A California gambling bus tour ended in tragedy, when during the morning that is early of Sunday, October 23, a trip bus slammed to the back of an 18-wheeler semi-truck on Interstate 10 near Palm Springs. The driver of the bus neglected to break traveling into a construction zone where a continuing state maintenance team had deliberately slowed down traffic.
USA getaway, the gambling bus tour operator involved in a deadly crash in California that killed 13 passengers, reportedly hit the back of a semi truck while going 65 miles per hour on Sunday.
The crash killed 13 people and left 31 other people injured, rendering it one of the deadliest bus crashes in Golden State history. All of those killed were over 50, meaning likely this is a seniors tour group.
Operated by United States Of America Holiday, a tour bus company that had one car and something driver based on federal regulators, was returning from its gambling excursion from Los Angeles to Red Earth Casino in Salton City, California.
The motorist of the coach, 59-year-old Teodulo Vides, ended up being one of those killed. Now the California Highway Patrol (CHP) is trying to find out if Vides was inside the casino prior to operating the bus, and whether medications or alcohol had been active in the lethal result.
CHP officials said the semi-truck had been traveling at 5 mph through the construction area once the bus collided with it at close to 65 mph. Investigators state there clearly was no evidence of the coach breaking whatsoever.
‘In almost 35 years, I’ve never been to an accident where there’s been 13 verified [fatalities],’ California Highway Patrol Border Division Chief Jim Abele stated. ‘It’s tough. You never get accustomed to this.’
Coach Driver, Operator Previously Sued
The tragedy was perhaps not the time that is first USA Holiday was involved with bus crashes. In reality, the operator has been previously sued, and in one 2007 incident, three individuals lost their lives, though it isn’t clear if these were passengers or in adjacent traffic. Vides was the driver in that crash.
A lawsuit surrounding the full instance was ultimately dismissed when among the plaintiffs failed to reply to discovery requests by the defendants’ legal teams. Similarly, two other lawsuits had been additionally launched against USA Holiday and Vides, in 2004 and again during 2009, but were eventually dismissed.
Casinos Rely on Bus Tours
Casinos across the nation routinely partner with tour bus operators to create in gamblers, especially during off-peak hours as well as on weekdays. In return for transporting customers to their floors, casinos often provide free potato chips along with other incentives to patrons, and compensate the bus operators.
For example, Sands Bethlehem in Pennsylvania has an arrangement with Trans-Bridge Lines to charter gamblers from New York City to the resort. Five daily services happen on weekdays, and six run on the week-end.
One-way tickets cost $28, but cyclists get $45 in free slot play at the casino.
It’s unclear whether Red Earth Casino had any arrangement that is such USA getaway. The casino stated the bus arrived sometime after 11 pm on night and departed around 4 am saturday.
The 44 passengers regarding the bus each paid $20 for round-trip transportation from l . a . to Red Earth, a 135-mile each real way commute. USA Holiday says on social media marketing that this has over 25 years of tourism experience planing a trip to neighborhood casinos in Southern California.
Is Bus Travel Safe?
The fact remains that bus crash fatalities are still relatively rare in the US although the USA Holiday bus crash will likely make patrons think twice before hopping aboard a touring vehicle in the coming months.
Based on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety management’s most data that are recent, busses had been involved with the fatal fatalities of 281 persons in 2014.
Vehicle crash fatalities per 100,000 people for ‘large truck occupants’ came in at 587 in 2014. That pales in comparison to passenger vehicles at 21,202. Sixty-five per cent of crash fatalities involved passenger vehicles in 2014, while just two percent involved big trucks or busses.
Mount Airy Casino Threatens Additional Lawsuits Against Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania House Gaming Oversight Committee Chairman John Payne, seen here with his hand raised, is one of several state lawmakers scrambling to help make sure their state’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of Mount Airy Casino doesn’t cost local towns millions of dollars. (Image: pctours.com)
Mount Airy Casino in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, is fresh off its monumental win within the state’s Supreme Court, and today the resort is flexing its muscles.
In late September, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the state’s $10 million minimum gambling tax, or two percent of a casino’s gross slots revenue, whichever is greater, was at violation of the Uniformity Clause.
Since no casino has ever pulled in $500 million from slots in an offered year, gaming companies are all writing tax that is varying at unequal rates.
The $10 million fee goes towards local counties that allow casinos to operate inside their metropolitan areas and towns.
Since the Supreme Court ruling comes with grave consequences for communities that heavily depend on the tax revenue, the high court stayed its decision for 120 days to give hawaii legislature time to amend the tax law.
But Mount Airy stated this week through its team that is legal that current negotiations in Harrisburg won’t suffice.
‘What we are hearing is they’re coalescing around the thought of doing a dollar that is flat, as a replacement for the current levy of two percent, or $10 million, whichever is greater,’ Michael Sklar, an attorney for Mount Airy, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. ‘We’ll be straight back in court. We’re prepared to register the litigation again.’
The Four Percent
Sklar believes a tax that is flat for casinos still violates the Uniformity Clause because the tariff wouldn’t be centered on revenues, and therefore isn’t uniform. Pennsylvania’s Uniformity Clause dictates, ‘All fees shall be uniform upon the class that is same of.’
‘Imagine that we ‘re going to replace the income that is current with a flat $5,000 tax,’ Sklar told the Pocono Record. ‘If you appear at an individual making $20,000 a year, that’s an effective income tax rate of 25 %. An individual making $500,000 is having to pay a tax that is effective of 1 per cent.’
Mount Airy is recommending that the legislature amend the casino income tax law to need gambling enterprises to pay four percent of their slot that is gross revenue their regional municipalities.
In 2015, Mount Airy generated $139.1 million in slot income. Rather than paying $2.78 million to Mount Pocono considering the two percent taxation rate, it paid $7.22 million more to reach the $10 million threshold.
Should politicians in Harrisburg take Mount Airy’s suggestion, Mount Pocono would be out about $4.4 million according to 2015 revenue.
Casino Said, State Said
It appears additional legal action might be forthcoming. Though Sklar believes a tax that is flat be unconstitutional, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue has proposed properly that.
‘We’re going to do whatever we can to make sure these municipalities which have counted on this money for 10 years don’t end up with an opening in their spending plans,’ State Sen. Pat Browne (R-District 16) told The Morning Call, a daily paper based in Allentown. ‘That’s our goal.’
Their state will do everything in its capacity to keep casinos in the hook for $10 million. But Mount Airy, armed using the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on its side, is going to do every thing in its power to cut back its tax burden.
UK Government Launches Review which could Shake Up Betting Industry
Tracey Crouch MP says that the review will strike the balance that is right allowing the gambling industry to play a role in the economy and ensuring that vulnerable folks are protected. (Image: Kent Information)
Great britain government, as guaranteed, established its review in to the country’s gambling industry this week, because it puts fixed-odds wagering terminals (FOBTs) and gambling advertising on TV and social media under the microscope.
Minister for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Tracey Crouch said that the review would seek to strike the balance that is right ‘allowing the industry to play a role in the economy and allowing individuals to bet responsibly whilst ensuring consumers and communities are protected.’
The DCMS will seek evidence on the impact that is social controversial FOBT machines in local communities, and will in particular check whether the stakes available are too high.
It will evaluate measures to protect against issue gambling and whether regulations are sufficient to safeguard kids and vulnerable people.
Industry under Fire
But the industry is nervous of a possible shake-up of what is, in recent years, the planet’s biggest managed market that is betting.
The Association of British Bookmakers has advised that the review must be ‘evidence-based and not unfairly penalize almost all who gamble responsibly and enjoy their leisure pursuit’.
It has also noted that FOBT’s have been around in use for approximately 15 years and yet problem gambling levels have actually remained stable, and so are, in fact, lower than in numerous countries all over the world.
The industry that is betting been beset by hostile media campaigns raging against FOBTs, on which it will be possible to bet £100 ($122) every 20 seconds, as well as the proliferation of sports betting marketing around big sports occasions.
Just the other day, it was reported that Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had opened an investigation into whether online betting organizations were breaching UK consumer protection rules after some consumers raised complaints about bets being cancelled, odds being altered after wagers have been accepted and ‘misleading sign-up promotions.’
‘Government Has Woken Up’
The gambling industry emphasizes that, according to the government’s own figures, it employs around 100,000 people in the UK and contributed more than £10 billion ($12.1 billion) to the economy year that is last.
But Labour’s culture spokesman Tom Watson, welcomed the review. He told the BBC that the has finally ‘woken up’ to the fact that it has not ‘done enough to curtail the proliferation of FOBTs, which are now a blight on a lot of our high streets.’
‘They trigger real and damage that is lasting gamblers plus they have become an enormous problem for communities which can be frequently struggling to cope with under-investment and high unemployment,’ he said.
One unnamed politician that is senior told the Times newspaper that the ‘the gambling industry’s luck has come to an end.’
New John Grisham Novel, ‘The Whistler,’ Paints Image of Corrupt Tribal Casinos
Bestelling journalist John Grisham’s new novel The Whistler, just released today, shows the master of the appropriate thriller in rare form. The guide deals aided by the theme of corruption in US tribal casinos, as well of the very most topic that is hot of misconduct.
The timely topic of corruption into the American justice system, specially since it applies to the gaming industry, is the main theme of bestselling author John Grisham’s latest novel, ‘The Whistler.’ But does it ring true? (Image: Doubleday)
The whistler, i.e., whistleblower, in the title is just a lawyer that is disbarred tips investigators of Florida’s Board of Judicial Conduct within the way of ‘the most corrupt judge in the history of American jurisprudence.’
The judge, it transpires, was protecting a nearby casino that is tribal the vicious gangster who provides it protection in return for a sizeable amount of their earnings.
Grisham is clearly both fascinated and appalled by the apparent lawlessness of Indian casino gaming, and the perception it often runs beyond the control of either state or federal guidelines, as he explained to CBS News’ Charlie Rose this week.
Perfect Storm cool cat casino no deposit coupons 2018 for Corruption
‘Indian casinos now gross more cash than regular commercial gambling enterprises. There’s 250 of them round the country, and they are positively massive. They print money,’ Grisham told Rose.
‘Ninety percent of the many money which comes in is in cash, also it’s unregulated, nobody’s watching, they don’t pay fees. There is no oversight. I’m maybe not saying here’s corruption, but it’s a storm that is perfect corruption. No one knows how much they make, they don’t have to report to anybody.’
The tribal casino sector is now beginning to outstrip the income regarding the commercial casino sector, but only because there tend to be more tribal casinos than commercial ones. The number that is actual 489, operated by 243 distinct Native American tribes across 28 states.
But exactly what of the charge they are unregulated? Well, they spend no federal taxes, and therefore are perhaps not obliged to report their finances to your IRS. It is also true that they’re largely ungoverned by state video gaming regulators.
They truly are certainly more lightly overseen compared to the casinos of Las Vegas and Atlantic City, which are, incidentally, among most heavily regulated casinos on earth. But tribal gambling enterprises are nevertheless accountable, albeit to a separate agency that is regulatory.