
Terry Christensen, former board member of MGM Resorts, imprisoned in 2006 for his role in wire-tapping
MGM Resorts International is wanting to regain a New Jersey video gaming license for the first time since 2010, when it attempted to sell its stake in the Borgata and ceased operations in their state.
This has been announced this week that the business will spend a $225,000 settlement to nj-new Jersey regulators to resolve an issue that is decade-old to your shady dealings of its board members.
Since well as serving on the MGM board for nine years, attorney Terry Christensen had been a 40-year legal adviser and personal confidant to billionaire casino mogul Kirk Kerkorian, the company’s major shareholder.
Christensen was indeed president of Tracinda, a personal investment company create by Kerkorian, in 1987, in which he had additionally helped set up MGM Grand Air and MGM Grand Corp.
However, in 2006 he was indicted and charged, with celebrity private investigator Anthony Pellicano, with bugging the phone of Lisa Bonder, Kerkorian’s ex-wife. Christensen received a three-year prison term while Pellicano got 15 years.
However, the beef with the nj-new Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) appears to be that MGM continued to consult Christensen on a quantity of matters after his resignation from the company’s board and subsequent criminal conviction.
Under New Jersey Gaming law no one with a criminal conviction may be concerned in the running of a casino
Christensen Affair
An eight-page letter from DGE director David Rebuck to MGM Resort’s Atlantic City attorney was recently posted on the DGE internet site.
It states: ‘MGM and Tracinda have agreed to pay in recognition of the severity for the failures to address Christensen’s ongoing and involvement that is continued their affairs following first his indictment after which his conviction… Christensen stayed involved with MGM and Tracinda and things associated with them from the time of his indictment, following his conviction and through the fall of 2009.’
Rebuck also states that Christensen held an office at Tracinda until 2009, from where he always been consulted by MGM on various board issues, such as a possible partnership that is strategic Malaysian casino developer Genting Berhad.
Under New Jersey Gaming law no one with a criminal conviction could be taking part in the running of a casino, which is why brand new Jersey gaming regulators have within the past already been anxious about MGM Resorts’ relationship with Macau partner Pansy Ho, due to her family members’s alleged Triad connections.
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MGM Wants Back
In seems that much of this DGE’s investigation into the Christensen affair was conducted years ago, but it was put on hold in 2010 if the ongoing business left New Jersey.
MGM resorts put its 50 percent for the Borgata into trust while it attempted to offer its stake, although a sale was never forthcoming, and the resort is currently operated by joint partners Boyd Gaming.
Nevertheless, MGM Resorts additionally owns land opposite the Borgata, where it once planned to build up a resort, and happens to be evidently desperate to be back New Jersey.
It’s believed that a brand new Jersey Casino Control Commission will convene next month to discuss the reinstatement of MGM Resorts’ New Jersey video gaming permit.
MGM Resorts Senior Vice President Alan Feldman said the settlement ‘part regarding the process of cleaning up some old items prior to the licensing hearing next month.’
According to Rebuck, MGM Resorts will pay $150,000, while Tracinda will pay $75,000 of the settlement.
SLS Las Vegas Opens on Former Sahara Site
Sleaze king Joe Francis (right) was a non-VIP visitor at the SLS opening events; their battles with Steve Wynn (left) have made him persona non grata at the mogul’s properties. (Image: Getty)
The SLS Las vegas, nevada may ultimately persuade be just the first of many gambling enterprises to herald a new era of growth in America’s gambling hub. But for the present time, the latest casino stands alone once the latest kid in the nevada Strip, while the excitement over a new venue had been palpable final weekend.
At the stroke of midnight on night (technically, Saturday morning), the SLS Las Vegas opened its doors to the public friday. The $415 million casino on the site of the former Sahara, which it self ended up being as soon as one of the hottest resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, launched with fireworks as well as an crowd that is excited was able to fill the facility before it had also been open for one hour.
VIP Reception for New Casino
The opening came after a VIP reception for 3,600 visitors, the first people who were in a position to play in the casino for real cash. Earlier within the the SLS and its 3,400 employees were tested under simulated conditions when friends and family were able to come in and try games with play money week.
The casino is basically a redesign and upgrade of the home, which underwent renovations that are significant its transformation through the Sahara to SLS Las Vegas. The new location was the brainchild of SBE CEO Sam Nazarian, who bought the Sahara in 2006.
Nazarian joined up with his daddy, Younes Nazarian, in ringing a bell to open the property officially. It was the same bell the elder Nazarian had used to open SLS hotels in Miami and Beverley Hills.
‘Thank you for believing in us,’ Nazarian thought to a ballroom audience. ‘Our team put its soul and heart into this property. They did one thing no body else thought we could do.’
The property that is new a 56,000-square-foot video gaming area and a sports book operated by William Hill. The resort may also feature three night groups and nine restaurants. The SLS is the item of 18 months of construction on what was the Sahara, which closed in 2011.
First New Las Vegas Strip Casino Opening in Four Years
The SLS Las Vegas is the first new resort on the Strip considering that the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas launched in December 2010. The allure of a brand new casino was obvious, as customers were reportedly lined up around the building down Sahara Avenue and Paradise Road waiting to check out the latest addition to Las Vegas’ gaming industry.
A few superstars took part in the opening. The red carpet was walked by athletes such as for example former UFC Champion Chuck Liddell and Jermaine Jones associated with the US guys’s National Soccer Team, along side singer Pia Toscano. But the famous face that switched the most heads might have been Joe Francis, founder of the infamous ‘Girls Gone Wild’ series of videos.
‘Thank you, Sam, for building this compound for me just therefore i possibly could come to Las Vegas,’ Francis said, referencing his previous court battles with Steve Wynn.
Back in 2007, Wynn tried to collect a $2 million financial obligation Francis had run up at allegedly their casinos. Later on, juries would award Wynn a $7.5 million judgment against Francis for defamatory statements, and then $20 million in a 2012 slander instance. Francis has also previously pleaded accountable to filing false tax returns and bribing jail workers. Perhaps, then, it had been no surprise that Francis was not included on SLS’ official list of celebrity guests appearing at the opening gala.
Lucky Players Win Lion’s Share for $2.4M at MGM Grand
The Lion’s Share slot machine paid a jackpot of over $2.4 million after a 20-year hold off. (Image: MGM Grand)
The Lion’s Share slot machine game during the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has a long history of maintaining a hold that is tight its jackpot. For 20 years, customers had come in and attempted to line up the lucky combination that would earn them the progressive jackpot that had eluded therefore many other people. Now, finally, one New Hampshire couple has sent the device into retirement by claiming one of Las Vegas’ many prizes that are fabled.
Walter and Linda Misco won over $2.4 million by claiming the modern jackpot on Lion’s Share, the MGM Grand’s last progressive jackpot video slot. The couple had started by putting $100 in the machine, and about five full minutes later, they spun themselves a jackpot.
‘I had seen a story about the machine online and my wife and I strolled by the equipment as soon as we arrived,’ said Walter Misco, a 66-year-old retiree. ‘She said, ‘You have actually to try out this device and win with this device.’ So I was just following orders from the boss.’
Husbands, take note: it occasionally pays off to listen to your spouse.
Popular Machine Received Crowds For Years
The Miscos nearly missed down on their big win. Earlier into the evening, they turned far from the device after seeing a line of five people waiting to play it. But after taking in a Criss Angel show during the Luxor, they returned to find the machine vacant. After a few wins that are small up their balance to $127, Walter was able to line up the three emblems to claim the device’s top reward.
The fact that the Lion’s Share jackpot wasn’t hit in two years is all the more surprising considering that the machine is the most popular one regarding the MGM Grand’s flooring. According to reports, it had been being played at a rate of very nearly once every five seconds before the jackpot was hit.
‘This game probably gets played about five times more than our average game on the casino flooring,’ said Justin Andrews of MGM Grand. ‘Our staff gets asked every day, numerous times, where this game is, from people who have not played it before.’
Lion’s Share Legend Included Twitter Account
Lion’s Share didn’t provide biggest jackpot in all of Las Vegas, but the length of time it had been played without anybody hitting the top prize had turned the machine into something of the legend. The slot had become therefore famous that it had its own Twitter account, which cheerfully shared the news regarding the Miscos’ big win.
Now that it has repaid, however, the Lion’s Share will be retired. The MGM Grand is even considering permitting the Miscos take the machine home with them as being a souvenir of their win that are historic.
For the couple, that has been coming to Las Vegas for 25 years and who now raise Arabian horses on their New Hampshire farm, the win was hard to believe.
‘ I becamen’t positively convinced we had won,’ Walter said. ‘Call it intervention that is divine or any.’
The news also arrived as a surprise to their child, not only due to what occurred, but additionally because of what right time the telephone rang to provide her the news.
‘She was just a little unnerved when my wife called because phone calls at 3 a.m. are usually not good news,’ Walter said. ‘we ruined her day because she didn’t go back to sleep.’