Casino Surveillance News

CSN News:

The Keynote article this month has little to do with Casino Surveillance: It has much more to do with personnel hiring, training and retention practices in the casino industry, sparked off by an "innovation" recently announced by the Revel Casino, opening in Atlantic City (see "Busts and Scams" below). This article will never become a part of my casino surveillance materials, as it is far outside the boundaries of what is considered a part of our duties, though there are some aspects that concern us in Surveillance. There are also links to articles by a colleague, Professor I. Nelson Rose, who has been intimately associated with the recent changes in regards to Internet Poker, and who presents some legal views, including his testimony in Congress, that we should all consider as a part of the "Big Picture" of our jobs.

It's News Time:

(Email me if any of the links don't work for you and I will send the text.)

Busts and Scams:

A Las Vegas priest has been sentenced to three years in prison for theft of more than $650,000 from his parish, to feed his gambling habit. See the stories at link 1 and link 2 Two Louisiana women were arrested in early January for fraudulent and counterfeit tickets video poker tickets cashed at local businesses. See the story Here's a good, white-collar scam for you: the Kentucky legislature is mandating ethics training for all its members, and paying a famous convicted felon $5000 an hour for his insights. Jack Abramoff was convicted of a number of counts of fraud, conspiracy and lobbying scams. He still owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution to Indian tribes. See the story Apparently the record gaming revenues in Macau come from sources the casinos would rather not have people looking at too closely: illegal money transfers from mainland China. It is starting to look as if Macau's ascendancy in the worldwide gaming market may be built on a foundation of sand. See the story A Massachusetts state trooper has been arrested and charged with running an illegal bookmaking operation as well as extortion and other crimes. See the story New Jersey casino regulators fined the Tropicana Casino and Resort $27,500 for allowing a 14-year-old to gamble last summer, as well as violating the rules of a card game. See the story Parx Casino agreed to pay a $30,000 fine for an underage gambling violation, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board announced in mid-January. See the story The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board fined Mount Airy Casino Resort $20,000 for purchasing goods from a supplier owned by Louis DeNaples while his gaming license was suspended. See the story An unidentified man stole about $360 in credits from a Mount Airy guest in late January. See the story Mount Airy Casino Resort was fined $160,000 for allowing seven underage guests on the gaming floor in February 2011. Many other Pennsylvania casinos were also hit during the same session of the Board. See the story A Saskatchewan dealer convicted of multiple counts of cheating faces prison time unless he repays the tribe that hired and trained him for losses from his cheating. See the story Revel Casino, soon to open in Atlantic City, has announced a new "innovation" in its hiring practices. New hires for the casino will face having to re-apply for the jobs they hold every four to six years. See the story Five women and one man were arrested during a prostitution raid at the Sands casino in Bethlehem, PA. See the story An unemployed man has confessed to strangling his wife to death after she discovered he had rung up $20k of gambling debts. See the story A 61 year-old woman is has been busted for embezzlement  after losing $1.5 million of her boss’s money playing slots at a convenience store in Texas. See the story

Online Poker News:

The D.C. Council voted to repeal the city’s controversial Internet gambling law. See the story at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-wire/post/dc-council-rejects-internet-gambling/2012/02/07/gIQAX0O0wQ_blog.html