Dominican Republic Casino Owner’s Dream Turns Into a Hitman Nightmare Gone Haywire



Francesco (left) and Antonio Carbone, two previous Dreamers who seem to be embroiled in the strangest casino Mob caper since Get Shorty.

It started out as a casino Dream, but spiraled into something away from an old las vegas mob flick. In fact, someone is probably securing the rights to this unusual and lurid story as we talk.

Canadian casino owner Antonio Carbone has been arrested in the Dominican Republic on suspicion of attempted murder.

Carbone, 40, one of the owners of the Dream Casino Corporation string of casinos, is accused of ordering the death of lawyer Fernando Arturo Baez Guerrero, in what seems to be a assassination attempt that is bizarre.

The attack appears to have been the culmination of an even more bizarre set of circumstances involving an octogenarian billionaire philanthropist, the Canadian Mafia, and a misplaced $100 million. It’s also got a more plot that is convoluted Get Shorty, therefore pay attention.

Carbone and their brother, Francesco, of unknown whereabouts, are accused by prosecutors of hiring two unidentified accomplices to throw an incendiary device into Baez’s car.

It is alleged that the brothers took the men to Baez’s home in the Cacicazgos neighborhood of Santo Domingo, where they identified the motor automobile before detonating the device. It might have been the perfect murder, had the perpetrators not overlooked one tiny detail: Baez had been not into the vehicle at the time.

Bad Dream

Baez, that has been in charge of administering the difficult casino chain during protracted legal battles over its ownership and alleged fraud, alerted police, and said he suspected the Carbones were behind the attack.

But wait, there’s more.

The brothers have already been embroiled in a longstanding legal wrangle with Canadian billionaire philanthropist Michael DeGroote, who apparently loaned them $112 million to buy casinos in Santo Domingo. DeGroote believes the brothers defrauded him of $107.3 million, some 96 percent associated with the original loan.

Justice Frank Newbould, of the Ontario Superior Court, has stated that DeGroote has ‘established a case that is strong fraud and very severe breaches of agreement.’ Meanwhile, the Carbones have countersued, accusing DeGroote of having Mafia ties, of being a predatory lender, and of making death threats.

Casino Gets Mobbed

Nevertheless, one figure who does may actually have Mafia ties, in accordance with Canada’s The Globe and Mail, is Andrew Pajak, the guy who facilitated the conference between DeGroote and also the Carbones, and that is also a right part owner of Dream.

In fact, Pajak was described by one for the newspaper’s sources, who is himself a former investigator with the Toronto Police Department, as being ‘a mob associate associated with very first degree.’

So when Pajak started arguing with the Carbones over who owned which an element of the business, Montreal mafia baron Vito Rizzuto suddenly turned up, evidently to fill the ensuing power vacuum. This ended up being short-lived, nevertheless, as Rizzuto died unexpectedly of complications from lung cancer in of 2013 december.

Murder for Hire

Later that 12 months, Toronto police charged Antonio Carbone with conspiring to commit murder and death that is threatening having been recorded plotting the death of Pajak by way of a convicted conman named Sasha Visser. Visser appears to are attempting to try out both sides off one another.

As part of bail conditions, Carbone was ordered to stay away from the Dream casinos, which he says ‘put a chilling effect in the business’ and allowed ‘others,’ presumably on Pajak’s purchases, to attempt to wrestle control of the casinos.

Currently, a number of the Dream casino properties remain shuttered, while others are being managed by court-appointed administrators. It’s not known whether Baez is one such administrator or a business associate of the Carbones.

Massachusetts Gambling Looks to Canada for Responsibility System

Massachusetts’s gambling commission is bringing British Columbia’s GameSense program to the state to hopefully ease the strain of problem gaming. (Image: calvinayre.com)

The two licensed Massachusetts gambling resorts won’t arrive until nov 2017 at the earliest, but that’sn’t stopping neighborhood leaders in addressing problem gaming.

The Massachusetts State Gaming Commission announced this week it plans to adopt British Columbia’s GameSense into its strategy that is overall to addiction at casinos.

Just play titanic slot machine like the Canadian province, the government will fund this system.

Mark Vander Linden, their state’s director of research and responsible gaming, says the commission ‘sought to identify the entire world’s most promising and advanced accountable gaming training,’ and that the GameSense brand ‘will greatly enhance our overall efforts to promote responsible video gaming and effectively communicate with our citizens.’

While Steve Wynn and MGM’s resorts are still years away, the Plainridge Racecourse slot parlor is anticipated to break the gate that is starting June.

Winning Bet

Launched in 2009 by the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, GameSense provides gamblers with factual information regarding responsible betting habits, proof of addiction, how to make safe bets and choices, and resources to seek assistance.

From learning about probabilities and odds, to understanding the relationship between chance and skill, GameSense delivers tools for managed gambling.

And a 24/7 helpline, GameSense Info Centers are put at all British Columbia casinos and gaming establishments.

These interactive kiosks allow gamblers to get assistance instantly, offering direct access to understanding a game’s structure, urban myths about gambling, and tips for the successful experience.

GameSense advisors are also on-hand ready to aid answer any questions customers may have.

Worldwide Problem

Problem gambling is the issue that is predominant the passage through of gaming legislation in America, but of course the problem isn’t limited by the US.

In the uk, government leaders are demanding immediate action in obtaining a more socially responsible gaming environment.

The Gambling Commission is updating its License Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) for operators to comply with. The LCCP says previous versions of its code failed to get results from making it exponentially harder for underage gamblers to access casinos, to creating a self-imposed exclusion program for addicted players.

While Wynn and MGM will depend on repeat business to recoup their billion buck ventures, too much of a a valuable thing can trigger small of some other.

Problem gambling is a problem that is big but when the repeat offenders disappear, therefore can the revenues. In Sweden, executed responsible gambling techniques have been so successful they have generated an eight per cent decline in net video gaming earnings. Gambling controls, such as mandatory player cards for all customers, generated the drop.

Sweden claims it plans to carry on improving its video gaming experience, as it preferably grows a responsible gaming pool of players.

Tucked away in the densely populated Northeast US, Massachusetts lawmakers probably aren’t too focused on attracting adequate customers to support the resorts. An ample revenue base won’t be difficult to find with players expected to come from the many affluent surrounding areas and states.

When MGM Springfield and Wynn Everett open, the players can come. However, just the future knows whether issue gambling will weigh heavily on lawmakers accountable for bringing gambling to the Bay State.

US Group Investigating Amaya Financial Activity

The extraordinary Amaya stock price growth has attracted the eyes of another financial regulatory firm, this time one from the usa. (Image: pokerupdate.com)

Amaya Gaming Group has been the subject of two investigations since one of which it knew about, another in which it didn’t december.

Amaya’s Montreal headquarters were raided in December by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the Quebec equivalent for the Securities and Exchange Commission in America.

Corporate executives stated at the right time they might adhere to the investigation.

However, it had been revealed this week that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a private company backed by the United States Congress, has also been considering Amaya’s monetary task for over two months.

That was news to Amaya who released a statement reading, ‘the investigation that is only know of is through the AMF, into trading tasks in Amaya securities surrounding the PokerStars acquisition.’

What’s the Fuss All About?

AMF and FINRA are two entirely separate investigations, but they have been likely searching for the exact same thing, that of insider trading.

The general probe is looking into Amaya’s unprecedented stock price increase on the Toronto inventory Exchange (TSE:AYA) before any official term was verified that the organization was purchasing PokerStars.

Hundreds of investors put big stakes into Amaya in May and June that is early up to Amaya finally confirming its $4.9 billion purchase of the Rational Group on June 12th.

Throughout the two months prior to the statement, the stock estimate nearly doubled as those few hundred investors drove up the price and increased their position.

Once the news finally went public, those holdings ballooned from $7 CAD ($5.61 USD) in very early May to $23.45 ($18.79) on 30th june.

Last November, the purchase price reached its high that is 52-week of39.25 ($31.45). If investors received information that is confidential the imminent sale of PokerStars, and said investors acted on that information by buying AYA stock, that would breach insider trading laws.

The dollar that is multi-billion included numerous companies, corporate advisors, and a few underwriters, a large tangled web that likely made complete confidentially regarding the transaction nearly impossible.

Several industry insiders think underwriters may have been responsible for dripping the data to potential investors in an effort to drive up the business’s valuation, therefore bringing down Amaya’s overall risk associated with a $4.9 billion venture.

Amaya is hoping that the probe by AMF determines the organization was not mixed up in spreading of any materials that are undisclosed. CEO David Baazov seemed confident during a interview that his company has done nothing wrong january. ‘I would say the investigation that we anticipated given that there was a historical stock run-up in advance,’ Baazov asserted for us is something. ‘ we think the AMF is looking into something which they ought to be looking into and looking into what has resulted in that stock run-up.’

Unwanted Visitor

Being a non-government usa entity, FINRA will probably find it difficult to gain access towards the information it seeks from Amaya.

The same won’t hold true for the company from the south while the gaming company has apparently been more than accommodating to the Quebec authorities.

FINRA is a private firm that protects individual investors. The unofficial ‘watchdog’ agency investigates brokerage firms, economic exchanges, hedge funds, business opportunities, and money managers whenever it sees fit.

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