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Read here:Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism

UNIFORMED police have an unwritten understanding not to enter Crown Casino’s gaming room floor unless specifically requested by the casino, an inquest into the death of Anthony Dunning has heard.

Anthony Dunning, 40, was tackled to the ground and restrained by bouncers in the gaming area of the Melbourne casino in July 2011.

He died four days later in hospital.

Two bouncers charged with Mr Dunning’s manslaughter were acquitted while a third man charged with assault was found not guilty.

Homicide Squad Detective Sgt Paul Rowe told the court a triple 000 call was made on the night by a witness, but she hung up because she was afraid the security guards would hear her.

When police phoned Crown to ask about the call, they were told they were not required.

Sgt Rowe said he was unaware of an official policy regarding police attending Crown, but said uniformed officers would not walk onto the gaming room floor unless specifically requested by Crown.

“It was discouraged for uniformed police to wander through the gaming floor,” he told the court. “We’d only go if requested.”

But Crown chief operating officer Xavier Walsh said he was unaware of any restrictions on police movements within the complex.

“We welcome the police. We see them frequently in the complex, including the gaming floor,” he said. “Police are welcome to roam wherever they see fit.”

Sgt Rowe said Mr Dunning might still be alive today had police been called the moment the incident became physical and supported mandatory reporting of serious incidents.

“Assault type situations very much need to be brought to police attention,” he said.

Mr Dunning’s father William told the court his son was not confrontational on the night and was scathing of Crown security staff training.

“The training provided by Crown is wholly inadequate,” he said.

Two staff, Matthew Scott Lawson, 28, and Cameron Paul Sanderson, 42, were charged with manslaughter but acquitted in October 2012.

A third bouncer, Benjamin Michael Vigo, 25, was found not guilty of assaulting Mr Dunning.

William Dunning told the court Mr Lawson had been involved in a violent altercation on the job just two weeks before his son’s death and should not have been working on the casino floor.

“Why was he on duty and involved in restraining Anthony?” he said.

Mr Walsh told the court he believed security staff had acted reasonably in their handling of Mr Dunning, but accepted they had not acted in accordance with Crown training when an officer grabbed him around the neck and another sat on his back.

He said the casino had thoroughly examined and enhanced security protocols, procedures and training since the tragedy.

Outside court, William Dunning said he suspected nothing had changed.

“I’d like them to prove those changes have been made,” he said.

State Coroner Judge Ian Gray is expected to hand down his finding early next year.

RICHMOND Valley Council has been given approval to begin the removal and modification of trees adjacent to vulnerable properties affected by a flying-fox camp in Casino.

The aim of the habitat modification program, innovative management practice when it comes to flying foxes, is to provide an opportunity to increase the distance between flying foxes and residents without reducing roosting opportunities.

An ecologist was appointed to assess the habitat and found it to be suitable for modification work to start on Wednesday and Thursday this week, weather permitting.

Work will involve the trimming and removal of selected non-indigenous trees, such as Cocus Palm and Jacaranda, and many listed noxious weeds including the Chinese Celtis, Green Cestrum, Camphor Laurel, broad-leaved Privet, and Crofton Weed, and will be conducted in the late afternoon and early evening while the flying foxes are out foraging.

An ecologist will be on site during the work to monitor the situation, and residents are asked to stay clear of the works where possible.

Tony Fung hopes to tap Asian equity markets in 2016 to fund the $8 billion construction of a mega casino resort in Cairns by partially listing his development company Aquis on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Mr Fung would not say how much cash he would seek to raise in the listing, which would see Aquis compete with giants of the global gambling industry like the James Packer-backed venture Melco Crown. However the 62-year-old financial services veteran said he expected strong support from investors if he can prove himself as a successful casino operator.
A measure of his success will be to more than quadruple earnings within two to three years at the Cairns Reef Casino, which looks likely to be acquired by Aquis in a $270 million deal by November. The casino's controlling company, Reef Casino Trust, had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $14 million in the 2013 financial year and Mr Fung said a result of $20 million this year was possible.
In the next two or three years "if we can bring ourselves an EBITDA of $80 million … the chances of us getting it financed without me giving up too much equity would be very high," he said.
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Mr Fung said the Aquis takeover offer of the casino should be completed by November.
The Reef casino has 660 poker machines but lacks high-end gaming, restaurant and accommodation facilities, which has stymied any benefit from the growing global market of Asian high-roller punters who demand luxury experiences.
So far, 80 per cent of unitholders in the Reef Casino Trust, which also controls the Canberra Casino, have accepted the Aquis offer. The offer also requires probity clearance from regulators in Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory.
Speaking exclusively to The Australian Financial Review in Cairns, Mr Fung said he had already spent about $30 million on government applications and early advocacy work on the ground in pursuit of the ambitious project.
Mr Fung said he would use family money for the $270 million Reef takeover, but would tap debt and equity markets to fund the construction of the Aquis on the Great Barrier Reef resort. Mr Fung's father set up Hong Kong financial services firm Sun Hung Kai & Co in the 1970s. The family's final 33 per cent stake in the group was sold in 1996 for $HK743 million.
Mr Fung said he had come out of "semi retirement" to embark on the Aquis project. Although he has developed commercial properties after his financial services career, he has no experience in the gambling industry.
"As an experienced banker I've done many deals," he said. "It's just common business sense and with the experience that I have had over the years to be able to identify an opportunity and analyse it to such an extent that [I feel comfortable] putting money, if you will, where my mouth is."
The proposed Aquis complex will include a casino, multiple theatres and convention spaces, more than 7000 hotel rooms and a golf course. It will be built on raised platforms amid a complex of lagoons on 360 hectares.
The extravagant project has upset residents of Yorkeys Knob who are worried about the effects on their quiet coastal community. Yorkeys Knob borders the northern edge of the site, which is currently a sugar cane farm.
Aquis lodged an environmental impact statement with the Queensland Co-ordinator-General in June.
Following a six-week public consultation period the Co-ordinator-General has asked Aquis for further information. The project's lead engineer Pat Flanagan, who runs a consultancy, said the government required clarification on water quality issues in the main lake and wanted more information on community consultation and staff housing plans. He said the information would be lodged within the coming weeks.
He defended the decision to build at Yorkeys Knob, saying it was "the perfect site" in the region. Anywhere else would have greater impacts on residential communities, or prime agricultural land, Mr Flanagan said.
However, many in the Cairns business community are excited by the prospect of 1 million visitors to the resort each year that the Aquis team has said it is targeting, as well as the 7250 jobs it says it will create during the 10-year, two-phase construction period. When the two stages are up and running Aquis claims it will employ 20,000 people.
The Newman government has said it will approve a casino licence for the project, so long as it passes all other approvals. The project is one of three new potential casinos for the state.
The government, betting on a gambling-led recovery for the state's ailing tourism sector, has given provisional approval to a new Gold Coast casino that may compete with Echo Entertainment's Jupiters property and is running a bidding war between consortiums led by Echo and Crown to develop a new Brisbane casino which will be announced early next year.
Last week Aquis received clearance from the Foreign Investment Review Board to acquire Reef and a few months prior the competition watchdog said it would not oppose the deal. Aside from finding the cash to build it, the project's two major obstacles are environmental approval and probity clearance, which allows people to operate a casino.

TYRE, N.Y. — Ever since they settled in this tiny farm town along the New York State Thruway more than a decade ago, the Amish have been a benign, generally welcome presence: guiding their buggies down local roads, delivering fresh produce to their neighbors and paying their taxes — though they do not vote.

But the possibility that a glittering casino could be built here, halfway between Syracuse and Rochester, has torn at the bonds that knit together the area’s Amish and secular residents.

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RELATED COVERAGE

Developers are interested in opening casinos at Tioga Downs, a harness racing track west of Binghamton.22 Companies Apply to Open 4 Casinos in New York StateAPRIL 24, 2014
David Climans of CGL Architects Inc. helped to prepare a presentation by Tioga Downs at a meeting of the New York Gaming Facility Location Board in Albany on Monday.Gambling Developers Make Presentations in Albany as They Vie for LicensesSEPT. 8, 2014
Bishop Daniel Schwartz, 43, who raises corn, cows and chickens across a two-lane highway from the proposed casino site, has objected to the plan in simple but dogmatic terms. He is talking about pulling up stakes and leaving the region if the project becomes a reality. And he and some of the hundreds of other local Amish have mounted a primitive but potent public relations campaign, appearing silently in court, traveling to state hearings, stating their views in handwriting. In hopes of thwarting the project, Bishop Schwartz himself, wiry-whiskered and rosy-cheeked, even granted what he said was his first sit-down interview.

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Inside the farmhouse of Daniel Schwartz, an Amish bishop in Tyre. Credit Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
“Gambling goes against the teaching of the Bible,” Bishop Schwartz said, “and the fruits of gambling are all bad.”

The town leaders, however, are having none of this. Backed by regional leaders and deeply desirous of the jobs, tourism and municipal improvements that a casino could bring, the town supervisor and others have accused the Amish of allowing themselves to be used as sympathetic props to drum up opposition, exaggerating how threatening the plan would be to their way of life, and overstating their population in Tyre — as well as their importance to it.

“As the old saying goes, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts,” said Ronald F. McGreevy, the supervisor, who campaigned for the casino. He insisted that there were only a few Amish families in Tyre proper, which has a population of about 950. “There is certainly not going to be a mass exodus if this comes to fruition,” Mr. McGreevy said.

Clashes like the one in Tyre — perhaps the most colorful, given the cultural differences in the mix — have broken out across New York as the State Gaming Commission prepares to decide the location of up to four new casinos this fall. Expressions of local support were a requirement for each of the 16 proposals, and applicants have worked hard to demonstrate community ties: hosting job fairs, announcing business and labor partnerships, and trumpeting how residents could benefit. One bidder even promised a town new fire trucks.

Standing in the way are opponents whose objections are often emotionally charged. Environmentalists are suing to stop a $1.5 billion project from Genting, the Malaysian casino company, over possible damage to a public forest in Tuxedo, in Orange County; leaders in Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic village in Orange County, sued over the feared impacts of two separate casinos; and opponents of a casino in East Greenbush, near Albany, accused leaders there of rigging the process by which its developer won the town’s support.

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The plaintiffs all cite local officials in their complaints. But the lawsuits are also intended as a siren loud enough to be audible in the state capital.

“We wanted to show the Gaming Commission that the town’s show of community support was not so smooth and un-pockmarked as they might want it to look,” said Rodger Friedman, a member of the group opposing the casino in Tuxedo.

Economic issues are at the heart of the appeal of the $425 million Tyre project, called Lago, in an allusion to the nearby Finger Lakes: With thousands of slot machines, a 1,700-seat theater and a 207-room hotel, promising “the high energy and excitement of Las Vegas,” its backers say it could pour millions of dollars of revenue into a town so small it has no post office.

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The Buy-In
Articles in this series are examining the ramifications of New York State’s embrace of casino gambling.

Albany Doubling Down as Casino Boom Fades

A Rich Plan in New York’s Casino Race Is No Sure Thing for Cuomo

In Pursuit of Casinos, It’s Worst Foot Forward
Today, the busiest commercial spot in Tyre is a truck stop off the Thruway. A municipal court shares space with a dog kennel. And the upkeep on the one-room hall used for civic events is partly paid for with barbecue fund-raisers and redemption of the deposits on recyclable cans.

The closest thing to a residential hub is a small cluster of homes along a creek that feeds the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, at the marshy northern shores of Cayuga Lake — a protected federal area that town officials say pays very little into the town’s coffers.

The casino legislation was promoted by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo as a way to help the upstate economy, and Mr. McGreevy said Lago would pay for better water, new Internet service and lower taxes, and would help stave off the need to consider dissolving the town altogether.

“Tyre deserves a chance to survive,” said Mr. McGreevy, a retired lawn-mower salesman whose town office is a converted bedroom in his home.

The casino’s developer promises Lago will create 1,800 permanent jobs, or nearly twice the town’s current population. Regional supporters include the Seneca County Board of Supervisors; a collection of labor unions, arts organizations and business leaders; and Tyre’s town board, which voted unanimously in favor of the casino plan in June.

But the townspeople themselves are divided. Earlier this year, a small group of residents formed Casino Free Tyre to try to block the project.

Defeated twice in court, the group has presented a vigorous opposition, in Albany, in protests at the casino site and in petitions blasting the town board for “selling out to a casino developer.”

The group contends that Tyre was chosen for a casino on a bet that the Amish, who do not vote, and its rural residents would put up little fight. Indeed, Casino Free Tyre styles itself as a defender of the Amish and others who have farmed in the area for generations, and has collected sympathetic statements from Amish leaders in nearby counties and communities.

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Lake Ontario
481
481
NEW YORK
414
414
NEW YORK STATE THRUWAY
90
Syracuse
Tyre
81
Proposed casino site
CANADA
Cayuga
Lake
Area of detail
Seneca
Lake
Albany
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10 MILES
New York City
“We as leaders of our Old Order Amish group humbly ask youce not to let a casino be build” in the area, reads one handwritten letter, signed by six Amish men representing two church districts, roughly equivalent to parishes.

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James Dawley, one of the founders of Casino Free Tyre, said he worried the casino might drive away the Amish and the quiet spirituality and wholesomeness they project.

“They add a level of protection from, I guess you would say, what is a worldly influence to our town,” he said. “They are a protective barrier because of their faith.”

But casino supporters say the objections of the Amish themselves have been exaggerated in an effort to turn the sect’s piety, and its power as a symbol of old-time simplicity, into a kind of cudgel to be wielded against the casino project on behalf of other people who were simply against development.

“They are being used, for lack of a better term,” Mr. McGreevy said, “by this small anti-casino group, saying if we do this, this casino is going to be the end of life as we know it.”

Mr. McGreevy said the group’s distortions included overstating the Amish population in Tyre, which he put at only four families, with perhaps six or seven members in each.

Supporters also contend that the moral arguments against casinos, which once carried more of a stigma, have lost force as much of the country has legalized gambling in pursuit of budget relief.

Apprised of Mr. McGreevy’s remarks, the Amish bishop in Tyre, Bishop Schwartz, took the unusual step of agreeing to an interview.

The Tasmanian Government says it is seeking advice on a proposal from the founder of Hobart's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) to open a casino for high-roller tourists.

MONA founder David Walsh wants to build a small casino for high rollers as part of a hotel planned for the Berriedale site in northern Hobart.

He has submitted a proposal to the Government to build a pokie-free casino with no more than 12 gambling tables.

In a statement, the State Government said it had received a proposal and was seeking advice.

If Mr Walsh is given the green light, it would break Federal Group's 20-year monopoly on operating gambling venues in Tasmania.

Federal's exclusive arrangement is due to expire in 2018.

Local Mayor Stuart Slade was surprised by Mr Walsh's idea, but welcomed the absence of poker machines.

"We do have a number of poker machines in the City of Glenorchy, and of course that would just add further to that," he said.

"It's my understanding... this is for a select group of people who wish to participate in a form of gambling and pokies wouldn't be a part of that."

VIDEO: David Walsh looks at a new MONA business model (7pm TV News TAS)
Federal has declined to comment on the casino proposal.

MONA has been credited with bringing thousands of extra tourists to Tasmania and boosting the local economy.

Mr Walsh has said tourism figures showed his venture generated 150,000 hotel bed nights each year.

The Tourism Industry Council's Luke Martin said MONA had been briefing industry on its plans to expand accomodation.

He believed the hotel would be a huge drawcard with or without a casino.

"I think everything MONA does is absolutely cutting edge, it's innovative, it captures attention," he said.

"Ultimately what that incorporates, whether that's a casino or business events space, MONA is within its rights to look at the options and investment.

"Whether it does incorporate something like a casino, that's obviously got a regulatory issue and they're going to have to pursue that with the State Government."