Tag: Casino operators

US stocks rise, remain unsteady ahead of Thanksgiving

NEW YORK — Stocks rose on Wall Street Tuesday morning but trading remained unsteady ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6% as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 276 points, or 0.8%, to 33.880 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.3%.

Financial and technology companies gained ground. ground. Charles Schwab rose 2.6% and chipmaker Nvidia rose 1.3%.

Energy stocks moved higher along with a 2% rise in U.S. crude oil prices. Chevron rose 2.1%.

Bond yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, slipped to 3.78% from 3.84% late Monday.

Investors have very little news to review this week, but several retailers and technology companies are closing out the latest round of corporate earnings with their financial results. Best Buy surged 9.8% after the electronics retailer did better than analysts expected and said a decline in sales for the year will not be as bad as it had projected earlier.

Dell Technologies rose 4.2% after the computer maker reported strong third-quarter profit and revenue. Zoom Video slumped 7.5% after giving investors a weak profit and revenue forecast.

Nearly every company in the S&P 500 has reported their latest financial results, according to FactSet, and the results have been mixed. Companies in the index have reported overall earnings growth of about 2%, but have also issued various warnings about weaker consumer demand and crimped sales as inflation continues squeezing consumers.

Inflation and the Federal Reserve’s fight to tame it remains the main concern for Wall Street. The central bank on Wednesday will release minutes from its latest policy meeting, potentially giving investors more insight into its decision-making process.

Wall Street has been hoping that the central bank might ease up on its aggressive rate increases. Its benchmark rate currently stands at 3.75% to 4%, up from close to zero in March.

The Fed has warned that it may have to ultimately raise rates to previously unanticipated level to cool the hottest inflation in decades. That strategy raises the risk that it could go too far in slowing economic growth and bring on a recession.

Markets in Europe and Asia were mostly higher.

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November 22, 2022
Former tribal leader gets 3 years in casino bribery case

BOSTON — The former leader of a Massachusetts Native American tribe convicted of accepting bribes including exercise equipment and a weekend stay at a luxury hotel from an architectural firm working with the tribe to build a casino has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Cedric Cromwell, former chair of the Mashpee Wampanoags, was also sentenced in U.S. District Court in Boston on Tuesday to a year of probation and was fined $25,000, according to prosecutors.

David DeQuattro, 56, the owner of the Rhode Island architecture and design firm, was sentenced to a year of probation under home confinement and fined $50,000.

The Cape Cod-based tribe, which currently has about 2,600 enrolled citizens, in an impact statement signed by current Chair Brian Weeden said it has been “irreparably harmed” by Cromwell’s conduct.

“For over 400 years, the Tribe has fought to preserve its culture, lands and protect its people from constant exploitation and oppression,” Weeden wrote. “And yet, we are now facing the ultimate betrayal by one elected and entrusted to lead and act in the best interests of our Tribal Nation and future seven generations.”

He noted that while Cromwell was enriching himself, tribal members “struggled under the pressures of increased homelessness, unemployment, alcohol and opioid addiction, and other traumas.”

Cromwell, 57, apologized in court.

“I will spend the rest of my life seeking redemption,” he said, The Boston Globe reported.

DeQuatto’s attorney called his client’s actions an “aberration.”

Cromwell, who also was the president of the tribe’s five-member gaming authority, received $10,000 from DeQuattro in November 2015 that was deposited into an account for a company called One Nation Development LLC, which Cromwell founded to help Native tribes with economic development, prosecutors said.

But One Nation Development had no employees and Cromwell spent the money on personal expenses, prosecutors said.

He asked for, and received from DeQuattro and his business partner, a $1,700 home gym in August 2016, prosecutors said.

Cromwell also asked DeQuattro to pay for a three-night stay at a luxury Boston hotel in May 2017 so he could celebrate his birthday with someone he described as a “special guest.” The stay cost $1,800, prosecutors said.

Cromwell was convicted in May of bribery and extortion charges. DeQuattro was convicted of a bribery charge. Cromwell still faces multiple counts of filing a false tax return.

Meanhwile, plans for the proposed $1 billion casino in Taunton remain on hold.

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November 16, 2022
Liechtenstein to vote on a referendum to ban casinos on January 29 | Yogonet International

Liechtenstein, deemed by punters as the “Las Vegas of the Alps,” currently has six active operators dotted across a microstate a tenth the size of London and with a population of just 40,000. However, a casino ban is being put to a referendum on January 29, and if it passes, the casinos will have to close within five years.

The referendum, and the signatures needed to activate it, were brought about by the pressure group IG VolksMeinung, formed to fight the “casino flood.” They argue that the gaming industry risks damaging a reputation that the country, on an international blacklist of tax havens until it began easing bank secrecy laws more than a decade ago, has worked hard to regain.

“We don’t want to establish ourselves as a casino and poker hotspot in the middle of Europe,” one of its members, Guido Meier, said at a discussion on the upcoming vote, as reported by Reuters. “It’s a big reputation problem.”

However, this push is against the interests of the local gambling industry, including Gryphon Invest AG, which indirectly owns majority stakes in half of Liechtenstein’s gambling houses.

“We hope that the voters will follow the advice of the two major parties, as well as the economic chamber and further institutions, and recognize that a well-regulated market is better than an outright ban,” Gryphon told Reuters in a statement.

All six operators have opened since 2017, when a change in the law made gambling legal, welcoming crowds from Germany and neighboring Switzerland and Austria.

Reinhard Fischer, president of Liechtenstein’s casino association and director of the country’s Grand Casino, believes that irrespective of the referendum’s outcome, natural attrition within a limited market will reduce the number nationally anyway, to a maximum of four.

He does not accept the argument that the industry represents a reputational threat. “What we do is in accordance with the law and in some cases even above the level required by law,” he said.

It should be noted that last year, taxes brought by the trips made by mainly foreign visitors to Liechtenstein’s casinos generated 50 million Swiss francs ($54.51 million). “This is certainly revenue that is also relevant for our budget,” Deputy Prime Minister Sabine Monauni said.

The government has been encouraging the population to vote against the proposed ban, which Monauni describes as “too radical, too excessive” and as not solving the problem of gambling addiction.

“We want to continue to allow gambling in Liechtenstein and that’s why we now have to find a balance between measures that reduce activity but at the same time don’t totally destroy the market,” she concluded.

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December 31, 1969