
“Those rules now require that this court reverse the District Court’s judgment,” Emanuel wrote.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
TAYLOR GETS 10 YEARS IN CRAPS CHEATING
‘Mr. Casino’ sentenced to 10 years
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By ADAM BOWLES
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Jul 24, 2009 @ 11:31 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New London, Conn. — Just before he was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison with three years’ probation, Richard “Mr. Casino” Taylor argued he was so good at gambling that people wrongly assumed he was cheating at the region’s casinos.
“I won and I lost,” Taylor said, standing in his prison garb after spending about 45 minutes mostly leaning back in his chair, turned away from the judge, smiling, rolling his eyes or muttering to himself. “I am the best dice player in the world, period. And I didn’t cheat... If you bet with the odds the casinos give you, you’re going to win.”
A six-member jury in May found Taylor, 43, of Memphis, Tenn., guilty of being the ringleader of a craps scam with about a dozen dealers in the region, costing Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun $70,000 in 2007. The charges partly included first-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny and cheating.
Judge Stuart M. Schimelman at New London Superior Court said he wanted the sentencing to send a message of deterrence to anyone thinking of taking part in illegal gambling in Connecticut.
Schimelman said he received the most letters for any case he has presided over from Taylor’s supporters. He said he read every one of them and, in essence, they said Taylor was a good family man who suffered from a gambling addiction.
“Your neighbors and friends call it an addiction,” Schimelman said. “But I call it arrogance.”
Prosecutor Stephen M. Carney described Taylor as “incorrigible,” as shown by his difficulty to sit still in court. But, Carney said, Taylor wasn’t being sentenced simply for an addictive personality.
“It’s the behavior of cheating and stealing and breaking the law of Connecticut that has caused such substantial damage,” he said.
Carney said the dealers who were involved in the conspiracy could not be considered victims, but their lives were ruined after crossing paths with Taylor. They lost their jobs and suffered various consequences to their relationships with their families.
Foxwoods executives who attended the sentencing declined the judge’s invitation to comment.
Schimelman said Taylor continued to blame everyone else — the dealers and then the casinos for preying on the elderly and minorities — and tried to beat the legal system like he did the gambling system with manipulative words and behavior in court and self-written appeals.
At one point before the sentencing, when Schimelman said the jury had no question Taylor was guilty, Taylor, with attorney Ralph Bergman at his side, said, “Objection.” Schimelman quickly denied Taylor the opportunity to speak.
Taylor, a self-proclaimed professional gambler who said he gambled at casinos worldwide, claimed at trial that he was a high roller, making $3,000 to $5,000 wagers and tossing hundreds of dollars in tips to dealers.
He said those tips attracted the attention of the real masterminds behind the craps scam and that those dealers lied about Taylor being involved in the cheating.
Several Foxwoods dealers testified to allowing late bets at the craps table for Taylor or others who prosecutors said were Taylor’s associates. The fast-moving game of craps relies on dealers to take bets before the dice are thrown. Dealers said they used code words “hot chocolate” or “strawberry daiquiri” to identify cheating players. They later were paid a cut of their winnings.
Taylor plans to appeal the sentence, and Schimelman set a $350,000 appeals bond. Taylor was sentenced to 13 years in prison, suspended after 10 years, and a probation of three years that includes a requirement that he undergo problem gambling counseling and bans him from casinos and Internet gambling.
Criminal cases are pending against 11 former Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun employees who were arrested after a months-long investigation by the state police.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Anytime, you have gambling, someone will try and find a way to cheat, it is the casino's job to catch them. The Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods should prosecute their employees if they were involved. what do you think?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By ADAM BOWLES
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Jul 24, 2009 @ 11:31 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New London, Conn. — Just before he was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison with three years’ probation, Richard “Mr. Casino” Taylor argued he was so good at gambling that people wrongly assumed he was cheating at the region’s casinos.
“I won and I lost,” Taylor said, standing in his prison garb after spending about 45 minutes mostly leaning back in his chair, turned away from the judge, smiling, rolling his eyes or muttering to himself. “I am the best dice player in the world, period. And I didn’t cheat... If you bet with the odds the casinos give you, you’re going to win.”
A six-member jury in May found Taylor, 43, of Memphis, Tenn., guilty of being the ringleader of a craps scam with about a dozen dealers in the region, costing Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun $70,000 in 2007. The charges partly included first-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny and cheating.
Judge Stuart M. Schimelman at New London Superior Court said he wanted the sentencing to send a message of deterrence to anyone thinking of taking part in illegal gambling in Connecticut.
Schimelman said he received the most letters for any case he has presided over from Taylor’s supporters. He said he read every one of them and, in essence, they said Taylor was a good family man who suffered from a gambling addiction.
“Your neighbors and friends call it an addiction,” Schimelman said. “But I call it arrogance.”
Prosecutor Stephen M. Carney described Taylor as “incorrigible,” as shown by his difficulty to sit still in court. But, Carney said, Taylor wasn’t being sentenced simply for an addictive personality.
“It’s the behavior of cheating and stealing and breaking the law of Connecticut that has caused such substantial damage,” he said.
Carney said the dealers who were involved in the conspiracy could not be considered victims, but their lives were ruined after crossing paths with Taylor. They lost their jobs and suffered various consequences to their relationships with their families.
Foxwoods executives who attended the sentencing declined the judge’s invitation to comment.
Schimelman said Taylor continued to blame everyone else — the dealers and then the casinos for preying on the elderly and minorities — and tried to beat the legal system like he did the gambling system with manipulative words and behavior in court and self-written appeals.
At one point before the sentencing, when Schimelman said the jury had no question Taylor was guilty, Taylor, with attorney Ralph Bergman at his side, said, “Objection.” Schimelman quickly denied Taylor the opportunity to speak.
Taylor, a self-proclaimed professional gambler who said he gambled at casinos worldwide, claimed at trial that he was a high roller, making $3,000 to $5,000 wagers and tossing hundreds of dollars in tips to dealers.
He said those tips attracted the attention of the real masterminds behind the craps scam and that those dealers lied about Taylor being involved in the cheating.
Several Foxwoods dealers testified to allowing late bets at the craps table for Taylor or others who prosecutors said were Taylor’s associates. The fast-moving game of craps relies on dealers to take bets before the dice are thrown. Dealers said they used code words “hot chocolate” or “strawberry daiquiri” to identify cheating players. They later were paid a cut of their winnings.
Taylor plans to appeal the sentence, and Schimelman set a $350,000 appeals bond. Taylor was sentenced to 13 years in prison, suspended after 10 years, and a probation of three years that includes a requirement that he undergo problem gambling counseling and bans him from casinos and Internet gambling.
Criminal cases are pending against 11 former Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun employees who were arrested after a months-long investigation by the state police.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Anytime, you have gambling, someone will try and find a way to cheat, it is the casino's job to catch them. The Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods should prosecute their employees if they were involved. what do you think?
PROBLEMS CREATED BY CONNECTICUT CASINOS
Casino Impacts: Keeping Count
By David Collins Published on 7/29/2009
A new study of the impacts of gambling on Connecticut, commissioned by the General Assembly, doesn't produce a lot of surprises for the people of southeastern Connecticut, who already know that the towns near Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun bear more of the costs and see less of the state's share of revenue from the two casinos.
And yet there are many interesting, illuminating statistics in the 400-page report that show some of the ways the casinos have changed the culture here over the last 17 years.
From increased road repairs to new English-as-a-second-language school programs to teach the children of casino workers, towns across the region reported increasing casino-related expenses.
In Norwich, for instance, schools have four times as many Asian-American students than they did in 1993, due in large part to the migration of casino workers from New York's Chinatown. Asian-Americans now make up 7 percent of the school population.
One of five residents of Norwich now works at one of the casinos, according to the report by the Spectrum Gaming Group of Linwood, N.J.
Norwich Free Academy, the city's high school, estimates its annual casino-related costs at $600,000. Montville says it spends an additional $300,000 in language programs for its schools.
The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich reported losing as much as $1 million in treating uninsured people brought from the casinos.
Local prosecutors, asked to keep track of one month of casino-related cases in the Part B section of Superior Court, which is for less-serious crimes, counted 27 last August, but said there were probably more. The casinos pay much of the state's expenses for policing the casinos but not for the prosecution of crimes.
The gaming report identified four suicides linked to the casinos since 2000 and said there could have been more.
Southeastern Connecticut also shouldered more than its fair share of a remarkable increase in embezzlement cases in the state. Police made 43 embezzlement arrests in 1991, the year before Foxwoods opened, and they made 214 in 2007, the report says.
The state's increase is nearly 10 times that of the national average.
As I've suggested before, perhaps the black Submarine Capital of the World sign off Interstate 95 in Groton could be changed to one shaped like a slot machine, announcing this as the Embezzlement Capital of the World.
But the most troubling of all the statistics in the gambling report may be those related to the high number of drunk driving arrests made on roads leading to and from the casino. Towns here have seen sharp increases in drunken driving cases even while they've been declining elsewhere around the state.
Norwich, for example, had 129 drunken driving cases in 1992 and 252 in 2008. There were 37 in Montville in 1992 and 116 in 2007. And yet Mansfield, a town with a similar population to Montville's, had only 64 arrests in 2007.
The Montville State Police barracks, Troop E, has conducted far more drunken driving investigations than any other barracks in the state, a total of 2,713 between 2003 and 2007, compared to the next highest, Westbrook, with 1,629 investigations.
The report authors said they asked police to trace the arrests in Ledyard, Montville and North Stonington to see if they are casino-related.
They were told that nearly one of four in Ledyard, one of three in North Stonington and one of five in Montville were casino-related, based on where drivers reported having their last drink. About 20 percent of the drivers did not answer the question.
Mohegan Sun, which has the worst liquor-law violation record of the two casinos, tightened its drink-serving policies this spring after two fatal accidents were linked to drinking there.
It will be interesting to see, over time, whether both casinos are doing enough to curb what is clearly an intolerable amount of drunken driving on southeastern Connecticut roads.
Of course the report doesn't look exclusively at the negative impacts of the casino and devotes considerable discussion to the positive impact they've had, importing money from outside the Connecticut economy, creating jobs and purchasing goods and services.
Slot royalties to the state, after all, totaled $411 million in the 2008 fiscal year, even though southeastern Connecticut towns didn't get much of a share.
But it's important to not to lose sight of the costs that come with the casino money, especially when we're paying a lot of them around here.
This is the opinion of David Collins.
"Regional"
By David Collins Published on 7/29/2009
A new study of the impacts of gambling on Connecticut, commissioned by the General Assembly, doesn't produce a lot of surprises for the people of southeastern Connecticut, who already know that the towns near Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun bear more of the costs and see less of the state's share of revenue from the two casinos.
And yet there are many interesting, illuminating statistics in the 400-page report that show some of the ways the casinos have changed the culture here over the last 17 years.
From increased road repairs to new English-as-a-second-language school programs to teach the children of casino workers, towns across the region reported increasing casino-related expenses.
In Norwich, for instance, schools have four times as many Asian-American students than they did in 1993, due in large part to the migration of casino workers from New York's Chinatown. Asian-Americans now make up 7 percent of the school population.
One of five residents of Norwich now works at one of the casinos, according to the report by the Spectrum Gaming Group of Linwood, N.J.
Norwich Free Academy, the city's high school, estimates its annual casino-related costs at $600,000. Montville says it spends an additional $300,000 in language programs for its schools.
The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich reported losing as much as $1 million in treating uninsured people brought from the casinos.
Local prosecutors, asked to keep track of one month of casino-related cases in the Part B section of Superior Court, which is for less-serious crimes, counted 27 last August, but said there were probably more. The casinos pay much of the state's expenses for policing the casinos but not for the prosecution of crimes.
The gaming report identified four suicides linked to the casinos since 2000 and said there could have been more.
Southeastern Connecticut also shouldered more than its fair share of a remarkable increase in embezzlement cases in the state. Police made 43 embezzlement arrests in 1991, the year before Foxwoods opened, and they made 214 in 2007, the report says.
The state's increase is nearly 10 times that of the national average.
As I've suggested before, perhaps the black Submarine Capital of the World sign off Interstate 95 in Groton could be changed to one shaped like a slot machine, announcing this as the Embezzlement Capital of the World.
But the most troubling of all the statistics in the gambling report may be those related to the high number of drunk driving arrests made on roads leading to and from the casino. Towns here have seen sharp increases in drunken driving cases even while they've been declining elsewhere around the state.
Norwich, for example, had 129 drunken driving cases in 1992 and 252 in 2008. There were 37 in Montville in 1992 and 116 in 2007. And yet Mansfield, a town with a similar population to Montville's, had only 64 arrests in 2007.
The Montville State Police barracks, Troop E, has conducted far more drunken driving investigations than any other barracks in the state, a total of 2,713 between 2003 and 2007, compared to the next highest, Westbrook, with 1,629 investigations.
The report authors said they asked police to trace the arrests in Ledyard, Montville and North Stonington to see if they are casino-related.
They were told that nearly one of four in Ledyard, one of three in North Stonington and one of five in Montville were casino-related, based on where drivers reported having their last drink. About 20 percent of the drivers did not answer the question.
Mohegan Sun, which has the worst liquor-law violation record of the two casinos, tightened its drink-serving policies this spring after two fatal accidents were linked to drinking there.
It will be interesting to see, over time, whether both casinos are doing enough to curb what is clearly an intolerable amount of drunken driving on southeastern Connecticut roads.
Of course the report doesn't look exclusively at the negative impacts of the casino and devotes considerable discussion to the positive impact they've had, importing money from outside the Connecticut economy, creating jobs and purchasing goods and services.
Slot royalties to the state, after all, totaled $411 million in the 2008 fiscal year, even though southeastern Connecticut towns didn't get much of a share.
But it's important to not to lose sight of the costs that come with the casino money, especially when we're paying a lot of them around here.
This is the opinion of David Collins.
"Regional"
CHEATERS AT CASINOS AND HOW CASINOS FIGHT BACK
They gamble, they cheat, and casinos fight back
Scammers’ tricks range from high-tech to sleight-of-hand
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By William Sokolic
For The Norwich Bulletin
Posted Jul 22, 2009 @ 11:39 PM
Last update Jul 22, 2009 @ 11:46 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In May, a jury found Richard S. Taylor guilty of leading a craps cheating ring at Foxwoods in the first major trial in the state involving casino cheats.
Prosecutors said Taylor recruited dealers to pay players for bets placed after the outcome of a craps roll.
The scam is a variation of a method known as past posting, in which bets in a table game are made after the roll or hand is determined. The term originates with horse racing, where a bugler sounds a call to the post just before the race begins. This also is the signal that no more bets can be taken. Any bets made after that time occur past the post.
In casino circles, past posting also can mean increasing a bet after the outcome is determined. In blackjack, a player switches a winning bet of three $5 chips with two $500 chips topped by a $5 chip and then claims the dealer paid him the wrong amount.
Past posting, along with pinching, is the No. 1 scam across table games, said Ray Pineault, senior vice president of casino operations at Mohegan Sun. In pinching, the cheater attempts to remove part, or all, of a bet from the table after losing.
While both these scams sometimes involve dealer cooperation, most often they depend on old-fashioned sleight of hand or dealer distractions. Run-of-the-mill cheat teams will look for sloppy dealers or for dealers and pit personnel who seem preoccupied or uninterested.
They take advantage of the monotony of a dealer’s job, said Richard Marcus, a professional casino cheating expert who ran such teams for years.
“Most professional casino cheating teams will do a lot of scouting of the staff,” Marcus said. “But top teams, such as mine, do not concern themselves with doing this. In my team’s case, our moves were designed to beat all casino dealers, floor staff, even all the surveillance personnel.
“In fact, I preferred going up against the most skilled and sharp casino dealers,” Marcus said.
These days, past posting and pinching are a calculated risk, given the more than 3,000 surveillance cameras covering the casino floor at Mohegan Sun, Pineault said.
“Some cheaters go for years without getting caught, but most do get nabbed. If not for informants, half of what we discover would never be uncovered. They play a big part,” said George Joseph, a cheating expert who offers game protection training for casinos and gaming commissions.
His Las Vegas-based company, Worldwide Casino Consulting Inc., trains dealers and reviews casino policies.
Cheaters in the 21st century employ high-tech methods to fleece casinos. Hidden cameras, for example, pick up the hold card in table games, or players mark cards with infrared dyes when touched during play. The card is then transmitted to someone away from the game who reads the dye.
“You touch the back of all cards. Once you marked a sufficient number, you now have an edge,” Joseph said.
In a false shuffle scam that involved 18 casinos, dealers wouldn’t shuffle cards, but kept them in the same order or reverse order. The cards were recorded with a pencil and paper or a hidden camera. This worked for blackjack and baccarat, Joseph said.
There was a scare several months ago when Apple included a card counting application for iPhones, Pineault said. Like most gaming jurisdictions, Mohegan Sun does not permit the use of any electronic device at table games, even cell phones.
Card counting
While card counting is not illegal, casinos can take steps to minimize the effect, such as limiting wagers to the table minimum.
“We do not shuffle more frequently,” Pineault said. “But you can’t raise the bet and increase the probability of certain hands.”
If a $100 table has a maximum bet of $5,000 per player, the counter could not exceed a $100 bet.
There are multiple ways to pick out a card counter, Pineault said. Casino survey teams watch live high-end play or review recordings afterwards.
“The teams are versed in the strategy of increasing wagers and varying bets. Floor supervisors are also trained to look for card counting,” he said.
Craps
Outside of past posting, cheating most often involves tampering with the dice themselves.
Loaded dice are modified to make a specific number turn up more often than it should. These modifications include shaving, weighting, magnets and heating, among others.
In the “Ocean’s Thirteen” movie, magnets were placed in dice during the manufacturing process. Then George Clooney’s character used a device designed as a lighter to trigger the magnet and roll the dice in the direction to win big.
Another scam is to use blank dice and have shooters insert dots in such a way that a seven, could never come up, for instance. Those dice would contain only a one, four and five on the faces, for example.
“This type of dice juicing is very easy to detect,” Pineault said.
Of course, for these to work, the player would need to control the dice or the dealer at the table.
“It requires a sleight-of-hand switch,” Joseph said.
Still another cheating method involves the shooter sliding the dice along the table so they don’t tumble, and the numbers have a better chance of staying in the same position. To work, another team member has to distract the dealer or boxman, who runs the table and oversees the payouts.
Bally’s casinos has installed mini-speed bumps on the table layout down the center to thwart sliding. The dice would trip on the speed bump.
Slots
Cashless slots eliminated dozens of cheating methods involving coins. Cheaters can no longer use false tokens or coins on a string to confuse the machine or rely on a device inserted up the chute, which foiled the count of coins coming out, Joseph said.
In the days before ticketing replaced coins, an optic pen or red flashing LED light would function by defeating the payout meter that gives access to coins in the hopper. This battery-powered optic device featured a bent arm that would fit snugly into the slot machines innards to trip the payout meter and yield all the coins in the hopper. The device could easily be concealed in the cheater’s jacket or sleeve.
These days, cheaters attempt to use gadgets that try to trick the bill validator. Another scam involves putting a $100 bill covered with baby powder on the end of dental floss. When it racks up the credits, the player pulls the bill back out. Other gadgets include a metal probe to activate the computer to increase credits.
More than a decade ago, there were cheating scams that involved picking a lock on the slot or opening up the machine and switching the computer chip to trigger the jackpot. Today’s electronic layouts and shrunken chip boards make that all but impossible.
In the near future, server-based machines will put the computer control in a back-of-the-house room, rather than have 1,000 different mother boards.
“You cannot attack the machine at the site,” Joseph said.
Roulette
The Savannah move was a variation of a bet-and-run scam, where desperate players made simple proposition bets on roulette and grabbed the chips off the layout when they lost, before the dealer could sweep them away, Marcus said.
“By hiding $5,000 casino chips (or $1,000 chips in lower-limit casinos) under $5 casino chips on the 2 to 1 column bets, we won $10,010 each time these bets won while losing just $10 when they lost,” Marcus said. “We accomplished this by quickly switching out the losing bet containing the $5,000 chip and replacing it with $5 chips the instant the ball dropped.”
He said if he was caught, he feigned drunkenness, claiming he didn’t realize the ball had dropped.
“We got away with it because the dealer never saw the $5,000 chip to begin with, so he was satisfied the $5 chip set down to replace it was the one originally there,” Marcus said.
The wheel track design used to make the ball fall rather than roll off. Hidden computers were programmed to predict the ball’s fall-off point on the wheel, thus improving the chance of predicting where the ball would land. Pictures could reveal the speed of the ball and from what position it would fall. The industry changed the wheel to eliminate that, creating shallower pockets, so the ball bounces around more, making predictions more difficult.
The change in wheel design and the addition of speed bumps on craps tables show that for every new scam, a new foil evolves from casinos.
“It’s a cat-and-mouse game. Show us how you steal and we’ll develop a policy to beat you,” Joseph said.
Scammers’ tricks range from high-tech to sleight-of-hand
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By William Sokolic
For The Norwich Bulletin
Posted Jul 22, 2009 @ 11:39 PM
Last update Jul 22, 2009 @ 11:46 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In May, a jury found Richard S. Taylor guilty of leading a craps cheating ring at Foxwoods in the first major trial in the state involving casino cheats.
Prosecutors said Taylor recruited dealers to pay players for bets placed after the outcome of a craps roll.
The scam is a variation of a method known as past posting, in which bets in a table game are made after the roll or hand is determined. The term originates with horse racing, where a bugler sounds a call to the post just before the race begins. This also is the signal that no more bets can be taken. Any bets made after that time occur past the post.
In casino circles, past posting also can mean increasing a bet after the outcome is determined. In blackjack, a player switches a winning bet of three $5 chips with two $500 chips topped by a $5 chip and then claims the dealer paid him the wrong amount.
Past posting, along with pinching, is the No. 1 scam across table games, said Ray Pineault, senior vice president of casino operations at Mohegan Sun. In pinching, the cheater attempts to remove part, or all, of a bet from the table after losing.
While both these scams sometimes involve dealer cooperation, most often they depend on old-fashioned sleight of hand or dealer distractions. Run-of-the-mill cheat teams will look for sloppy dealers or for dealers and pit personnel who seem preoccupied or uninterested.
They take advantage of the monotony of a dealer’s job, said Richard Marcus, a professional casino cheating expert who ran such teams for years.
“Most professional casino cheating teams will do a lot of scouting of the staff,” Marcus said. “But top teams, such as mine, do not concern themselves with doing this. In my team’s case, our moves were designed to beat all casino dealers, floor staff, even all the surveillance personnel.
“In fact, I preferred going up against the most skilled and sharp casino dealers,” Marcus said.
These days, past posting and pinching are a calculated risk, given the more than 3,000 surveillance cameras covering the casino floor at Mohegan Sun, Pineault said.
“Some cheaters go for years without getting caught, but most do get nabbed. If not for informants, half of what we discover would never be uncovered. They play a big part,” said George Joseph, a cheating expert who offers game protection training for casinos and gaming commissions.
His Las Vegas-based company, Worldwide Casino Consulting Inc., trains dealers and reviews casino policies.
Cheaters in the 21st century employ high-tech methods to fleece casinos. Hidden cameras, for example, pick up the hold card in table games, or players mark cards with infrared dyes when touched during play. The card is then transmitted to someone away from the game who reads the dye.
“You touch the back of all cards. Once you marked a sufficient number, you now have an edge,” Joseph said.
In a false shuffle scam that involved 18 casinos, dealers wouldn’t shuffle cards, but kept them in the same order or reverse order. The cards were recorded with a pencil and paper or a hidden camera. This worked for blackjack and baccarat, Joseph said.
There was a scare several months ago when Apple included a card counting application for iPhones, Pineault said. Like most gaming jurisdictions, Mohegan Sun does not permit the use of any electronic device at table games, even cell phones.
Card counting
While card counting is not illegal, casinos can take steps to minimize the effect, such as limiting wagers to the table minimum.
“We do not shuffle more frequently,” Pineault said. “But you can’t raise the bet and increase the probability of certain hands.”
If a $100 table has a maximum bet of $5,000 per player, the counter could not exceed a $100 bet.
There are multiple ways to pick out a card counter, Pineault said. Casino survey teams watch live high-end play or review recordings afterwards.
“The teams are versed in the strategy of increasing wagers and varying bets. Floor supervisors are also trained to look for card counting,” he said.
Craps
Outside of past posting, cheating most often involves tampering with the dice themselves.
Loaded dice are modified to make a specific number turn up more often than it should. These modifications include shaving, weighting, magnets and heating, among others.
In the “Ocean’s Thirteen” movie, magnets were placed in dice during the manufacturing process. Then George Clooney’s character used a device designed as a lighter to trigger the magnet and roll the dice in the direction to win big.
Another scam is to use blank dice and have shooters insert dots in such a way that a seven, could never come up, for instance. Those dice would contain only a one, four and five on the faces, for example.
“This type of dice juicing is very easy to detect,” Pineault said.
Of course, for these to work, the player would need to control the dice or the dealer at the table.
“It requires a sleight-of-hand switch,” Joseph said.
Still another cheating method involves the shooter sliding the dice along the table so they don’t tumble, and the numbers have a better chance of staying in the same position. To work, another team member has to distract the dealer or boxman, who runs the table and oversees the payouts.
Bally’s casinos has installed mini-speed bumps on the table layout down the center to thwart sliding. The dice would trip on the speed bump.
Slots
Cashless slots eliminated dozens of cheating methods involving coins. Cheaters can no longer use false tokens or coins on a string to confuse the machine or rely on a device inserted up the chute, which foiled the count of coins coming out, Joseph said.
In the days before ticketing replaced coins, an optic pen or red flashing LED light would function by defeating the payout meter that gives access to coins in the hopper. This battery-powered optic device featured a bent arm that would fit snugly into the slot machines innards to trip the payout meter and yield all the coins in the hopper. The device could easily be concealed in the cheater’s jacket or sleeve.
These days, cheaters attempt to use gadgets that try to trick the bill validator. Another scam involves putting a $100 bill covered with baby powder on the end of dental floss. When it racks up the credits, the player pulls the bill back out. Other gadgets include a metal probe to activate the computer to increase credits.
More than a decade ago, there were cheating scams that involved picking a lock on the slot or opening up the machine and switching the computer chip to trigger the jackpot. Today’s electronic layouts and shrunken chip boards make that all but impossible.
In the near future, server-based machines will put the computer control in a back-of-the-house room, rather than have 1,000 different mother boards.
“You cannot attack the machine at the site,” Joseph said.
Roulette
The Savannah move was a variation of a bet-and-run scam, where desperate players made simple proposition bets on roulette and grabbed the chips off the layout when they lost, before the dealer could sweep them away, Marcus said.
“By hiding $5,000 casino chips (or $1,000 chips in lower-limit casinos) under $5 casino chips on the 2 to 1 column bets, we won $10,010 each time these bets won while losing just $10 when they lost,” Marcus said. “We accomplished this by quickly switching out the losing bet containing the $5,000 chip and replacing it with $5 chips the instant the ball dropped.”
He said if he was caught, he feigned drunkenness, claiming he didn’t realize the ball had dropped.
“We got away with it because the dealer never saw the $5,000 chip to begin with, so he was satisfied the $5 chip set down to replace it was the one originally there,” Marcus said.
The wheel track design used to make the ball fall rather than roll off. Hidden computers were programmed to predict the ball’s fall-off point on the wheel, thus improving the chance of predicting where the ball would land. Pictures could reveal the speed of the ball and from what position it would fall. The industry changed the wheel to eliminate that, creating shallower pockets, so the ball bounces around more, making predictions more difficult.
The change in wheel design and the addition of speed bumps on craps tables show that for every new scam, a new foil evolves from casinos.
“It’s a cat-and-mouse game. Show us how you steal and we’ll develop a policy to beat you,” Joseph said.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
WERE THE MASHPEE WAMPANOAG IN MIDDLEBORO?
Wampanoag casino foes fed ammunition
By George Brennan
also by Stephanie Vosk
July 18, 2009
The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe has no historical ties to land in Middleboro, an essential part of their bid to build an Indian casino, according to a report commissioned by a neighboring town.
The report, compiled by Connecticut-based historian James Lynch and paid for by the town of Halifax, concludes that the Mashpee tribe "has never maintained a tribal political or social presence within the Town of Middleboro."
In its submission to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe claims it has a direct connection to Middleboro because it descends from the Pokanoket people - later known as Wampanoag - who occupied the area in the 1600s. Based on these assertions by the tribe, James Lynch reached several conclusions, including that:
There were differences in dialect between the mainland Indians of southeastern Massachusetts and those on the Cape and Islands.
Prior to European settlement, all the tribes in southeastern Massachusetts generally shared significant cultural traits, due mainly to their setting, not their connection.
Mashpee came into existence because its members no longer shared the common cultural ideology with other tribes in the region. It was a unique community based upon Christian ideals.
Intermarriages with the Indians of the Middleboro area are not indicative of a historical, political, or cultural connection, as the tribe has claimed.
The particular Middleboro lands the tribe seeks belonged to the Massachuset tribe, not the Pokanoket or Wampanoag.
The Mashpee tribe has never asserted political authority over any residents in Middleboro with Indian ancestry or maintained a political or social presence in that town.
Lynch's work rebuts a report done for the tribe by Christine Grabowski, a New York-based consultant, that links the tribe to Middleboro based on ties to the Pokanoket tribe and modern links like the tribe's use of Betty's Neck in Lakeville as a spiritual sanctuary.
"They do not have any historical or cultural connections to the town of Middleboro and neither were they historically under the control of the Pokanoket Indians," said Lynch, who has investigated Indian land claims across the country for surrounding towns and homeowners, including in his home state.
In a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the federal agency considering the Mashpee tribe's application to put 539 acres in Middleboro into federal trust for gaming, Halifax selectmen urge the BIA to reject the application based on Lynch's research.
"They don't have a historic right to that land," John Bruno, chairman of the Halifax board, said in a phone interview yesterday.
Tribe leaders did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.
Grabowski could not be reached, but last year defended her research. "This isn't about Mashpee needing to establish an exclusive right to the land in Middleboro," she said at that time. "It's about establishing a historical and a cultural connection."
Anti-casino advocates in Middleboro have long claimed the Wampanoag ties to the town are bogus, accusing the tribe's investors of reservation shopping.
Rich Young, president of Casinofacts, said the tribe's former leader Shawn Hendricks admitted as much on a radio show. "He said it was location, location, location," Young said of Hendricks. "He never mentioned anything about historic ties to the land."
In 2008, the BIA clearly defined a tribe's need to document historic ties through treaties or the existence of "villages, burial grounds, occupancy or subsistence use in the vicinity of the land."
The Mashpee tribe can't make those links based on Lynch's research, Bruno said.
Halifax decided to hire Lynch after the BIA held a hearing in Middleboro in March of 2008. During that hearing, several other tribes made claims to the Middleboro land, including the Massachuset and the Pokanoket.
Lynch concludes in his report that the land on Precinct Street belonged historically to the Massachuset tribe, which is not federally recognized.
A BIA spokesman could not comment on what weight the new report would be given but said it would become part of the application record.
This report comes as the Mashpee tribe is already facing a significant hurdle to its application to put 539 acres of land into trust in Middleboro, as well as 140 acres in Mashpee. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued in February no longer gives the U.S. Department of the Interior the authority to take land into trust for tribes recognized after 1934, the year the Indian Reorganization Act went into effect, though Congressional leaders are considering possibly amending the law.
Halifax's concerns go beyond the historical ties to the environmental impact and traffic a casino would create, Bruno said.
"We think there are tremendous impacts that will spill over from any development in that area that haven't been taken into consideration," he said.
Young applauded the efforts of Halifax to fight the casino. "I appreciate the town of Halifax going to bat to protect their community and to protect my community," he said.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Please check out www.feathernews.blogspot.com. That is Ken Davison's website. He has an interesting article on the $330 Million that the Mohegan Tribal Council just borrowed to pay an outstanding debt.
The debt started in 1999 as an estimated $300 million that was to be paid back for phase two of the Mohegan Tribe project (the hotel and Sky Casino in the Mohegan Sun Casino).
Read the article, the Tribal Council had promised to pay the debt down quickly, instead they never did. Now the $300 million will cost the Mohegan Tribe about $340 million plus.
This is one reason, the Tribal Council members who are running for re-election (Bruce "Two Dogs" Bozsum, Lynn Malerba, Bill Quidgeon and James Gessner) should not be re-elected. They have failed us. They need to go.
Ken Davison, from reading the article, definitely knows what to do. He is an accountant and has good business sense. We need change. Re-elect Mark Hamilton. Elect Ken Davison, Mark Sperry, and John Henry Clark.
We need more than one new person, we need several. One new person, will not change anything. The Tribal Council will still do what they want. Your vote this election can and will make a difference. What do you think?
By George Brennan
also by Stephanie Vosk
July 18, 2009
The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe has no historical ties to land in Middleboro, an essential part of their bid to build an Indian casino, according to a report commissioned by a neighboring town.
The report, compiled by Connecticut-based historian James Lynch and paid for by the town of Halifax, concludes that the Mashpee tribe "has never maintained a tribal political or social presence within the Town of Middleboro."
In its submission to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe claims it has a direct connection to Middleboro because it descends from the Pokanoket people - later known as Wampanoag - who occupied the area in the 1600s. Based on these assertions by the tribe, James Lynch reached several conclusions, including that:
There were differences in dialect between the mainland Indians of southeastern Massachusetts and those on the Cape and Islands.
Prior to European settlement, all the tribes in southeastern Massachusetts generally shared significant cultural traits, due mainly to their setting, not their connection.
Mashpee came into existence because its members no longer shared the common cultural ideology with other tribes in the region. It was a unique community based upon Christian ideals.
Intermarriages with the Indians of the Middleboro area are not indicative of a historical, political, or cultural connection, as the tribe has claimed.
The particular Middleboro lands the tribe seeks belonged to the Massachuset tribe, not the Pokanoket or Wampanoag.
The Mashpee tribe has never asserted political authority over any residents in Middleboro with Indian ancestry or maintained a political or social presence in that town.
Lynch's work rebuts a report done for the tribe by Christine Grabowski, a New York-based consultant, that links the tribe to Middleboro based on ties to the Pokanoket tribe and modern links like the tribe's use of Betty's Neck in Lakeville as a spiritual sanctuary.
"They do not have any historical or cultural connections to the town of Middleboro and neither were they historically under the control of the Pokanoket Indians," said Lynch, who has investigated Indian land claims across the country for surrounding towns and homeowners, including in his home state.
In a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the federal agency considering the Mashpee tribe's application to put 539 acres in Middleboro into federal trust for gaming, Halifax selectmen urge the BIA to reject the application based on Lynch's research.
"They don't have a historic right to that land," John Bruno, chairman of the Halifax board, said in a phone interview yesterday.
Tribe leaders did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.
Grabowski could not be reached, but last year defended her research. "This isn't about Mashpee needing to establish an exclusive right to the land in Middleboro," she said at that time. "It's about establishing a historical and a cultural connection."
Anti-casino advocates in Middleboro have long claimed the Wampanoag ties to the town are bogus, accusing the tribe's investors of reservation shopping.
Rich Young, president of Casinofacts, said the tribe's former leader Shawn Hendricks admitted as much on a radio show. "He said it was location, location, location," Young said of Hendricks. "He never mentioned anything about historic ties to the land."
In 2008, the BIA clearly defined a tribe's need to document historic ties through treaties or the existence of "villages, burial grounds, occupancy or subsistence use in the vicinity of the land."
The Mashpee tribe can't make those links based on Lynch's research, Bruno said.
Halifax decided to hire Lynch after the BIA held a hearing in Middleboro in March of 2008. During that hearing, several other tribes made claims to the Middleboro land, including the Massachuset and the Pokanoket.
Lynch concludes in his report that the land on Precinct Street belonged historically to the Massachuset tribe, which is not federally recognized.
A BIA spokesman could not comment on what weight the new report would be given but said it would become part of the application record.
This report comes as the Mashpee tribe is already facing a significant hurdle to its application to put 539 acres of land into trust in Middleboro, as well as 140 acres in Mashpee. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued in February no longer gives the U.S. Department of the Interior the authority to take land into trust for tribes recognized after 1934, the year the Indian Reorganization Act went into effect, though Congressional leaders are considering possibly amending the law.
Halifax's concerns go beyond the historical ties to the environmental impact and traffic a casino would create, Bruno said.
"We think there are tremendous impacts that will spill over from any development in that area that haven't been taken into consideration," he said.
Young applauded the efforts of Halifax to fight the casino. "I appreciate the town of Halifax going to bat to protect their community and to protect my community," he said.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Please check out www.feathernews.blogspot.com. That is Ken Davison's website. He has an interesting article on the $330 Million that the Mohegan Tribal Council just borrowed to pay an outstanding debt.
The debt started in 1999 as an estimated $300 million that was to be paid back for phase two of the Mohegan Tribe project (the hotel and Sky Casino in the Mohegan Sun Casino).
Read the article, the Tribal Council had promised to pay the debt down quickly, instead they never did. Now the $300 million will cost the Mohegan Tribe about $340 million plus.
This is one reason, the Tribal Council members who are running for re-election (Bruce "Two Dogs" Bozsum, Lynn Malerba, Bill Quidgeon and James Gessner) should not be re-elected. They have failed us. They need to go.
Ken Davison, from reading the article, definitely knows what to do. He is an accountant and has good business sense. We need change. Re-elect Mark Hamilton. Elect Ken Davison, Mark Sperry, and John Henry Clark.
We need more than one new person, we need several. One new person, will not change anything. The Tribal Council will still do what they want. Your vote this election can and will make a difference. What do you think?
SUN BEAT MONARCHS 83 TO 75
Asjha Jones Leads Sun To Victory Over Monarchs
July 23, 2009
E-mail Print ShareVote
UNCASVILLE - — In the middle of the fourth quarter Wednesday, the public address announcer at the Mohegan Sun Arena reminded the crowd that Asjha Jones would be the Connecticut Sun's lone representative at Saturday's All-Star Game.
Yeah, like it wasn't already obvious.
It has already been an eventful season for the Sun, filled with comings and goings, ups and downs, plans and adjustments.
But one of the constants has been Jones, the former UConn standout, a piece of the foundation upon which this contender is being built.
"There's no doubt about it, she's an elite player now," Sun guard Lindsay Whalen said. "She's having a great year."
On the day before its All-Star break, Jones snapped her team to attention after a first half in which it played as if it had senioritis.
She scored 22 of her season-high 28 in the second half, shooting 10 of 12, accounting for 12 of the last 14 points to lead the Sun to an 83-75 victory over the Sacramento Monarchs before 5,675.
Jones has scored in double figures in 12 straight and she also had 10 rebounds.
"I can always be better," said Jones, whose career high is 31. "I'm very critical of myself. Just look at all the shots I missed in the first half [3 of 9]."
She was not alone. The Sun (9-6) shot 12 of 38 in the half, but outscored the Monarchs 30-13 in the third and have now won 8 of 11 to sit alone in second place in the conference.
Those are things that will help coach Mike Thibault enjoy his break.
"There have been years when I've gone into the All-Star break feeling miserable," he said. "But not this year."
The Monarchs have lost six straight and 14 of 17. They were led by Nicole Powell, who scored 18 a few hours after being named to the Western Conference All-Star team to replace the injured Lisa Leslie.
"They came in very well prepared," Thibault said. "They are a hard team to play against."
They were tough on Wednesday, building a 44-33 halftime lead. But then the Sun started to make their shots and began to take control of the boards, holding Laura Harper and Courtney Paris to one second-half rebound after they combined for 16 in the first.
"It sure is better when the ball goes in the basket," Thibault said. "This is a really great win for us. This is a great way to go into the All-Star break."
Time To Rest
Thibault is giving the team off until Sunday night. The weekend will begin for most of them tonight at the Beyonce concert at the Mohegan Sun Arena.
Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: It is a good thing, that the Mohegan Sun beat the Sacramento monarchs, but attendance is still down at 5,675. Hopefully, attendance will increase after the All-Star Game.
Yes, Asjha Jones, is an All Star and having a terrific season, however so is Lyndsay Whalen and Erin Phillips. Hopefully, the Mohegan Sun Arena will have a full house on Saturday for the All-Star Game. Go, Sun go. What do you think?
July 23, 2009
E-mail Print ShareVote
UNCASVILLE - — In the middle of the fourth quarter Wednesday, the public address announcer at the Mohegan Sun Arena reminded the crowd that Asjha Jones would be the Connecticut Sun's lone representative at Saturday's All-Star Game.
Yeah, like it wasn't already obvious.
It has already been an eventful season for the Sun, filled with comings and goings, ups and downs, plans and adjustments.
But one of the constants has been Jones, the former UConn standout, a piece of the foundation upon which this contender is being built.
"There's no doubt about it, she's an elite player now," Sun guard Lindsay Whalen said. "She's having a great year."
On the day before its All-Star break, Jones snapped her team to attention after a first half in which it played as if it had senioritis.
She scored 22 of her season-high 28 in the second half, shooting 10 of 12, accounting for 12 of the last 14 points to lead the Sun to an 83-75 victory over the Sacramento Monarchs before 5,675.
Jones has scored in double figures in 12 straight and she also had 10 rebounds.
"I can always be better," said Jones, whose career high is 31. "I'm very critical of myself. Just look at all the shots I missed in the first half [3 of 9]."
She was not alone. The Sun (9-6) shot 12 of 38 in the half, but outscored the Monarchs 30-13 in the third and have now won 8 of 11 to sit alone in second place in the conference.
Those are things that will help coach Mike Thibault enjoy his break.
"There have been years when I've gone into the All-Star break feeling miserable," he said. "But not this year."
The Monarchs have lost six straight and 14 of 17. They were led by Nicole Powell, who scored 18 a few hours after being named to the Western Conference All-Star team to replace the injured Lisa Leslie.
"They came in very well prepared," Thibault said. "They are a hard team to play against."
They were tough on Wednesday, building a 44-33 halftime lead. But then the Sun started to make their shots and began to take control of the boards, holding Laura Harper and Courtney Paris to one second-half rebound after they combined for 16 in the first.
"It sure is better when the ball goes in the basket," Thibault said. "This is a really great win for us. This is a great way to go into the All-Star break."
Time To Rest
Thibault is giving the team off until Sunday night. The weekend will begin for most of them tonight at the Beyonce concert at the Mohegan Sun Arena.
Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: It is a good thing, that the Mohegan Sun beat the Sacramento monarchs, but attendance is still down at 5,675. Hopefully, attendance will increase after the All-Star Game.
Yes, Asjha Jones, is an All Star and having a terrific season, however so is Lyndsay Whalen and Erin Phillips. Hopefully, the Mohegan Sun Arena will have a full house on Saturday for the All-Star Game. Go, Sun go. What do you think?
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
ARE MORE CUTS AND FREEZING NEEDED?
Many casino companies cut execs' pay in recession
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By WAYNE PARRY
The Associated Press
Posted Jul 21, 2009 @ 11:56 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Bosses aren't immune to the pay cuts sweeping the struggling casino industry.
While many gambling houses across the country have laid off hourly workers, and cut or frozen pay for those who remain, top executives are feeling the pain, too.
Many of the country's largest casino companies have cut pay for their executives and managers.
Harrah's Entertainment cut its managers' pay by 5 percent. Wynn Resorts cut pay 15 percent for managers making $150,000 or more, and 10 percent for the rest. And the Mohegan Tribal Authority cut bosses' pay by up to 10 percent in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
In Atlantic City, the three Trump casinos, the Tropicana Casino and Resort, and Resorts Atlantic City all cut or froze
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: The Mohegan Tribal Council allegedly only took an eight (8%) decrease in pay while other executives of the Mohegan Sun Casino took up to an estimated ten (10%) percent pay cuts. Is this fair? Should the Tribal Council do more? How about the Council of Elders, how much was their pay cuts?
We (the Mohegan Tribe) need leaders. We need people who will step up and do the right thing for the Mohegan Tribe as well as our employees. The present Tribal Council, in my opinion, have failed us.
Think about the situation, we are finding ourselves in. Are we better off today, then we were four (4) years ago when the Tribal Councilors who are running for re-election took office? The answer is no. They have failed us. They need to go.
Should we show them our unhappiness at their performance? Should they go? Did they do the wrong thing, only taking a eight percent (8%) decrease? Should they go? What do you think?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By WAYNE PARRY
The Associated Press
Posted Jul 21, 2009 @ 11:56 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Bosses aren't immune to the pay cuts sweeping the struggling casino industry.
While many gambling houses across the country have laid off hourly workers, and cut or frozen pay for those who remain, top executives are feeling the pain, too.
Many of the country's largest casino companies have cut pay for their executives and managers.
Harrah's Entertainment cut its managers' pay by 5 percent. Wynn Resorts cut pay 15 percent for managers making $150,000 or more, and 10 percent for the rest. And the Mohegan Tribal Authority cut bosses' pay by up to 10 percent in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
In Atlantic City, the three Trump casinos, the Tropicana Casino and Resort, and Resorts Atlantic City all cut or froze
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: The Mohegan Tribal Council allegedly only took an eight (8%) decrease in pay while other executives of the Mohegan Sun Casino took up to an estimated ten (10%) percent pay cuts. Is this fair? Should the Tribal Council do more? How about the Council of Elders, how much was their pay cuts?
We (the Mohegan Tribe) need leaders. We need people who will step up and do the right thing for the Mohegan Tribe as well as our employees. The present Tribal Council, in my opinion, have failed us.
Think about the situation, we are finding ourselves in. Are we better off today, then we were four (4) years ago when the Tribal Councilors who are running for re-election took office? The answer is no. They have failed us. They need to go.
Should we show them our unhappiness at their performance? Should they go? Did they do the wrong thing, only taking a eight percent (8%) decrease? Should they go? What do you think?
INCREASED BANKRUPTCIES IN NEW LONDON COUNTY
Locally, Bankruptcy Filings Jump
Rate is up in 2009 statewide, but New London county sees the biggest increase
By Lee Howard Published on 7/22/2009
While the state saw a dramatic rise in personal bankruptcies over the past three months, New London County had the highest rate of increase in Connecticut, according to a new survey.
The Warren Group, which tracks New England real estate and financial trends, reported Tuesday that 176 personal bankruptcy filings were recorded in New London County in the second quarter of 2009, a 36 percent increase from the same period a year ago.
”The spike in bankruptcy filings shows just how hard it has been for consumers to keep up with their bills in this tough economy,” said Timothy M. Warren Jr., chief executive of The Warren Group, in a statement.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: With an increase in bankruptcies in New London County and the entire state of Connecticut, as well as other places in the Northeast part of the United States, no wonder there is a drop off of gambling at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Rate is up in 2009 statewide, but New London county sees the biggest increase
By Lee Howard Published on 7/22/2009
While the state saw a dramatic rise in personal bankruptcies over the past three months, New London County had the highest rate of increase in Connecticut, according to a new survey.
The Warren Group, which tracks New England real estate and financial trends, reported Tuesday that 176 personal bankruptcy filings were recorded in New London County in the second quarter of 2009, a 36 percent increase from the same period a year ago.
”The spike in bankruptcy filings shows just how hard it has been for consumers to keep up with their bills in this tough economy,” said Timothy M. Warren Jr., chief executive of The Warren Group, in a statement.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: With an increase in bankruptcies in New London County and the entire state of Connecticut, as well as other places in the Northeast part of the United States, no wonder there is a drop off of gambling at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
MASHPEE WAMPANOAG NEEDS FUNDING?
Massachusetts Tribe Faces Funding Dilemma
20 Jul, 2009 / GamblingCompliance Ltd. / Scott Van Voorhis
Serious cracks have emerged in the relationship between Mashpee Wampanoag leaders and a group of high-powered investors backing the tribe’s push to open a resort casino in Massachusetts.
Tribal leaders have voted not to “reaffirm” a casino development agreement with an investment group that includes South African gambling tycoon Sol Kerzner. The tribe contends the agreement gave the investors the lion’s share of profits from the proposed gambling venue.
However, the vote came after the financial backers of the Mashpee Wampanoag's quest to open a resort casino in a rural Massachusetts town quietly cut off payments to the tribe.
While it’s not clear exactly what has caused the bickering between the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe and their investment partners, the dispute comes after a landmark US Supreme Court case cast serious doubts over the ability of tribes across the country to open new casinos.
The Massachusetts tribe, which just won recognition in 2006, is currently seeking approval from the federal government to create an official reservation on which to build a casino.
In addition, the tribe is reeling from the conviction on an array of federal charges of its former chairman, Glenn Marshall, in part for his involvement in the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal.
“A sad chapter in our tribe’s history was closed yesterday at the federal courthouse in Boston,” the tribe’s new chairman, Cedric Cromwell, recently wrote to members. “While I am pleased with the progress we are making, we still face great challenges.”
The tribe’s casino plans suffered a serious blow in May, when its financial backers, led by casino moguls Kerzner and Len Wolman, stopped payments to the tribe. The pair are part of the original investors in Mohegan Sun and have also helped transform Rhode Island’s Twin River racino into a major regional competitor.
But the Mashpee Wampanoags fired off their own salvo in June, with the tribal council voting to put on hold the 2007 casino development agreement struck with the investors.
Tribal leaders, many of whom were elected after Marshall became ensnared in a federal probe, have taken a sceptical view of the casino development agreement the now disgraced former chairman signed with the investor group. Marshall was recently sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for embezzlement, social security fraud, tax evasion, and making illegal campaign contributions.
The agreement would pay investors $40m a year, while the tribe would get about $15m, the tribe’s new leadership contends, according to The Cape Cod Times. That’s based on a casino that would generate more $700m a year in gross revenue.
“It’s not a very good deal for the tribe,” said Clyde Barrow, a professor and gaming industry expert at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
A spokeswoman for the investor group, known as TCAM, told GamblingCompliance, “Under the terms of our agreement with the tribe, which is in full force and effect, we do not feel it would be appropriate at this time for us to comment on any pending matters with the tribe.”
Still, the process has likely been an expensive and risky one as well for the investors, who have pumped millions into the tribe’s casino efforts with little chance of seeing that money again if a gambling venue fails to materialise.
That includes both bankrolling the tribe’s efforts to win federal approval for a proposed casino site in Middleboro and drawing up complicated casino development plans.
And the deal has gotten riskier in recent months since the nation’s highest court dropped a bombshell on tribes across Indian Country.
The Supreme Court ruled that tribes, like the Mashpee Wampanoags, which won recognition after 1934, are not covered under federal rules that allow tribes to create new reservation land, known as taking land into trust. This is a basic step for opening a tribal casino.
The tribe’s best bet now might be to drop efforts to open a full-fledged Indian casino and instead team up with a commercial developer, argues UMass Dartmouth’s Barrow.
Even if successful, winning federal approval could take years, by which time a number of commercial casinos may have been legalised and developed in the state, he noted.
Moreover, betting on federal approval now is a big ‘if’, with congressional legislation needed before tribes like the Mashpee Wampanoags can move forward with their casino plans, Barrow said.
Instead, the tribe might do better to team up with a commercial investor and compete for a casino license should Massachusetts lawmakers, as is widely expected, legalise casino gambling this fall.
“At this point, everyone is telling the tribe they need to get onto the commercial bandwagon,” Barrow said. “If they don’t do that, they may find themselves on the outside looking in.”
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Aren't these people, the same investors, who negotiated a very good deal for themselves, many years ago with the Mohegan Tribe?
With the investors, saying the deal is still in effect, it sounds like this matter could spend a long and costly battle in court.
Maybe, the Mohegan Tribe, should somehow find the money, and help finance the deal with the Mashpee Wampanoags? This way, instead of the Mashpee Wampanoags being competitors of the Mohegan Sun, we could somehow share in the profits, of their venture in Massachusetts?
Shouldn't the Mohegans try to help the Mashpee Wampanoags? Wouldn't that make more sense, than the Mohegan Tribe trying to help tribes in Washington State and Wisconsin?
Instead, what are the leaders of the Mohegan Tribe (Mohegan Tribal Council) doing? The MTGA is promoting gambling in Palmer? Shouldn't they help another fellow tribe?
What good is all the money the Mohegan Tribe, has the ability to make, and not try and help this tribe? Maybe, they won't want our (the Mohegan Tribes) help, but maybe we should offer?
Are you listening Tribal Council? Are you working on this possibility? Some tribal members are wondering if this will be yet another case of the Tribal Council not doing anything? Should the tribe look into maybe funding the Mashpee Wampanoags? Will the MTGA help them? What do you think?
20 Jul, 2009 / GamblingCompliance Ltd. / Scott Van Voorhis
Serious cracks have emerged in the relationship between Mashpee Wampanoag leaders and a group of high-powered investors backing the tribe’s push to open a resort casino in Massachusetts.
Tribal leaders have voted not to “reaffirm” a casino development agreement with an investment group that includes South African gambling tycoon Sol Kerzner. The tribe contends the agreement gave the investors the lion’s share of profits from the proposed gambling venue.
However, the vote came after the financial backers of the Mashpee Wampanoag's quest to open a resort casino in a rural Massachusetts town quietly cut off payments to the tribe.
While it’s not clear exactly what has caused the bickering between the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe and their investment partners, the dispute comes after a landmark US Supreme Court case cast serious doubts over the ability of tribes across the country to open new casinos.
The Massachusetts tribe, which just won recognition in 2006, is currently seeking approval from the federal government to create an official reservation on which to build a casino.
In addition, the tribe is reeling from the conviction on an array of federal charges of its former chairman, Glenn Marshall, in part for his involvement in the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal.
“A sad chapter in our tribe’s history was closed yesterday at the federal courthouse in Boston,” the tribe’s new chairman, Cedric Cromwell, recently wrote to members. “While I am pleased with the progress we are making, we still face great challenges.”
The tribe’s casino plans suffered a serious blow in May, when its financial backers, led by casino moguls Kerzner and Len Wolman, stopped payments to the tribe. The pair are part of the original investors in Mohegan Sun and have also helped transform Rhode Island’s Twin River racino into a major regional competitor.
But the Mashpee Wampanoags fired off their own salvo in June, with the tribal council voting to put on hold the 2007 casino development agreement struck with the investors.
Tribal leaders, many of whom were elected after Marshall became ensnared in a federal probe, have taken a sceptical view of the casino development agreement the now disgraced former chairman signed with the investor group. Marshall was recently sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for embezzlement, social security fraud, tax evasion, and making illegal campaign contributions.
The agreement would pay investors $40m a year, while the tribe would get about $15m, the tribe’s new leadership contends, according to The Cape Cod Times. That’s based on a casino that would generate more $700m a year in gross revenue.
“It’s not a very good deal for the tribe,” said Clyde Barrow, a professor and gaming industry expert at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
A spokeswoman for the investor group, known as TCAM, told GamblingCompliance, “Under the terms of our agreement with the tribe, which is in full force and effect, we do not feel it would be appropriate at this time for us to comment on any pending matters with the tribe.”
Still, the process has likely been an expensive and risky one as well for the investors, who have pumped millions into the tribe’s casino efforts with little chance of seeing that money again if a gambling venue fails to materialise.
That includes both bankrolling the tribe’s efforts to win federal approval for a proposed casino site in Middleboro and drawing up complicated casino development plans.
And the deal has gotten riskier in recent months since the nation’s highest court dropped a bombshell on tribes across Indian Country.
The Supreme Court ruled that tribes, like the Mashpee Wampanoags, which won recognition after 1934, are not covered under federal rules that allow tribes to create new reservation land, known as taking land into trust. This is a basic step for opening a tribal casino.
The tribe’s best bet now might be to drop efforts to open a full-fledged Indian casino and instead team up with a commercial developer, argues UMass Dartmouth’s Barrow.
Even if successful, winning federal approval could take years, by which time a number of commercial casinos may have been legalised and developed in the state, he noted.
Moreover, betting on federal approval now is a big ‘if’, with congressional legislation needed before tribes like the Mashpee Wampanoags can move forward with their casino plans, Barrow said.
Instead, the tribe might do better to team up with a commercial investor and compete for a casino license should Massachusetts lawmakers, as is widely expected, legalise casino gambling this fall.
“At this point, everyone is telling the tribe they need to get onto the commercial bandwagon,” Barrow said. “If they don’t do that, they may find themselves on the outside looking in.”
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Aren't these people, the same investors, who negotiated a very good deal for themselves, many years ago with the Mohegan Tribe?
With the investors, saying the deal is still in effect, it sounds like this matter could spend a long and costly battle in court.
Maybe, the Mohegan Tribe, should somehow find the money, and help finance the deal with the Mashpee Wampanoags? This way, instead of the Mashpee Wampanoags being competitors of the Mohegan Sun, we could somehow share in the profits, of their venture in Massachusetts?
Shouldn't the Mohegans try to help the Mashpee Wampanoags? Wouldn't that make more sense, than the Mohegan Tribe trying to help tribes in Washington State and Wisconsin?
Instead, what are the leaders of the Mohegan Tribe (Mohegan Tribal Council) doing? The MTGA is promoting gambling in Palmer? Shouldn't they help another fellow tribe?
What good is all the money the Mohegan Tribe, has the ability to make, and not try and help this tribe? Maybe, they won't want our (the Mohegan Tribes) help, but maybe we should offer?
Are you listening Tribal Council? Are you working on this possibility? Some tribal members are wondering if this will be yet another case of the Tribal Council not doing anything? Should the tribe look into maybe funding the Mashpee Wampanoags? Will the MTGA help them? What do you think?
Monday, July 20, 2009
SUN BEAT THE FEVER
Sun survive late woes to snap Fever’s streak
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By MATT STOUT
Posted Jul 19, 2009 @ 11:00 PM
Last update Jul 20, 2009 @ 12:28 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOHEGAN — After breaking down the Connecticut Sun’s problems in front of her locker Sunday, Tan White exhaled and quickly laughed.
“But it’s over with,” the guard said.
This was a victory, mind you. A really good one, too.
Yet, for all the Sun did well in snapping the Indiana Fever’s franchise-record 11-game winning streak, 67-61, before 6,517 at Mohegan Sun Arena, every where they turned, there was a “but ...”
And after that, there was a turnover.
“I told our players ... you’re supposed to be happy after every win,” Sun coach Mike Thibault said. “NBA coaches say the season’s too long not to enjoy every win. But that one was hard to watch.”
The Sun (8-6) committed a season-high 26 turnovers, including a franchise-worst 13 in the fourth quarter to help spur a furious but albeit fruitless Fever (11-3) rally. Up by as many as 20 points with 4 minutes, 53 seconds to play, the Sun failed to hit another field goal and watched their lead shrink to four, 60-54, after a 14-0 Indiana run.
The performance tied the team record for turnovers, matching their sloppiness from July 15, 2006 against Sacramento, and fell just one short of the franchise record set in 2000 against Cleveland when the team was the Orlando Magic.
But thanks to 15 points and eight rebounds from Lindsay Whalen, 12 points from Asjha Jones and an oppressive defense that held Indiana to 29 percent shooting, Connecticut survived, ending the league’s longest win streak since the Sun ran off 12 straight in 2006.
They now have won three straight overall, matching their season-best.
“We played so great for long stretches and to have a last seven minutes like that was almost unfathomable, certainly embarrassing and I hope that it never happens again because I don’t know if I can sit through another one of those,” Thibault said. “Actually I didn’t sit. I stood. ... We should start autographing for people we hit (with passes) in the stands. It’s terrible.”
Most curiously, the Sun entered the game leading the league in fewest turnovers (12.5 per game). Their lack of poise helped lead to 29 Fever points, nearly half their total.
“We had open looks, the looks we had taken in the first half and even in the third quarter,” Jones said of the final stretch. “But we were trying to run the clock out and held on to it, and that just gave them opportunity to trap more. So from there, they have some good players, some aggressive players, and they made plays.”
Not enough, though. Ebony Hoffman and Katie Douglas each scored 15 points, but Tammy Sutton-Brown, after notching 14 points and 14 rebounds in the teams’ first match-up, was visibly bothered by the 6-foot-4 Sandrine Gruda (10 points, nine points).
Erin Phillips added 11 points for Connecticut, and Amber Holt notched a season-high nine while playing stellar defense on Indiana forward Tamika Catchings, who finished 2-of-12 from the floor with five points, five rebounds and a technical foul.
The Sun also continued their rise from their season-long shooting slump, making 42 percent from the field, their best work coming in their ball movement around Indiana’s persistent double-teaming.
Everything seemed to work in the third quarter, where they reeled off a 10-0 run and made 56 percent of their shots. Up, 44-36, with roughly four minutes left in the frame, they constructed a 16-4 stretch in which Indiana went 8:34 without a bucket.
Then they turned the ball over eight times in roughly four minutes before making 7-of-8 free throws in the final 23 seconds to avoid the amazing collapse.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve lost a game (since June 7),” Indiana coach Lin Dunn said. “There is no such thing as a good loss, but the thing about this game for us is we knew we weren’t going to win every game this season.”
Around the rim
- Second-place Connecticut trimmed Indiana’s lead atop the Eastern Conference standings to three games.
- Tamika Whitmore, rehabbing from arthroscopic surgery on her right knee, shot jumpers on the Mohegan Sun Arena floor prior to the game. She is expected to miss the next two weeks.
- The Sun made 18 of 20 free throws, including their first nine. They already boast three games in which they were perfect from the foul line, one short of the league record.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Katie Douglas (Indiana Fever) was not on her game, she missed a lot of three point attempts. Erin Phillips and other Connecticut Sun players evidently did a good job of guarding her.
The fever lost by six (6) points, but they also, I believe had two (2) technical fouls, that Lyndsay Whalen, shot and made both free throws.
It was a great win, but it could have been a loss. At one point in the fourth Quarter, the Sun was up by twenty points, and in the end the Fever got it to six points.
There were 6,517 in attendance, which is down from last year's attendance numbers. Good job, Sun. Go Sun, go. What do you think?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By MATT STOUT
Posted Jul 19, 2009 @ 11:00 PM
Last update Jul 20, 2009 @ 12:28 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOHEGAN — After breaking down the Connecticut Sun’s problems in front of her locker Sunday, Tan White exhaled and quickly laughed.
“But it’s over with,” the guard said.
This was a victory, mind you. A really good one, too.
Yet, for all the Sun did well in snapping the Indiana Fever’s franchise-record 11-game winning streak, 67-61, before 6,517 at Mohegan Sun Arena, every where they turned, there was a “but ...”
And after that, there was a turnover.
“I told our players ... you’re supposed to be happy after every win,” Sun coach Mike Thibault said. “NBA coaches say the season’s too long not to enjoy every win. But that one was hard to watch.”
The Sun (8-6) committed a season-high 26 turnovers, including a franchise-worst 13 in the fourth quarter to help spur a furious but albeit fruitless Fever (11-3) rally. Up by as many as 20 points with 4 minutes, 53 seconds to play, the Sun failed to hit another field goal and watched their lead shrink to four, 60-54, after a 14-0 Indiana run.
The performance tied the team record for turnovers, matching their sloppiness from July 15, 2006 against Sacramento, and fell just one short of the franchise record set in 2000 against Cleveland when the team was the Orlando Magic.
But thanks to 15 points and eight rebounds from Lindsay Whalen, 12 points from Asjha Jones and an oppressive defense that held Indiana to 29 percent shooting, Connecticut survived, ending the league’s longest win streak since the Sun ran off 12 straight in 2006.
They now have won three straight overall, matching their season-best.
“We played so great for long stretches and to have a last seven minutes like that was almost unfathomable, certainly embarrassing and I hope that it never happens again because I don’t know if I can sit through another one of those,” Thibault said. “Actually I didn’t sit. I stood. ... We should start autographing for people we hit (with passes) in the stands. It’s terrible.”
Most curiously, the Sun entered the game leading the league in fewest turnovers (12.5 per game). Their lack of poise helped lead to 29 Fever points, nearly half their total.
“We had open looks, the looks we had taken in the first half and even in the third quarter,” Jones said of the final stretch. “But we were trying to run the clock out and held on to it, and that just gave them opportunity to trap more. So from there, they have some good players, some aggressive players, and they made plays.”
Not enough, though. Ebony Hoffman and Katie Douglas each scored 15 points, but Tammy Sutton-Brown, after notching 14 points and 14 rebounds in the teams’ first match-up, was visibly bothered by the 6-foot-4 Sandrine Gruda (10 points, nine points).
Erin Phillips added 11 points for Connecticut, and Amber Holt notched a season-high nine while playing stellar defense on Indiana forward Tamika Catchings, who finished 2-of-12 from the floor with five points, five rebounds and a technical foul.
The Sun also continued their rise from their season-long shooting slump, making 42 percent from the field, their best work coming in their ball movement around Indiana’s persistent double-teaming.
Everything seemed to work in the third quarter, where they reeled off a 10-0 run and made 56 percent of their shots. Up, 44-36, with roughly four minutes left in the frame, they constructed a 16-4 stretch in which Indiana went 8:34 without a bucket.
Then they turned the ball over eight times in roughly four minutes before making 7-of-8 free throws in the final 23 seconds to avoid the amazing collapse.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve lost a game (since June 7),” Indiana coach Lin Dunn said. “There is no such thing as a good loss, but the thing about this game for us is we knew we weren’t going to win every game this season.”
Around the rim
- Second-place Connecticut trimmed Indiana’s lead atop the Eastern Conference standings to three games.
- Tamika Whitmore, rehabbing from arthroscopic surgery on her right knee, shot jumpers on the Mohegan Sun Arena floor prior to the game. She is expected to miss the next two weeks.
- The Sun made 18 of 20 free throws, including their first nine. They already boast three games in which they were perfect from the foul line, one short of the league record.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Katie Douglas (Indiana Fever) was not on her game, she missed a lot of three point attempts. Erin Phillips and other Connecticut Sun players evidently did a good job of guarding her.
The fever lost by six (6) points, but they also, I believe had two (2) technical fouls, that Lyndsay Whalen, shot and made both free throws.
It was a great win, but it could have been a loss. At one point in the fourth Quarter, the Sun was up by twenty points, and in the end the Fever got it to six points.
There were 6,517 in attendance, which is down from last year's attendance numbers. Good job, Sun. Go Sun, go. What do you think?
GAMBLING PROBLEMS?
Study: State gambling cash not fully utilized
Published on 7/17/2009
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ A new state-ordered study concludes that legalized gambling is a boon to the Connecticut economy, but the state has done a poor job of regulating the industry and more people are becoming addicted to gambling.
The 390-page study, called "Gambling in Connecticut: Analyzing the Economic and Social Impacts," was conducted by New Jersey's Spectrum Gaming Group. It's the state's first analysis of legalized gambling in 12 years.
"The goal was to look at the good, bad and ugly of gambling in the state," said Michael Diamond, Spectrum's vice president of research. "We had to go back to 1997 to find a study like this, so we wanted to give a comprehensive look at gambling in Connecticut since then.
"We concluded that there should be more state gaming regulation there."
The study says Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos are responsible for creating 12 percent of the new jobs in the state since 1992 and that the casinos have brought in $1.2 billion worth of personal income to the state.
In 1994, casinos added $24 million to the state's general fund; in 2007, casinos brought in $340 million. But although the state once distributed 78 percent of the money brought in by casinos to its 169 towns and cities, that amount has now dropped to 21 percent.
"Over the years, the state has taken more and more out of the pot," Diamond said. "Some of the towns feel like they are getting the short end of the stick."
Diamond said one statistic that stood out to him was the state's number of embezzlement cases.
"In our research, we found a significant number of people who had no history of violence or crimes get involved in cases with large sums of money to support a gambling habit," he said. "We've found that other states have had problems there as well, but not to the extent of Connecticut."
The study found that Connecticut had the biggest increase of all states that reported at least 40 embezzlements between 1992 and 2005. The state's 397 percent increase is almost 10 times the national average.
Diamond also mentioned the state's unregulated self-exclusion program, where admitted gambling addicts can request a casino to ban them, as another source of worry.
The study said Connecticut was the first state to establish a self-exclusion program in 1994, but neither state casino has issued a fine for violation of the program.
A case study shows 20 percent of self-excluded gamblers at Mohegan Sun have returned to the casino since joining the program. Of that percentage, one in five have gone back at least nine times.
"In New Jersey and some other states, if it is found that the program has been violated, the casinos get hit with a fine," Diamond said. "It seems to be voluntary among the casinos in Connecticut, but there's no leverage."
The study reports that the general assembly raised the budget for services to help gambling addicts from about $930,000 in 2001 to more than $2 million in 2008. But, the study concludes that the increase has not kept up with the growing number of cases handled. Those have jumped from 326 in 2001 to 922 in 2008.
Marvin Steinburg, executive director of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, said it's in the state's best interest to closely monitor the problem.
"Of all the services and products that the state provides, the only one that is harmful to a small but significant number of people is gambling," he said. "While many other social services are extremely important that there be sufficient money for, it is incumbent upon the state to realize that if gambling gets out of control, then there will be a backlash against it and the state's money that it depends upon could be threatened."
A Foxwoods spokeswoman said the casino wouldn't comment on the study until officials have time to review it.
Published on 7/17/2009
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ A new state-ordered study concludes that legalized gambling is a boon to the Connecticut economy, but the state has done a poor job of regulating the industry and more people are becoming addicted to gambling.
The 390-page study, called "Gambling in Connecticut: Analyzing the Economic and Social Impacts," was conducted by New Jersey's Spectrum Gaming Group. It's the state's first analysis of legalized gambling in 12 years.
"The goal was to look at the good, bad and ugly of gambling in the state," said Michael Diamond, Spectrum's vice president of research. "We had to go back to 1997 to find a study like this, so we wanted to give a comprehensive look at gambling in Connecticut since then.
"We concluded that there should be more state gaming regulation there."
The study says Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos are responsible for creating 12 percent of the new jobs in the state since 1992 and that the casinos have brought in $1.2 billion worth of personal income to the state.
In 1994, casinos added $24 million to the state's general fund; in 2007, casinos brought in $340 million. But although the state once distributed 78 percent of the money brought in by casinos to its 169 towns and cities, that amount has now dropped to 21 percent.
"Over the years, the state has taken more and more out of the pot," Diamond said. "Some of the towns feel like they are getting the short end of the stick."
Diamond said one statistic that stood out to him was the state's number of embezzlement cases.
"In our research, we found a significant number of people who had no history of violence or crimes get involved in cases with large sums of money to support a gambling habit," he said. "We've found that other states have had problems there as well, but not to the extent of Connecticut."
The study found that Connecticut had the biggest increase of all states that reported at least 40 embezzlements between 1992 and 2005. The state's 397 percent increase is almost 10 times the national average.
Diamond also mentioned the state's unregulated self-exclusion program, where admitted gambling addicts can request a casino to ban them, as another source of worry.
The study said Connecticut was the first state to establish a self-exclusion program in 1994, but neither state casino has issued a fine for violation of the program.
A case study shows 20 percent of self-excluded gamblers at Mohegan Sun have returned to the casino since joining the program. Of that percentage, one in five have gone back at least nine times.
"In New Jersey and some other states, if it is found that the program has been violated, the casinos get hit with a fine," Diamond said. "It seems to be voluntary among the casinos in Connecticut, but there's no leverage."
The study reports that the general assembly raised the budget for services to help gambling addicts from about $930,000 in 2001 to more than $2 million in 2008. But, the study concludes that the increase has not kept up with the growing number of cases handled. Those have jumped from 326 in 2001 to 922 in 2008.
Marvin Steinburg, executive director of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, said it's in the state's best interest to closely monitor the problem.
"Of all the services and products that the state provides, the only one that is harmful to a small but significant number of people is gambling," he said. "While many other social services are extremely important that there be sufficient money for, it is incumbent upon the state to realize that if gambling gets out of control, then there will be a backlash against it and the state's money that it depends upon could be threatened."
A Foxwoods spokeswoman said the casino wouldn't comment on the study until officials have time to review it.
QUESTIONS
THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME QUESTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN ON MY MIND FOR AWHILE, SOME I KNOW THE ANSWERS SOME I DON'T. MAYBE YOU DO.
1) When is the Mohegan Flag going to fly on the flag pole at Fort Hill Elder Housing? How long has it been down? Why is it not flying?
2) Why does Fort Hill Elder Housing have water leaks on different parts of the building? How old is Fort Hill? Who did the plumbing work?
3) How come the floors at Fort Hill Elder Housing creep (make noises)?
4) How many Tribal Councilors voted for (passed into law) the Freedom of Information Ordinance"? Who were they?
5) How many Tribal Councilors voted against the "Freedom of Information Ordinance? Who were they?
6) How many Tribal Councilors voted to cancel the "Freedom of Information Ordinance/" Who were they? What was their motive?
7) Who voted against the act of rescinding the "Freedom of Information Ordinance?" What was his reasons?
8) How many Tribal Councilors voted to change the age from 55 years old to 62 years old to live in Fort Hill Elder housing? Who were they?
9) Who voted against changing the age from 55 years old to 62 years old at Fort Hill Elder Housing? What was that person's name?
10) What is the total debt of MTGA (Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority), including the Mohegan Sun, Connecticut and the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs? How much was the debt when the present Tribal Council took office four years ago? What is the total debt today?
11) How much money has Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs made the Mohegan Tribe?
12) What present Tribal Councilor voted for the original Pocono Downs deal?
13) Which present Tribal Councilors voted for the new permanent facility expansion) at Pocono Downs?
14) Which Tubal Councilors voted against the expansion at Pocono Downs?
15) How much money did the MTGA invest in the Menominee (Wisconsin) project?
16) How much money did the MTGA invest int the Washington State project?
17) What Mohegan Tribal Councilors voted for Project Horizon? How much was spent on the project before it was stopped? What does the Mohegan Tribe have to show for the expense?
18) What Tribal Councilors voted to build the government community center building? How much is the present debt of the Mohegan Tribal Government? How much was the debt when the present Tribal Council took office four (4) years ago?
19) Who vote against construction of the government community center?
20) How much money did the Tribe spend or still owe on the Government Community Center? ========What did we get for the money?
21) How much is the Palmer office costing the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority? Is it manned and being used yet? Who voted for the Palmer project? How much is the lease for the property and for how long? Who voted to do this project?
22) How many days is the Wigwam going to be this year? What parts of the Wigwam are being done away with? What is parts are being reduced? Who made the decisions? What is the Wigwam going to look like this year?
23) What members are in favor of the Aqueduct (Queens, New York) project? Is anyone against it?
24) Is the Mohegan Tribal Council really responsive to the needs of the Mohegan People?
25) Should we (the Mohegan Tribe) re-elect the five (5) Tribal Council members? Should they go? Have they done a good job for us?
26) Is the Mohegan Tribe in better shape today, then when the five (5) present Tribal Councilors who are running for re-election, took office? Do they have a Responsibility to leave the government better then they found it? Have they left it better then they found it?
27) Should the five (5) Tribal Council Members who are running for re-election stay or go? Have they done a good job for us? What do you think?
Editorial Footnote: Some of the answers coming soon. If you know any of the answers leave a comment.. The story of Protester and alleged attacker may be coming soon.
1) When is the Mohegan Flag going to fly on the flag pole at Fort Hill Elder Housing? How long has it been down? Why is it not flying?
2) Why does Fort Hill Elder Housing have water leaks on different parts of the building? How old is Fort Hill? Who did the plumbing work?
3) How come the floors at Fort Hill Elder Housing creep (make noises)?
4) How many Tribal Councilors voted for (passed into law) the Freedom of Information Ordinance"? Who were they?
5) How many Tribal Councilors voted against the "Freedom of Information Ordinance? Who were they?
6) How many Tribal Councilors voted to cancel the "Freedom of Information Ordinance/" Who were they? What was their motive?
7) Who voted against the act of rescinding the "Freedom of Information Ordinance?" What was his reasons?
8) How many Tribal Councilors voted to change the age from 55 years old to 62 years old to live in Fort Hill Elder housing? Who were they?
9) Who voted against changing the age from 55 years old to 62 years old at Fort Hill Elder Housing? What was that person's name?
10) What is the total debt of MTGA (Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority), including the Mohegan Sun, Connecticut and the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs? How much was the debt when the present Tribal Council took office four years ago? What is the total debt today?
11) How much money has Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs made the Mohegan Tribe?
12) What present Tribal Councilor voted for the original Pocono Downs deal?
13) Which present Tribal Councilors voted for the new permanent facility expansion) at Pocono Downs?
14) Which Tubal Councilors voted against the expansion at Pocono Downs?
15) How much money did the MTGA invest in the Menominee (Wisconsin) project?
16) How much money did the MTGA invest int the Washington State project?
17) What Mohegan Tribal Councilors voted for Project Horizon? How much was spent on the project before it was stopped? What does the Mohegan Tribe have to show for the expense?
18) What Tribal Councilors voted to build the government community center building? How much is the present debt of the Mohegan Tribal Government? How much was the debt when the present Tribal Council took office four (4) years ago?
19) Who vote against construction of the government community center?
20) How much money did the Tribe spend or still owe on the Government Community Center? ========What did we get for the money?
21) How much is the Palmer office costing the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority? Is it manned and being used yet? Who voted for the Palmer project? How much is the lease for the property and for how long? Who voted to do this project?
22) How many days is the Wigwam going to be this year? What parts of the Wigwam are being done away with? What is parts are being reduced? Who made the decisions? What is the Wigwam going to look like this year?
23) What members are in favor of the Aqueduct (Queens, New York) project? Is anyone against it?
24) Is the Mohegan Tribal Council really responsive to the needs of the Mohegan People?
25) Should we (the Mohegan Tribe) re-elect the five (5) Tribal Council members? Should they go? Have they done a good job for us?
26) Is the Mohegan Tribe in better shape today, then when the five (5) present Tribal Councilors who are running for re-election, took office? Do they have a Responsibility to leave the government better then they found it? Have they left it better then they found it?
27) Should the five (5) Tribal Council Members who are running for re-election stay or go? Have they done a good job for us? What do you think?
Editorial Footnote: Some of the answers coming soon. If you know any of the answers leave a comment.. The story of Protester and alleged attacker may be coming soon.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
CONNECTICUT SUN BEAT SAN ANTONIO SILVER STARS
Jones, White lift Sun over Silver Stars
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
sports@norwichbulletin.com
Posted Jul 17, 2009 @ 11:09 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAN ANTONIO — The Connecticut Sun know how infectious missed shots can be. Scoring can be the same way.
Asjha Jones scored 17 points, Tan White added a season-high 15 and the Connecticut had five players in double figures in topping the San Antonio Silver Stars, 72-64, on Friday night.
Sandrine Gruda and Lindsay Whalen added 12 points each and Erin Phillips scored 10 for the Sun (7-6).
Still the WNBA’s worst shooting team entering Friday (38.7 percent), the Sun topped 44 percent for the second straight game, though they still struggled at times finding the hoop. They missed eight of 10 shots at one point in the first quarter and neither team shot 39 percent in the first half.
But Connecticut scored 28 fourth-quarter points, and it has now won its last two games to move into sole possession of second-place in the East behind Indiana (11-2), which won its 11th straight game Friday, 84-79, over Atlanta.
The Fever and Sun square off 3 p.m. Sunday at Mohegan Sun Arena.
“It became a shoot-out,” Sun coach Mike Thibault said. “Becky (Hammon) got her 3-ball going I don’t know how we lost her twice. The other one she made with us in her face.
“It was a great fourth quarter. It felt like a playoff game.”
Hammon scored 24 points Friday and rookie Megan Frazee had 14 for the Silver Stars (6-7), who missed their fifth chance to get over .500.
After missing all four of her shots in the third quarter, Jones hit two key baskets after Hammon’s layup cut the Sun’s lead to 65-64 under the 2-minute mark.
Jones hit a bank shot from about 10 feet out and followed that with a 17-footer on the Sun’s next trip down the floor to give Connecticut a 69-64 lead with 26 seconds left. Amber Holt added a pair of free throws with 12 seconds to go.
White had nine points in the fourth quarter, including 5-of-6 free throws. She finished 5-of-7 from the floor to go along with all the free throws she attempted in the fourth quarter.
Connecticut opened the fourth quarter ahead by four but expanded the lead to a 56-49 when White hit 1-of-2 free throws with 6:27 remaining.
However, the Silver Stars hit three 3-pointers — two by Hammon — to pull to 63-62 with 2:20 to go.
“It was a really physical game,” said Jones, who has 12 double-figure scoring games this season. She also had five assists and five rebounds. “Tan made a bunch of great plays right when we needed them. The entire game was going to be like, back-and-forth. Both teams needed a win. Right there at the end, that’s a shot I’ll make.”
Connecticut beat San Antonio by 13 points in their first meeting this season on June 21. The Silver Stars were playing without Hammon, who was playing in the European championships, and fellow starter Vickie Johnson.
The Silver Stars lost starting center Ruth Riley due to a sprained left ankle late in the first half and she did not return.
Considered questionable for the game after rolling her ankle in practice on Wednesday, Latvian reserve Anete Jekabsone-Zogota played more than 12 minutes, missing both of her field-goal attempts.
This is the Sun’s first win in San Antonio since the 2006 season.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
sports@norwichbulletin.com
Posted Jul 17, 2009 @ 11:09 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAN ANTONIO — The Connecticut Sun know how infectious missed shots can be. Scoring can be the same way.
Asjha Jones scored 17 points, Tan White added a season-high 15 and the Connecticut had five players in double figures in topping the San Antonio Silver Stars, 72-64, on Friday night.
Sandrine Gruda and Lindsay Whalen added 12 points each and Erin Phillips scored 10 for the Sun (7-6).
Still the WNBA’s worst shooting team entering Friday (38.7 percent), the Sun topped 44 percent for the second straight game, though they still struggled at times finding the hoop. They missed eight of 10 shots at one point in the first quarter and neither team shot 39 percent in the first half.
But Connecticut scored 28 fourth-quarter points, and it has now won its last two games to move into sole possession of second-place in the East behind Indiana (11-2), which won its 11th straight game Friday, 84-79, over Atlanta.
The Fever and Sun square off 3 p.m. Sunday at Mohegan Sun Arena.
“It became a shoot-out,” Sun coach Mike Thibault said. “Becky (Hammon) got her 3-ball going I don’t know how we lost her twice. The other one she made with us in her face.
“It was a great fourth quarter. It felt like a playoff game.”
Hammon scored 24 points Friday and rookie Megan Frazee had 14 for the Silver Stars (6-7), who missed their fifth chance to get over .500.
After missing all four of her shots in the third quarter, Jones hit two key baskets after Hammon’s layup cut the Sun’s lead to 65-64 under the 2-minute mark.
Jones hit a bank shot from about 10 feet out and followed that with a 17-footer on the Sun’s next trip down the floor to give Connecticut a 69-64 lead with 26 seconds left. Amber Holt added a pair of free throws with 12 seconds to go.
White had nine points in the fourth quarter, including 5-of-6 free throws. She finished 5-of-7 from the floor to go along with all the free throws she attempted in the fourth quarter.
Connecticut opened the fourth quarter ahead by four but expanded the lead to a 56-49 when White hit 1-of-2 free throws with 6:27 remaining.
However, the Silver Stars hit three 3-pointers — two by Hammon — to pull to 63-62 with 2:20 to go.
“It was a really physical game,” said Jones, who has 12 double-figure scoring games this season. She also had five assists and five rebounds. “Tan made a bunch of great plays right when we needed them. The entire game was going to be like, back-and-forth. Both teams needed a win. Right there at the end, that’s a shot I’ll make.”
Connecticut beat San Antonio by 13 points in their first meeting this season on June 21. The Silver Stars were playing without Hammon, who was playing in the European championships, and fellow starter Vickie Johnson.
The Silver Stars lost starting center Ruth Riley due to a sprained left ankle late in the first half and she did not return.
Considered questionable for the game after rolling her ankle in practice on Wednesday, Latvian reserve Anete Jekabsone-Zogota played more than 12 minutes, missing both of her field-goal attempts.
This is the Sun’s first win in San Antonio since the 2006 season.
Friday, July 17, 2009
CARCIERI V. SALAZAR
New BIA head turns attention to Carcieri, gaming
Swearing in passes, business begins
By Rob Capriccioso
Story Published: Jul 3, 2009
Story Updated: Jul 2, 2009
WASHINGTON – Larry EchoHawk’s June 26 swearing in ceremony was a brief moment of respite from pressing Indian country matters for the new BIA chief as he now becomes steeped in issues of great importance to tribes, including the infamous Carcieri v. Salazar Supreme Court ruling and gaming concerns.The ceremony was one of overall joy and thanks. There was dancing, drum beats and many happy Native faces. Several in attendance expressed confidence in EchoHawk’s abilities.“Today is not a day for long speeches,” said EchoHawk, a member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. “It is a day for solemn oaths, a day for thanksgiving, and a day for prayers. I am honored to have been entrusted with this responsibility.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Just recently, a reader informed me that Bruce "Two Dogs" Bozsum, was sending letters to people in Washington D. C., stating how there was a need to pass new laws, that would allow tribes to put land into trust under the B.I.A.
That is a good thing Chairman Bozsum. Are you a little late to the party?
Where was he and the other Tribal Councilors, recently at the rally put on by the Narragansett Tribe, in Providence, Rhode Island? Doesn't he live in Rhode Island?
Only three tribal members, showed up in support of the tribe in Providence. They were Tribal Councilor Mark Hamilton, Ken Davison, and myself.
Mark Hamilton, spoke to the crowd and said, that the only way to address the situation, was to pass new legislation in Washington D. C.
How come our (the Mohegan Tribe) leaders didn't organize our involvement? HOW COME THE TRIBE DIDN'T GO? How come we were not there? Do you know? What do you think?
Swearing in passes, business begins
By Rob Capriccioso
Story Published: Jul 3, 2009
Story Updated: Jul 2, 2009
WASHINGTON – Larry EchoHawk’s June 26 swearing in ceremony was a brief moment of respite from pressing Indian country matters for the new BIA chief as he now becomes steeped in issues of great importance to tribes, including the infamous Carcieri v. Salazar Supreme Court ruling and gaming concerns.The ceremony was one of overall joy and thanks. There was dancing, drum beats and many happy Native faces. Several in attendance expressed confidence in EchoHawk’s abilities.“Today is not a day for long speeches,” said EchoHawk, a member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. “It is a day for solemn oaths, a day for thanksgiving, and a day for prayers. I am honored to have been entrusted with this responsibility.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: Just recently, a reader informed me that Bruce "Two Dogs" Bozsum, was sending letters to people in Washington D. C., stating how there was a need to pass new laws, that would allow tribes to put land into trust under the B.I.A.
That is a good thing Chairman Bozsum. Are you a little late to the party?
Where was he and the other Tribal Councilors, recently at the rally put on by the Narragansett Tribe, in Providence, Rhode Island? Doesn't he live in Rhode Island?
Only three tribal members, showed up in support of the tribe in Providence. They were Tribal Councilor Mark Hamilton, Ken Davison, and myself.
Mark Hamilton, spoke to the crowd and said, that the only way to address the situation, was to pass new legislation in Washington D. C.
How come our (the Mohegan Tribe) leaders didn't organize our involvement? HOW COME THE TRIBE DIDN'T GO? How come we were not there? Do you know? What do you think?
Thursday, July 16, 2009
TEN FOODS TO AVOID WHILE DRIVING
Insurance.com Releases List Of Foods To Avoid While Driving
Related Disasters By DIANE LEVICK
The Hartford Courant
12:45 PM EDT, July 16, 2009
You're risking a crash by talking on a cell phone while driving, but slurping down chili dogs, tacos, and other messy foods behind the wheel could lead to disaster too, an online insurance agency warns.
In a humorous approach to a serious subject Thursday, Insurance.com released its list of "top 10 foods to avoid while driving," along with the mouth-watering logic behind each distraction:
1. Coffee -- Even in cups with travel lids, somehow the liquid finds its way out of the opening each time you hit a bump.
2. Hot soup -- Many people drink it like coffee and run the same risks.
3. Tacos -- Any food that can disassemble itself will leave your car looking like a salad bar.
4. Chili -- Huge potential for drips and slops down the front of clothing.
5. Hamburgers -- From the grease of the burger to ketchup and mustard, it could all end up on your hands, your clothes, and the steering wheel.
6. Ribs and wings -- What's more distracting than licking your fingers?
7. Fried chicken -- More greasy hands. You've got to wipe them off while driving.
8. Jelly or cream-filled doughnuts -- Ever eaten one without the center oozing out?
9. Soda -- Carbonation. Fizz in the nose. Lids that leak. Disaster.
10. Chocolate -- Try to clean melted chocolate off the steering wheel without swerving.
There was no explanation why ice cream cones didn't make the top 10, which reads like a list of dieters' downfalls.
Cleveland-based Insurance.com cites an Exxon survey of 1,000 drivers that found more than 70 percent eat while driving, and 83 percent drink beverages. The insurance agency notes that just one accident can increase your insurance rates as much as 25 percent.
Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: I put this up for fun, however think about it.
Related Disasters By DIANE LEVICK
The Hartford Courant
12:45 PM EDT, July 16, 2009
You're risking a crash by talking on a cell phone while driving, but slurping down chili dogs, tacos, and other messy foods behind the wheel could lead to disaster too, an online insurance agency warns.
In a humorous approach to a serious subject Thursday, Insurance.com released its list of "top 10 foods to avoid while driving," along with the mouth-watering logic behind each distraction:
1. Coffee -- Even in cups with travel lids, somehow the liquid finds its way out of the opening each time you hit a bump.
2. Hot soup -- Many people drink it like coffee and run the same risks.
3. Tacos -- Any food that can disassemble itself will leave your car looking like a salad bar.
4. Chili -- Huge potential for drips and slops down the front of clothing.
5. Hamburgers -- From the grease of the burger to ketchup and mustard, it could all end up on your hands, your clothes, and the steering wheel.
6. Ribs and wings -- What's more distracting than licking your fingers?
7. Fried chicken -- More greasy hands. You've got to wipe them off while driving.
8. Jelly or cream-filled doughnuts -- Ever eaten one without the center oozing out?
9. Soda -- Carbonation. Fizz in the nose. Lids that leak. Disaster.
10. Chocolate -- Try to clean melted chocolate off the steering wheel without swerving.
There was no explanation why ice cream cones didn't make the top 10, which reads like a list of dieters' downfalls.
Cleveland-based Insurance.com cites an Exxon survey of 1,000 drivers that found more than 70 percent eat while driving, and 83 percent drink beverages. The insurance agency notes that just one accident can increase your insurance rates as much as 25 percent.
Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: I put this up for fun, however think about it.
MOHEGAN SUN SLOT REVENUE DOWN FOR JUNE
Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun report rough June
Slot revenue falls compared to 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By WILLIAM SOKOLIC
For The Norwich Bulletin
Posted Jul 15, 2009 @ 11:21 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The region’s two casinos reported another month of declining slot revenue in June.
Mohegan Sun posted an 8.8 percent decline compared to the same month in 2008 in figures sent to the state Division of Special Revenue. Foxwoods Resort Casino and MGM Grand at Foxwoods posted a decrease of 9.1 percent compared to June 2008.
Mohegan Sun reported a slot machine profit of $61.8 million for June; the state received $15.4 million of the revenue, equal to 25 percent of the win.
The casino won $9,164 per machine last month from 6,747 machines while winning $11,309 per machine last June with 5,998 machines. But the payout percentage to customers rose from 91.57 percent to 91.68 percent in June 2008.
According to Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Foxwoods’ owner, the casino won $57.8 million in June, paying $14.5 million to the state. The casinos brought in $7,611 per machine last month and $7,812 in June 2008. As with Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods’ payout to gamblers rose from 91.46 percent to 91.6 percent this June compared to last.
“I’m disappointed by the numbers,” Mohegan Sun President and CEO Mitchell Etess said. “We hoped decreases would be under 5 percent.”
Atlantic City worse
Both casinos outpaced Atlantic City, N.J., which experienced a 13.6 percent decline in June over the same month a year ago. All but two casinos had double-digit decreases.
“I’m pleased that we continue to outperform the industry as a whole,” said Michael Speller, president of Mashantucket Pequot Gaming Enterprises.
“The gap year over year is getting smaller,” said Robert Victoria, senior vice president of consumer marketing at Foxwoods. Table game play at Foxwoods has not dipped as much, he said.
Working together
The revenue decline continues a string of decreasing year-over-year results blamed on the general economic doldrums. To help offset these trends, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods this month launched a cooperative marketing campaign aimed at stealing business from Atlantic City.
The strategy will take a couple of months to have an impact. The first two days, the Web site drew 2,000 hits. Foxwoods hopes to see results by the end of July, Victoria said.
But Etess does not expect to see immediate results. The campaign is more long term. “People are not going to see the billboard and turn around,” he said.
Mohegan Sun is crowded, but visitors are spending a lot less, Etess said.
“We’re doing all the right things. But our hands are tied. We need to see the public feel better about the economy,” he said.
July and August are historically the strongest months of the year.
By the numbers Mohegan Sun June 2008 June 2009
Total bet in slot machines $804,717,941 $743,182,987
Casino profit* $67,828,998 $61,829,535
Profit percentage 8.43 percent 8.32 percent
Payout 91.57 percent 91.68 percent
Slot machines 5,998 6,747
Profit per slot machine $11,309 $9,164
Source: Mohegan Sun
Foxwoods June 2008 June 2009
Total bet in slot machines $745,359,584 $688,115,766
Casino profit* $63,647,951 $57,827,406
Profit percentage 8.54 percent 8.4 percent
Payout 91.46 percent 91.6 percent
Slot machines 8,147 7,598
Profit per slot machine $7,812 $7,611
Source: Foxwoods
*25 percent of the casino profit is paid to the state.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTES; June results for the Mohegan Sun Casino are bad. Think about the fact, that we (the Mohegan Tribe) had losses last year, too. Losses on top of losses.
Is there going to be losses to the Mohegan Tribal Government, because of the performance of the casino? Will the Mohegan Tribal Government be able to bring over enough revenue to run the Mohegan Tribal Government? Is the tribal government coming up short already?
The ultimate financial situation, the Mohegan Tribe finds itself in, is the responsibility of the Tribal Council. The present Tribal Council is failing us. Those are the facts.
When you vote, think of where we are, and how we got there. The results of the casino fall directly on the shoulders of the Tribal Council. We may not be able to change much, but we can change our leadership.
We need new blood. We need new ideas. We need people who will tell us the truth. We don't need to bury our heads in the sand. We can not continue to go down the present path that our Tribal Council is leading us? What do you think?
Slot revenue falls compared to 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By WILLIAM SOKOLIC
For The Norwich Bulletin
Posted Jul 15, 2009 @ 11:21 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The region’s two casinos reported another month of declining slot revenue in June.
Mohegan Sun posted an 8.8 percent decline compared to the same month in 2008 in figures sent to the state Division of Special Revenue. Foxwoods Resort Casino and MGM Grand at Foxwoods posted a decrease of 9.1 percent compared to June 2008.
Mohegan Sun reported a slot machine profit of $61.8 million for June; the state received $15.4 million of the revenue, equal to 25 percent of the win.
The casino won $9,164 per machine last month from 6,747 machines while winning $11,309 per machine last June with 5,998 machines. But the payout percentage to customers rose from 91.57 percent to 91.68 percent in June 2008.
According to Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Foxwoods’ owner, the casino won $57.8 million in June, paying $14.5 million to the state. The casinos brought in $7,611 per machine last month and $7,812 in June 2008. As with Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods’ payout to gamblers rose from 91.46 percent to 91.6 percent this June compared to last.
“I’m disappointed by the numbers,” Mohegan Sun President and CEO Mitchell Etess said. “We hoped decreases would be under 5 percent.”
Atlantic City worse
Both casinos outpaced Atlantic City, N.J., which experienced a 13.6 percent decline in June over the same month a year ago. All but two casinos had double-digit decreases.
“I’m pleased that we continue to outperform the industry as a whole,” said Michael Speller, president of Mashantucket Pequot Gaming Enterprises.
“The gap year over year is getting smaller,” said Robert Victoria, senior vice president of consumer marketing at Foxwoods. Table game play at Foxwoods has not dipped as much, he said.
Working together
The revenue decline continues a string of decreasing year-over-year results blamed on the general economic doldrums. To help offset these trends, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods this month launched a cooperative marketing campaign aimed at stealing business from Atlantic City.
The strategy will take a couple of months to have an impact. The first two days, the Web site drew 2,000 hits. Foxwoods hopes to see results by the end of July, Victoria said.
But Etess does not expect to see immediate results. The campaign is more long term. “People are not going to see the billboard and turn around,” he said.
Mohegan Sun is crowded, but visitors are spending a lot less, Etess said.
“We’re doing all the right things. But our hands are tied. We need to see the public feel better about the economy,” he said.
July and August are historically the strongest months of the year.
By the numbers Mohegan Sun June 2008 June 2009
Total bet in slot machines $804,717,941 $743,182,987
Casino profit* $67,828,998 $61,829,535
Profit percentage 8.43 percent 8.32 percent
Payout 91.57 percent 91.68 percent
Slot machines 5,998 6,747
Profit per slot machine $11,309 $9,164
Source: Mohegan Sun
Foxwoods June 2008 June 2009
Total bet in slot machines $745,359,584 $688,115,766
Casino profit* $63,647,951 $57,827,406
Profit percentage 8.54 percent 8.4 percent
Payout 91.46 percent 91.6 percent
Slot machines 8,147 7,598
Profit per slot machine $7,812 $7,611
Source: Foxwoods
*25 percent of the casino profit is paid to the state.
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTES; June results for the Mohegan Sun Casino are bad. Think about the fact, that we (the Mohegan Tribe) had losses last year, too. Losses on top of losses.
Is there going to be losses to the Mohegan Tribal Government, because of the performance of the casino? Will the Mohegan Tribal Government be able to bring over enough revenue to run the Mohegan Tribal Government? Is the tribal government coming up short already?
The ultimate financial situation, the Mohegan Tribe finds itself in, is the responsibility of the Tribal Council. The present Tribal Council is failing us. Those are the facts.
When you vote, think of where we are, and how we got there. The results of the casino fall directly on the shoulders of the Tribal Council. We may not be able to change much, but we can change our leadership.
We need new blood. We need new ideas. We need people who will tell us the truth. We don't need to bury our heads in the sand. We can not continue to go down the present path that our Tribal Council is leading us? What do you think?
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
COULD THIS HAPPEN TO THE MOHEGAN SUN
Tribal casino closes due to poor economy
Experts wonder if it’s a sign of more to come
By Rob Capriccioso
Story Published: Jul 15, 2009
Story Updated: Jul 10, 2009
ONAWA, Iowa – Visit the Web site of Casino Omaha, and it appears like a grand place for gaming fun and entertainment. As of press time, the site even heralds the facility as “the Midwest’s most exciting gaming and dining experience.” Just one problem: the casino, owned by the Omaha Tribe of western Iowa and northeastern Nebraska, shut down June 30.
Gaming and financial experts say the casino is one of the first tribally-owned gaming facility casualties of the steep economic downturn the industry has faced in recent times. And some are worried that more tribal casinos could suffer a similar fate.
“It saddens me to see so many tribes burdened by the downturn of the economy,” said Bill Lomax, Native American Finance Officers Association president.
“The Omaha Tribe is not alone in its struggle to turn around its casino; many other tribes are facing serious difficulties.”
Kathryn Rand, co-director of the Institute for the Study of Tribal Gaming Law and Policy, noted that besides layoffs and postponement of expansion plans, there have been hiring freezes, shortened hours – a whole range of “tightening the belt” responses – at several tribal casinos in recent months.
“There is no doubt that the gaming industry, including the tribal gaming industry, is feeling the pinch of the recession.”
What’s so scary about the Omaha Tribe’s situation, gaming experts said, is how quickly the tide turned. In fact, not too many years ago, business was booming.
Jim Hunt, the casino’s general manager, recalled that the casino was a strong performer after it opened in 1992. It provided revenue to support various tribal projects, and ended up employing about 185 tribal members.
When the doors recently closed, most of the tribal members – and almost everyone else, besides Hunt and a couple of other employees – lost their jobs.
Bill Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming, said casinos in rural areas with a lot of nearby competition could soon find themselves in similar positions to that of Casino Omaha.
“Some small commercial casinos under those scenarios have been forced to close,” Eadington said. “It’s just a really difficult situation, and the downturn of the economy has made it all the worse.”
Hunt said that competition and the rural location of the casino were less of reasons for its closure than its need for a substantial remodel and update. When the casino closed, he noted, it still featured coin-operated slot machines, which pale in comparison to newer, ticketless technologies.
He said the tribe is working to find a business partner to help them finance a deal to refurbish the facility, although one has not been found. He added that the tribe expects the casino to re-open within months.
“Once we get the casino restructured, it will be a much stronger revenue resource for the tribe for years to come,” Hunt said, adding that it will be a much more streamlined operation.
Will Cummings, a gaming expert who has done research for the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, said Casino Omaha’s closure is not terribly surprising, considering that the gaming market in Iowa is already very competitive – and more casinos are expected to open soon.
“The facility had fallen behind the others,” Cummings said.
“You have to be able to keep up with the competition. And that can be exceptionally hard to do in this economy.”
Cummings said he didn’t know how realistic it would be for the tribe to turn this situation around in the current economy.
With the economic pressures of late, Lomax said an increasing number of tribes will find themselves having to buckle down. He doesn’t necessarily believe there will be many closures of tribal casinos, but he said there are a number of tribes that will need to undertake a restructuring of their debt and seek to streamline staff and other expenses.
“Several tribes are nearing or currently facing default on their loans,” Lomax said.
“This is a new situation for Indian country and will require those tribes that do default to enter into negotiations with their creditors to work out new loan arrangements. This process may in some cases be complicated by tribal sovereignty issues and the fact that it is unclear whether the bankruptcy code applies to tribes.”
For its part, NAFOA has developed a “turnaround management” seminar focusing on tribal enterprise restructuring to be held at the NAFOA Annual Conference, scheduled for Sept. 8 – 10 at the Tamaya Resort at the Santa Ana Pueblo in New Mexico.
“As tribes look to restructure their businesses, they need to look at debt load and payment structures, food and beverage, retail attractions, marketing budgets, enhanced marketing efforts, and staffing,” Lomax said.
“Hard choices and sacrifices will have to be made but by working proactively, I believe that most of the tribes that are currently struggling will be able to bring their operations back to profitability. Let’s hope we see some recovery in the economy soon.”
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: How much is the deficit, (short fall) in the Mohegan Tribal Government budget, so far this year (fiscal year 2009)?
How much will the deficit be at the end of fiscal year 2009 (ending September 30, 2009)? How will the Mohegan Tribal Council make up the short fall?
Will the Tribal Council cut health care, education, employees or per caps?
Are the Tribal Councilors who are running for re-election, just waiting to get re-elected to confirm the dire straights that some tribal members believe we (the Mohegan Tribe) are in, because of our government's decisions?
In my opinion, think, as tribal members, do we want four (4) more years of poor leadership like we have had? Do we need change?
Could what is happening to other tribes happen here? Are we on the brink of disaster? What do you think?
Experts wonder if it’s a sign of more to come
By Rob Capriccioso
Story Published: Jul 15, 2009
Story Updated: Jul 10, 2009
ONAWA, Iowa – Visit the Web site of Casino Omaha, and it appears like a grand place for gaming fun and entertainment. As of press time, the site even heralds the facility as “the Midwest’s most exciting gaming and dining experience.” Just one problem: the casino, owned by the Omaha Tribe of western Iowa and northeastern Nebraska, shut down June 30.
Gaming and financial experts say the casino is one of the first tribally-owned gaming facility casualties of the steep economic downturn the industry has faced in recent times. And some are worried that more tribal casinos could suffer a similar fate.
“It saddens me to see so many tribes burdened by the downturn of the economy,” said Bill Lomax, Native American Finance Officers Association president.
“The Omaha Tribe is not alone in its struggle to turn around its casino; many other tribes are facing serious difficulties.”
Kathryn Rand, co-director of the Institute for the Study of Tribal Gaming Law and Policy, noted that besides layoffs and postponement of expansion plans, there have been hiring freezes, shortened hours – a whole range of “tightening the belt” responses – at several tribal casinos in recent months.
“There is no doubt that the gaming industry, including the tribal gaming industry, is feeling the pinch of the recession.”
What’s so scary about the Omaha Tribe’s situation, gaming experts said, is how quickly the tide turned. In fact, not too many years ago, business was booming.
Jim Hunt, the casino’s general manager, recalled that the casino was a strong performer after it opened in 1992. It provided revenue to support various tribal projects, and ended up employing about 185 tribal members.
When the doors recently closed, most of the tribal members – and almost everyone else, besides Hunt and a couple of other employees – lost their jobs.
Bill Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming, said casinos in rural areas with a lot of nearby competition could soon find themselves in similar positions to that of Casino Omaha.
“Some small commercial casinos under those scenarios have been forced to close,” Eadington said. “It’s just a really difficult situation, and the downturn of the economy has made it all the worse.”
Hunt said that competition and the rural location of the casino were less of reasons for its closure than its need for a substantial remodel and update. When the casino closed, he noted, it still featured coin-operated slot machines, which pale in comparison to newer, ticketless technologies.
He said the tribe is working to find a business partner to help them finance a deal to refurbish the facility, although one has not been found. He added that the tribe expects the casino to re-open within months.
“Once we get the casino restructured, it will be a much stronger revenue resource for the tribe for years to come,” Hunt said, adding that it will be a much more streamlined operation.
Will Cummings, a gaming expert who has done research for the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, said Casino Omaha’s closure is not terribly surprising, considering that the gaming market in Iowa is already very competitive – and more casinos are expected to open soon.
“The facility had fallen behind the others,” Cummings said.
“You have to be able to keep up with the competition. And that can be exceptionally hard to do in this economy.”
Cummings said he didn’t know how realistic it would be for the tribe to turn this situation around in the current economy.
With the economic pressures of late, Lomax said an increasing number of tribes will find themselves having to buckle down. He doesn’t necessarily believe there will be many closures of tribal casinos, but he said there are a number of tribes that will need to undertake a restructuring of their debt and seek to streamline staff and other expenses.
“Several tribes are nearing or currently facing default on their loans,” Lomax said.
“This is a new situation for Indian country and will require those tribes that do default to enter into negotiations with their creditors to work out new loan arrangements. This process may in some cases be complicated by tribal sovereignty issues and the fact that it is unclear whether the bankruptcy code applies to tribes.”
For its part, NAFOA has developed a “turnaround management” seminar focusing on tribal enterprise restructuring to be held at the NAFOA Annual Conference, scheduled for Sept. 8 – 10 at the Tamaya Resort at the Santa Ana Pueblo in New Mexico.
“As tribes look to restructure their businesses, they need to look at debt load and payment structures, food and beverage, retail attractions, marketing budgets, enhanced marketing efforts, and staffing,” Lomax said.
“Hard choices and sacrifices will have to be made but by working proactively, I believe that most of the tribes that are currently struggling will be able to bring their operations back to profitability. Let’s hope we see some recovery in the economy soon.”
EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE: How much is the deficit, (short fall) in the Mohegan Tribal Government budget, so far this year (fiscal year 2009)?
How much will the deficit be at the end of fiscal year 2009 (ending September 30, 2009)? How will the Mohegan Tribal Council make up the short fall?
Will the Tribal Council cut health care, education, employees or per caps?
Are the Tribal Councilors who are running for re-election, just waiting to get re-elected to confirm the dire straights that some tribal members believe we (the Mohegan Tribe) are in, because of our government's decisions?
In my opinion, think, as tribal members, do we want four (4) more years of poor leadership like we have had? Do we need change?
Could what is happening to other tribes happen here? Are we on the brink of disaster? What do you think?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)