Judge rules that poker isn’t gambling under federal law

Online players rejoice: ‘Poker is not a crime, it is a game of skill’

OK, while this may seem at first blush to be a big thing in New York, in the end, I do not think it will change the gaming landscape.   While poker may no longer be gambling in New York under Federal Law, I beleive that poker will remain illegal gambling under the New York State Penal Law.

New York defines a "game of chance" any game "whose outcome depends in a material degree upon an element of chance, notwithstanding that skill of the contestants may also be a factor....."  Penal Law Section 225.00. 

But it is a fun ruling anyway.

Larry Neumeister, Associated Press

Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2012 | 6 p.m.

 

NEW YORK — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that poker is more a game of skill than chance and cannot be prosecuted under a law created to stop organized crime families from making millions of dollars from gambling.

The decision by Judge Jack Weinstein in Brooklyn was embraced by advocates of card games pushing to legalize Internet poker in the United States. The judge relied extensively on the findings of a defense expert who analyzed online poker games.

The ruling tossed out a jury's July conviction of a man charged with conspiring to operate an illegal underground poker club, a business featuring Texas Hold'em games run in a warehouse where he also sold electric bicycles. There were no allegations in the case that organized crime was involved or that anything such as money laundering or loansharking occurred.

"Because the poker played on the defendant's premises is not predominately a game of chance, it is not gambling" as defined in the federal law, the judge wrote in a lengthy decision that traced the history of poker and federal laws to combat illegal gambling.

Prosecutors did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.

The judge said his findings will not prevent federal law enforcement authorities from curbing the influence of organized crime because poker games operated through the Mafia can be prosecuted through federal racketeering laws. He said it also does not prevent states from banning card games operated as businesses, which many of them have. He mentioned that state courts that have ruled on the issue are divided as to whether poker constitutes a game of skill, a game of chance, or a mixture of the two.

Defense lawyer Kannan Sundaram had asked the judge to reject the jury verdict against Lawrence
Dicristina on the grounds that the law doesn't apply to the case. Sundaram said Tuesday his client was happy with the decision.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/aug/21/judge-rules-poker-isnt-gambling-under-federal-law/ 

The release of a report on the investigation into thoroughbred fatalities at the Aqueduct Racetrack's inner track from December 2011 to March 2012 has been delayed until after Saturday's running of the Travers Stakes in Saratoga Springs.

The New York Task Force on Racehorse Health and Safety was created in late March at the behest of Gov. Andrew Cuomo to investigate 20 horse deaths that happened during the winter meet at Aqueduct. The four-member task force consisted of retired jockey Jerry Bailey, New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association Chairman and CEO Alan Foreman, New Jersey Equine Clinic hospital director Dr. Scott Palmer and Kentucky Horse Racing Commission medical director Dr. Mary Scollay.

http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/capital-region-scene/2012/aug/21/aqueduct-horse-death-probe-results-delayed/

In other news, NYRA is tired of having its handle and race attendence placed under the spotlight:

The New York Racing Association has announced that it will no longer release handle and attendance figures at the close of the each racing week following the last race on Saratoga's Monday cards.

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/posttime/nyra_changes_figures_release_policy_8xQJy8l75jDeUYzttVwRyK#ixzz24I7UD6Wd

In Massachusetts, MGM is going forward with its' proposal for a Casino in Springfield:

Casino giant MGM Resorts International is going to unveil plans Wednesday for a resort casino in Springfield Massachusetts. 

At a formal announcement top MGM officials plan to release architectural renderings of what is described as a major entertainment complex and provide site tours. Several city councilors have confirmed MGM’s interest in building a casino in a three block area of the south end of downtown.

Its an area where several buildings were damaged by last year’s tornado. Ameristar casinos has also proposed a project in Springfield, and more are expected according Paula Meara, who chairs the city’s casino site committee.

Also competing for the sole western Massachusetts casino license is Mohegan Sun, which has had a project in development for years in Palmer.

The Comptroller's Audit and tid bits

The Comptroller's Audit

Shock of shocks: the Comptroller has found that the VLTs are not increasing attendance of betting at the Harness Tracks.  It has always seemed to me that the purpose of giving the harness tracks the VLT parlors is to provide a subsidy to the equine industry in New York, which not only does not cost the taxpayers anything but also provides significant revenue to the State itself.

Furthermore, New York needed the cover of helping the harness tracks to sell the idea.

As strange as it may sound, twelve years ago the public and the State elected leaders had a hard time envisioning legalized gaming in New York.  In order to make it happen, the State needed a cover that the people could accept.  There was already betting at the tracks and if we do not let them have it, our horse industry will die.  All true.  But it also let the camels nose in under the tent and now we are discussing seven full blown casinos in the State of New York.

But I will tell you where this all came from.  If the Supreme Court and Congress had not authorized Indian casinos, we would not be having this discussion at all.

I have been fairly certain since 1993, when Turning Stone opened, that it would only be a matter of time before the State authorized casinos.  Simply put, the non-Indian community was not going to sit by and allow the Native Americans to have a monopoly on Gaming in the State of New York.

The New York State Comptroller has issued a report concluding that the use of video slots to reverse horse racing's declining popularity does not appear to be helping the tracks, a new audit suggests.

 Audit findings by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, and an accompanying evaluation from outgoing Division of the Lottery Director Gordon Medenica, said that despite the advent of video lottery terminals, handle and attendance at horse races are not rebounding at racino facilities. Lawmakers legalized VLTs in 2001, authorizing them only at tracks.

 But on-track betting totals have continued to drop, DiNapoli's audit said. "In fact, total handle on live racing in New York decreased from $53 million in 2004 to $46 million in 2010, a decrease of 13 percent."

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Tracks-get-no-VLT-boost-3788655.php#ixzz23onUXcRb

Waiting on NYRA

We are all waiting with baited breath to see who gets appointed to the New NYRA Board.  It can't be too political, it can't all be people in the business.  It needs new outside people, it needs politicals and it needs equine industry people.

Just so you all know, I have not received a call from the Governor yet.

Assembly Racing Committee Chairman J. Gary Pretlow, D-Yonkers, said that he and Speaker Sheldon Silver will meet Wednesday to discuss Assembly picks for the new NYRA Reorganization Board that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to announce by Oct. 1.

Cuomo will name eight people including a chairman to the board. The search is also on for a new chief executive officer and published, but unconfirmed reports, have said McClain — NYRA’s president and chief operating officer — will be replaced, too.

http://saratogian.com/articles/2012/08/14/news/doc502a888e8e032413280963.txt

The Numbers at Saratoga

The New York Racing Association Inc., which operates the Saratoga Springs track, says about 465,000 people have attended 22 days of races so far this summer. That crowd is 2 percent smaller than the 474,000 present through this point in the 2011 meet.

Bets placed at the track totaled $66.1 million, down $500,000 to date, or 0.8 percent to date.

http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2012/08/14/nyra-saratoga-meet-update.html

So Who Do We Get to Run NYRA?

NYRA

There was a commentary in the Thoroughbred Times this weekend calling for Governor Cuomo to appoint a “cold-hearted” CEO of NYRA.  The author wants the fans to be put first.

There is some real merit to the article, but I think the author wants to take this in the wrong direction.

NYRA has always been run by horse racing people.  People who know and love the business.  I think the flaw in the business model may lie there.  NYRA has a long and storied history of running NYRA, as a business, into the ground, and then screaming for the tax payers to bail it out.

What New York State needs is a cold hearted CEO, who can run NYRA like a business.  With the baskets full of cash coming from the VLT’s this can be done.  NYRA can succeed.  NYRA can be profitable (or at least not lose its’ shorts).   But it is going to have to be run like a business.  There are people in the private sector in the associated fields of gaming and horse racing who have experience doing this.

NYRA should not be run just to make the fans happy.  NYRA should be run to work for all of New York, including the tax payers.  These matters do not have to be mutually exclusive.  A successful business will produce something that their customers will want to spend money on and not run at a loss.

I think it is time that NYRA was run by an Accountant who knows gaming and horse racing.  Someone who will make the hard cuts that others cannot or will not.

Rant over.

Cuomo can install a good, coldhearted CEO at NYRA with marching orders to put fans first. (Not a COO. Not a CFO, but an experienced CEO.) Fans want the modern sports model, so the direction is clear.

 *   *  *

A coldhearted CEO at NYRA can say to the other racing jurisdictions, "We need for Thoroughbred racing to have a strong national presence in all of our major markets to have growing public support and to maximize our off-track wagering."

Where does Cuomo find this individual who is going to change the face of Thoroughbred racing in the media capital of the world?

Once a business plan and preliminary projections are in black and white, I don't think he will have to look very far. You know, if a coldhearted CEO can make it there, they can make it anywhere.

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/national-news/2012/08/10/pope-commentary.aspx

The Economic Engine of Indian Gaming

I cite below two news reports from California and Oklahoma describing the enormous economic impact of Indian Gaming in those States.  So the Indian Nations in California and Oklahoma have commissioned economic studies to point of to the state political leaders.  This is a lesson that should not to be lost on New York’s political leadership. 

States have a tendency to see Indian gaming enterprises as taking money away from the State and in the best of circumstances as a direct form of revenue generation for the State.  This tends to put the Indian nations and the States in an adversarial position.  However, the larger picture of the economic contribution must not be dismissed.  The message of the California and Oklahoma tribes to their State governments is “Hey, the indirect benefit you will get from us being open way surpasses what you are trying to squeeze out of us directly.”

I am just sayin’.

Indian casinos in California generate $7.5 billion in economic activity every year and have helped to create 52,000 jobs, according to a report released Wednesday.

The study, conducted for the California Nations Indian Gaming Association by research firm Beacon Economics, put the overall income collected by the employees at about $2.7 billion. The study found that of the $7.5 billion in annual economic activity tied to the Indian gaming industry, about $3.5 billion is generated directly from spending at casinos.

http://www.newsmax.com/US/california-indian-casino-profit/2012/08/09/id/448095

http://www.redding.com/news/2012/aug/12/study-shows-indian-gaming-pumps-75-billion-into/

A recent report by Casino City Press, a leading comprehensive annual survey of gaming in the United States, showed that in 2010 alone, gaming across the state had grown to nearly 2.33 percent of Oklahoma's economy. Tribal gaming is the most significant portion of that growth. In fact, of the $210 million in revenue generated from gaming in 2010, $99.8 million came from casinos while the remainder resulted from the Oklahoma lottery and the state's racetracks.

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-indian-gaming-boosts-revenue-creates-jobs/article/3699805#ixzz23RAKpLAZ

Saratoga Casino and Raceway has applied to Kentucky state racing regulators to buy an interest in Ellis Park, a thoroughbred racetrack in Henderson, Kentucky.  The track was designed after the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York, and features a 1.125 mile dirt track.

The documents don't indicate how much of an ownership stake Saratoga Casino and Raceway is seeking at Ellis.

But Ellis Park owner Ron Geary has said that he has been seeking a minority partner to invest $3 million to help pay for remodeling a portion of the Henderson thoroughbred track's clubhouse into a casino-style facility and accommodate Instant Racing gambling machines.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/aug/13/new-york-casinoharness-track-seeking-a-stake-in/

Odds and Ends.......

The Cuomo administration threatened Thursday to shift nearly $50 million in state road projects within Seneca Nation territories to other communities unless the tribe quickly drops its demands for "exorbitant'' payments from Albany.

 Worsening relations between the tribe and state was evident in two dueling media events: one called by the head of the state transportation department a few miles outside the tribe's Cattaraugus reservation to deliver the project cancelation threat and one later in the day by Seneca officials to declare the Cuomo administration's actions may be putting motorists at risk.
"We're getting to the breaking point and the state's willing to jeopardize public safety to achieve political purposes," Seneca Nation President Robert Odawi Portersaid

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/capital-connection/albany/article981998.ece

And speaking of the Senecas, Gambling Opponent attorney Neil Murray is keeping his pr and litigation pressure in opposition to the Senecas construction and opening of the permanent casino in Buffalo.

Counsel for the Citizens Against Casino Gambling in Erie County issued a stern reminder yesterday in a letter to the attorney representing the Seneca Nation of Indians with respect to the Tribe's plans announced last Wednesday to proceed with the construction of a $130 million permanent casino in downtown Buffalo despite ongoing litigation in Federal court challenging its legality.

The anti-gambling coalition's attorney, Cornelius D. Murray, noted that the same court had already struck down two previous approvals of such gambling by the National Indian Gaming Commission ("NIGC"). On July 25 the court issued a final briefing schedule before issuing a determination with respect to the NIGC's latest attempt to get around the Court's prior rulings. The Senecas' attorney was in court when the court issued the scheduling order, just one week before the Tribe's announcement on August 1.

"It's remarkable," Murray said, "that the Tribe would presume to move forward as if the Court's decision won't matter one way or the other. Without advising the court of their plans, the Senecas have apparently adopted a 'damn the torpedoes' approach. I can't imagine putting that amount of money at risk before knowing how the judge will rule." Murray added. 

"This project has been on-again, off-again, ever since the Senecas announced a $330 million project with a 22-story hotel and parking garage nearly five years ago. This latest proposal is a significant scale-back, but it still involves over $130 million. "At the very least, the more prudent course for everyone would be to wait and see how Judge Skretny decides," Murray said.

http://www.buffalorising.com/2012/08/dump-trucks-dont-impress-casino-opponents.html

The first week at Saratoga produced some great numbers, but those seem to be slacking off a bit.  However, the genral trend of betting on Saratoga races is up.

While on-track business has been a bit weaker than 2011, total wagering on races at Saratoga Race Course is up 7.6 percent through the first 16 days of this year's meet.

According to NYRA stats, attendance for the first three weeks of the meet ending Monday was 319,806, a 1.9 percent decrease from 325,909 in 2011.

On-track handle totaled $48,208,874, up .7 percent from $47,896,094 last year. Wagering downstate at Belmont Café and the Aqueduct simulcast center was $8,849,611 for a combined NYRA facilities handle of $57,058,485, up 2.2 percent from $55,835,011 in 2011.

The total handle, which includes wagers on Saratoga races both on-track and from simulcast outlets nationwide, was $233,380,247, up 7.6 percent from $216,977,479 last year.
The average betting interests per race for the 16 days were 8.5 (1,411 total) compared to 8.6 (1,372 total) in 2011. There have been 73 turf races and 13 races taken off the turf and moved to the main track, compared to 65 on and 12 off in 2011.

Attendance on track Monday was up eight percent to 15,667, the on-track handle was up 16 percent to $2,471,581 and the all-sources handle was ahead 26 percent to $10,939,600.

http://centralny.ynn.com/content/special_coverage/594339/the-spa-spot--total-handle-up-as-third-week-wraps/

Gamblers wagered a record $1.13 billion at the "racino" at Aqueduct Racetrack in New York City last month, the latest evidence that the popular electronic gambling operation is putting a dent in neighboring states' casino revenues.
The Resorts World Casino New York City in Queens reported to state regulators that the amount gambled and the net revenue for July were at an all-time monthly high since its opening in October. The casino — often called a racino because it overlooks the Aqueduct thoroughbred track — has about 5,000 electronic slots and other games.


http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/record_wagered_at_aqueduct_racino_6up3YlmWizSuyrTSVWMbJM#ixzz22yyg6xyG

The New York Post is reporting that the long-awaited report on the 20 racing-related horse deaths that occurred over Aqueduct’s inner dirt track last winter will be released Tuesday, Aug. 21.

 The New York Task Force on Racehorse Health and Safety was formed March 22 in response to a letter sent from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office to the New York Racing Association expressing concern over the rash of fatal breakdowns, which totaled more than twice the national average per 1,000 starts.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/horse_racing/aqueduct_report_on_race_horse_deaths_oTsvnMZ5wriOdOHltshf8M#ixzz22yfcJqyM

Massachusetts Governor Signs Mashpee Gaming Compact

While I have been keeping a vague eye on what has been happening in Massachusetts, I was under the impression that it would be some time until that actually started moving forward. Well, lo and behold, I am once again proven wrong.

Like Governor Cuomo lightening swift movements in New York, Governor Patrick in Massachusetts not only got the Gaming Law passed, he now has an executed Gaming Compact with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Further, the Tribe has already gotten the approval of the Town of Taunton to build the casino there.  

The other competing and proposed casinos in Massachusetts are now in danger of being left in the dust of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, whilst they bicker and fight to get their piece of the action:

On Monday, July 30, the governor’s office in the State House was jammed packed with citizens of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, members of the press, state officials, the mayor of the City of Taunton, and of course Patrick and Mashpee Chairman Cedric Cromwell, all celebrating the signing of the tribal-state gaming compact. The tribe intends to build a $500 million destination resort casino in the southeastern part of the state.

The gaming compact calls for the tribe to share 21.5 percent of gross gaming revenue with the state, an amount that some people have questioned as excessive. But Aaron Tobey Jr., council vice chairman, said the compact preserves the tribe’s aboriginal hunting and fishing rights. “That has more value than the revenue sharing itself. That means so much to us,” Tobey said.

 Cromwell said the compact is unique in Indian country. “Here’s the key point: I believe we’re the first tribe where the state and the government have negotiated a compact with a landless tribe based on the history of who we are as a sovereign federally recognized tribe with 12,000 years of history,” Cromwell said.

In April, the Mashpee nation unveiled plans for a $500 million destination resort casino in Taunton, one of the oldest cities in the country, located in part of the Wampanoag’s vast aboriginal territory that tribal ancestors called Cohannet. On May 17, Cromwell and Taunton Mayor Tom Hoye announced that they had negotiated an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) for the development of the tribe’s gaming facility. The IGA was required by the state before the tribe could move forward with its casino plans. The agreement will provide approximately $33 million in up front mitigation payments and a minimum annual payment to the city of approximately $13 million. Taunton residents approved the casino proposal at a binding referendum on June 9 by a vote of 7696-4571. Also in June, the National Indian Gaming Commission approved the tribe’s gaming ordinance and the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced the tribe’s land-into-trust application was under review.

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/07/31/massachusets-governor-signs-mashpee-gaming-compact-126809#ixzz22PnQ3a1r