{"id":20785,"date":"2017-12-15T09:17:58","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T17:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=20785"},"modified":"2017-12-15T09:18:20","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T17:18:20","slug":"mohegan-sun-commits-million-dollar-boner-seminoles-nettled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/mohegan-sun-commits-million-dollar-boner-seminoles-nettled\/","title":{"rendered":"Mohegan Sun commits million-dollar boner; Seminoles nettled"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mohegan Sun Pocono Downs<\/strong> made Pennsylvania<\/strong> history in a manner it would rather not, having been slapped with the biggest casino fine in Keystone State history for a slot-machine scam. Already, President Robert Sope<\/strong>r had resigned in disgrace last winter and \"\"former player-development veep Robert Pellegrini<\/strong> is doing time for the fraud that led to the bulk of the $1 million fine<\/a>. Summarizing court documents, Casino.org<\/em> reports that “between May 2014 and April 2015, Rochelle Poszeluznyj<\/strong>, a cocktail waitress, would note down customers\u2019 numbers as she served them drinks. She would then pass these numbers on to Pellegrini, who would create fake cards and load them with complementary spins.” The beneficiary of the latter was Mark Joseph Heltzel<\/strong>, who got $420,000 worth of unwarranted free play through these underhanded means. All three of the conspirators are currently in the slammer.<\/p>\n

Mohegan Sun tried to spin the embarrassment as a positive, stating it “took immediate action to correct the issues both found by the [Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board<\/strong>]\u00a0and self-reported.\u00a0We take great pride in their acknowledgement of our corrective measures and complete cooperation. As an organization, we are glad to have this resolved and are focused on the future.\u201d In other words, move right along, nothing to see here.<\/p>\n

* In Florida<\/strong>, the Seminole Tribe<\/strong> is looking askance at over two-dozen “electronic gambling parlors” in the Jacksonville<\/strong> area, arguing that they infringe<\/a> upon the tribe’s compacted exclusivity for Las Vegas<\/strong>-style casino gambling. The storefront casinos don’t \"\"make many bones about what they are, with names like Big Chances Internet Caf\u00e9<\/strong> and Fun Cade<\/strong>. It’s not ‘Net-betting, though:\u00a0\u201cThe games they offer are resident on an in-house server. We\u2019re talking blackjack, all other kinds of games,” said tribal counsel Barry Richard<\/strong>. The state had previously dropped the hammer on Internet cafes but this time around\u00a0\u201cit\u2019s just not high on their priority list,\u201d Richard complains. The Seminole compact<\/a> is a touchy issue and fears of broaching it have stymied DFS legalization in Florida, among other issues.<\/p>\n

As for the importance of compacted games, it will\u00a0on display at Seminole Brighton Casino<\/strong>, which will be previewing blackjack, three-card poker and War, starting Monday.\u201cThe table games will simply enhance our status as being the Lake Okeechobee<\/strong> region\u2019s number one gaming destination,\u201d said General Manager Marty John<\/strong>s.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Now that it has settled its issues with Arizona<\/strong> Gov. Doug Ducey<\/strong> (R), the Tohono \"\"O’odham Nation<\/strong> has broken ground<\/a> on the permanent, $400 million version of Desert Diamond Casino<\/strong>. (The Class II ‘box of slots’ from which the tribe currently offers gambling will be converted to back-of-house functions eventually.) Desert Diamond is strategically located in the\u00a0Westgate Entertainment District<\/strong>, near the arenas of the Arizona Cardinals<\/strong> and Phoenix Coyotes<\/strong>. Don’t get all excited just yet: Construction is set to take until late 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mohegan Sun Pocono Downs made Pennsylvania history in a manner it would rather not, having been slapped with the biggest casino fine in Keystone State history for a slot-machine scam. Already, President Robert Soper had resigned in disgrace last winter … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[109,36,37,189,167,95,25,200,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20785"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20787,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20785\/revisions\/20787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}