
Trump Plaza’s shutdown will mean that as four Atlantic City casinos could be closed this year. (Image: Lisa Andres/Flickr)
The casino industry of Atlantic City is currently facing an unprecedented freefall. After several years of declining revenues, at least two casinos have already closed or plan to close in 2010, and another is facing a second bankruptcy in two years. And now, a fourth has said that they also expect you’ll shut down in just a couple of months.
That’s the apparent fate of the Trump Plaza casino, as Trump Entertainment Resorts has said that they expect the venue to close on September 16. Whilst the owners reportedly said that the choice isn’t entirely last, employees were to receive warnings associated with the anticipated closing on previously this week.
‘Although [the] review has not been completed and no concluding decision happens to be made, the business expects it will end the operations of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino on or shortly after September 16, 2014,’ the company told the Associated Press.
Trump Plaza Joins Other AC Closures
If the closure goes through as expected, the result could be that as much as a third of Atlantic City’s casinos could close down this year. In January, the Atlantic Club shuttered its doors, while the Showboat is likely to close in August. Meanwhile, the Revel is currently in bankruptcy court for the second time, and could potentially close if a buyer for the home cannot be found. That could keep the city with simply eight remaining gambling enterprises, in comparison to 12 in the beginning of the year.
Based on an AP report, no buyer has yet come forward to take the casino over, and it is not yet known exactly what the future could hold for the building following the resort closes.
The Trump Plaza was exposed in May 1984. During the time, it ended up being a personal project for Donald Trump, though he now only owns a 10 percent stake in Trump Entertainment Resorts and is no longer tangled up in the day-to-day operations of this company. The venue cost $210 million to construct.
Lack of Gambling Enterprises Could Help Remaining Resorts
As the loss of as much as four casinos may seem apocalyptic for Atlantic City, there’s reason to think it could actually assist in the run that is long. The casino that is oversaturated in the northeastern United States has hurt Atlantic City, with competition from Pennsylvania being especially harmful.
But you will find still lots of visitors to the populous city, along with eight casinos nevertheless active there, most gamblers will have no trouble locating a resort that appeals to them. That means that there may be nearly as many gamblers as before, but that there will now be only eight casinos to split those customers rather than 12.
Which will be comfort that is cold those who lose jobs as a consequence of the casino closures, however. If both the Revel and Trump Plaza were to close, that could suggest that nearly 8,000 casino workers will have lost jobs in Atlantic City this year alone. That represents in regards to a quarter associated with city’s gambling workforce.
Trump Plaza is definitely in the marketplace, but Trump Entertainment Resorts has had trouble finding a buyer that is interested. Final year, the venue was almost offered for $20 million to a company in California, but that deal fell through. If the Plaza close down, Trump Entertainment will operate just one casino in Atlantic City, the Trump Taj Mahal.
Poker Player Paul Phua Arrested with World Cup Gambling Ring
Paul Phua, who’s denied he’s any links to crime that is organized was purchased to post $2 million bail, along side giving up their $48 million private jet as collateral. (Image: bankrollmob.com)
Probably on the property of a major Las Vegas casino with their own sports book is not your best idea ever if you plan to set up an illegal sports betting ring, doing it. But that reality seems to have eluded high-stakes poker player Paul Phua, who was arrested along side A world that is illegal cup band running out of three luxury suites in Caesars Palace on the nevada Strip.
The FBI broke up the procedure during the high-roller suites final week, in which the gang of seven men and another woman had been running what the Gambling Control Board described as a kind of high-tech ‘wire space,’ where illegal World Cup bets had been being monitored by computers remotely connected to others computers overseas.
The poker world knows Paul Phua, 50, as high-stakes poker player, a ‘wealthy Asian businessman’ and a prominent figure in the fabled Macau big game; he is ranked #1 on the Hendon Mob’s Macau All-Time Money List. Three months he played in the Big One for One Drop tournament ago he came sixth in the EPT Grand Final High Roller Event in Monte Carlo and in 2012. However, according to the FBI, he is Wei Seng Phua, a high-ranking person in the 14K Triad organized group that is criminal.
The ‘Wire Room’
The court heard Phua had been arrested in Macau in mid-June and charged with operating a gambling that is illegal there. After being released on bail, it appears he hot-tailed it up to Las Vegas to continue running the operation remotely.
Caesars became suspicious when Phua, or certainly one of his associates, insisted that the casino https://aussie-pokies.club/lightning-link-pokies-review/ install an unusual number of technical equipment in the suites, enough to support eight subscriber that is digital on top the normal WiFi access. Employees observed computer monitors which were hooked up to what appeared as if a sportsbook, and next to the computer stations, there have been three screen that is large, tuned into World Cup soccer games.
(We are going to pause so that you can observe smirk time now).
Acting on a tip-off from Caesars, undercover law enforcement agents monitored task in the rooms through the entire month. They raided the suites on July 9, seizing gambling documents, computer equipment and other evidence.
All eight defendants appeared in court on Monday and were charged with a minumum of one count of the illegal transmission of wagering information and of running a gambling business that is illegal. Paul Phua’s Las Vegas lawyer, David Chesnoff, denied the hyper link to organized crime and said that Phua would fight the charges.
‘ This will be a very advanced, intelligent individual who desires to defend himself,’ said Chesnoff.
$2 Million Bail for Phua
US Magistrate Judge Bill Hoffman set the bail for Paul Phua at $2 million, together with his $48 million jet that is private collateral. Phua’s son Darren Phua, 22, also allegedly a known member of the gang, was ordered to publish $500,000 bail. Both defendants had been ordered to be electronically monitored also to stay on home detention in the custody of a regional medical practitioner whom had befriended Phua senior through the poker community. According to Chesnoff, several poker players, including Andrew Robl, were rallying around to simply help upload Phua’s bail, with Robl evidently prepared to pay $1.5 million.
Among the group was another poker player, Malaysian Seng that is national Chen, 56. In April 2012, Yong placed fourth in the Asian Poker Tour Manila for $ 439,379, coincidently a year before Phua also placed fourth in the same tournament. Yong and their son Wai Kin Yong were both detained as flight risks.
An ongoing investigation is being conducted by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Nevada Gaming Control Board. If found guilty, the defendants could confront five years in prison. Not to mention the wrath of the Triad.
Bart Tichelman Daughter Charged in Google Executive Overdose
Bart Tichelman’s daughter Alix has been faced with voluntary manslaughter in the loss of A bing professional. (Image: Shmuel Thaler/AP)
Drugs, prostitution while the death of the major corporate professional sound such as the components of a made-for-TV film. However in this case, the story is all too real, and also has a astonishing connection to the world of gambling.
Alix Catherine Tichelman, a model who police say ended up being also a prostitute that is high-end has been charged with manslaughter in connection utilizing the loss of Forrest Tim Hayes, a Google executive. Tichelman is accused of injecting Hayes with heroin on his yacht, then leaving him to die of the resulting overdose. Hayes died on November 23, 2013.
That charge was passed down in Santa Cruz Superior Court last week, along with costs of control, management and transport of drugs, as well as destroying evidence, engaging in prostitution, and agreeing to prostitution. Tichelman would not enter a plea.
Security Footage Shows Tichelman on Yacht
Police allege that Tichelman had an ongoing relationship with Hayes inside her role as being a prostitute. Security footage from Hayes’ yacht, the ‘Escape,’ presumably shows Tichelman stepping over Hayes’ body and drinking from a glass of wine without doing such a thing to help him after she had allegedly inserted him utilizing the ultimately deadly heroin overdose. Fingerprints on the glass of wine helped to spot Tichelman, as did her tattoos that are distinctive which she had shared on social media records.
Tichelman had been arrested a week ago after police lured her to a Santa Cruz resort. Reports say that police led her to think that a rich client was prepared to pay her $1,000 for sex.
The situation could get even worse for Tichelman should the investigation turn up more evidence while the current charge related to Hayes’ death is manslaughter.
‘then we’ll certainly evaluate that when that’s presented,’ said prosecutor Rafael Vazquez if the evidence shows that murder can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. ‘She knew the act was dangerous to human life and she acted deliberately and in conscious disregard for human life.’
Tichelman is Daughter of CEO Poker Player
Tichelman could be the daughter of Bart Tichelman, the CEO of SynapSense, A folsom-based firm that manages Internet data centers throughout the planet. He’s also a successful poker player with over $430,000 in profession tournament earnings. Most of this came in one cash that is major a triumph in a 2008 World number of Poker Circuit event in Tunica that earned him $425,595 in prize money. Bart Tichelman is still active in poker today, also cashing in a World group of Poker event within the past couple weeks.
Alix Tichelman once was related to Dean Riopelle, a lover that is former died just two months before Hayes. Riopelle passed away of the heart assault, but police are now reportedly reopening an investigation into his death once the circumstances were very similar to those of Hayes.
There’s also another connection with a death that is similar Tichelman’s past. She once dated Warren Ullom, an Atlanta singer who was convicted of the manslaughter that is voluntary of woman who died after a life-threatening dose of heroin.
Tichelman was understood for modeling under the pseudonym of AK Kennedy, and when said she enjoyed modeling her to play a character because it allowed. She also saw herself as an author and poet, sometimes posting dark poems to Facebook and other media sites that are social.