The Biggest Empire City Casino Scam
You Must Read this Updated Story on
The Westchester News.Com
You heard it here first on The Westchester News.Com
The Empire City Casino Scam in Yonkers, New York: Consumers Beware this casino is scamming the people with lots of false advertising and marketing tactics that are one big lie, this casino is a scam.
People have shared their personal feelings about the Empire City Casino in Yonkers, New York, and they feel that this casino is robbing them and using false marketing tactics and false advertisement on the radio 106.7 and cable channels and Fox 5 network. The casino is enticing people to come there to gamble, making them think they’ll win lots of money. The machines at this casino don’t payout a lot of money and people are losing their shirts in this place. One woman told me she spent her entire paycheck tonight, another said it’s sad what they’re doing to the people, they’re robbing the people, they’re robbing them of their hard earned cash. The people running this casino are a bunch of thieves and New York State should shut this casino down. They’re scamming the people in this place and it starts at the management level down. They think the people are stupid, and they spend everyday and night laughing sitting behind those cameras in the ceiling, they sit there watching all the people lose hundreds of dollars, all the peoples money is gone just like that sucked up into these vacuum slot machines. They just take everybody’s money. Its like you’re flushing your money down the toilet.
New Yorkers are the saddest people in the United States and this is the reason “Our Government is robbing us and they’re taking advantage of us, a source said, ”You can’t even get a free beer in this place, it’s terrible.”
Empire City Casino is a scam, a close source said, they’re scamming the people out of hundreds and hundreds of dollars. An investigation by the FBI is needed because behind the scenes at this Casino, it’s one huge scam.
It’s important for me to share my experiences with you, these are personal experiences that I had at the Empire City Casino. Therefore, please allow me to say this when I left the casino the other night I was completely in tears. Listen carefully because I am about to give you some valuable information about the people who patronize this casino. Most people who walk through the doors of Empire City Casino walkout losers, and the most powerful truth is this, you will absolutely “Not” win any money in this place, and if you do win, you will definitely “Not” walkout the door with your winnings.
Listen Carefully, if or when you do win about $20.00 dollars on a machine take it and run with it because what will follow that deceiving little win is a big loss, the machine will discreetly go cold quickly. You will end up losing every penny in your pocket and then you will go to the ATM and take more money out, you’ll spend more and more, just to win your money back. This casino is robbing the patrons blind and in the blink of an eye your money is gone, just like that, it’s gone.
Recently, I lost $100.00 dollars, and let me tell you it was painful to walkout of that casino without anything to show for it, not even enjoyment or a little thrill, and literally I was in tears. My husband and I ended up in an argument because I wanted to keep playing and keep trying to win our money back, unfortunately, we were like most of the other couples who lose their money and end up arguing for the same reason, losing money.
My advice to anyone who likes to play slot machines, if you have a lot of money to throw away, than, go to Empire City Casino. This casino has a lot of bells and whistles, but there is no payout, it’s all smoke and mirrors. When I listen to all the people on the bus ride to the parking lot, I could hear the same painful tone in their voices, full of disappointment and worry. When everyone walks through the doors of this casino, it starts out exciting and fun, but by the end of the night, everyone has tired long faces.
Please read the story below, every bit of it is the truth about Empire City Casino. Don’t let this casino rob you of your hard earned cash. Play Wisely! Beware of the win because the loss will rapidly follow.
This story is a story you must read, if you gamble and you can’t seem to win, if you have spent $20.00 dollars or $200.00 dollars, the odds are the more you spend the more you will lose at Empire Casino. The patrons come in bus loads from Long Island, and many come from the Bronx weekly to try their luck at winning a Jackpot. Unfortunately, almost everybody leaves broke, aside from a few smart ones, who play fugal. If anyone wins in this Casino they just end up putting it back into the machines. The casino can bring in 75 million in one night! They advertise on Fox News at Ten, and 106.7 radio. The element has changed at the casino and there is a hostile environment among the employees, although, most of the security guards are upbeat, friendly and try to be helpful and want to do the right thing for the patrons, but unfortunately, they are limited by casino management, and are told to mislead patrons and look the other way, a close source told The Westchester News.
The Teamsters Union Local 456 is trying to take control of the Security Guards by trying to recruit the Casino Security Guards into Local 456. The Teamsters Local 456 have men out of work who have been in this union for 30 years and not working, men without steady work, no jobs and no power.
The people that I have interviewed in the past year are extremely disappointed in the service, and one hispanic man told me that a black woman screamed at him for calling her to help him with the machine, she was talking to a security guard laughing, and he interrupted her conversation, and she cursed at him. Then another hispanic woman told me when she took the shuttle bus to her car in the parking lot, the bus driver a black man was very rude and nasty to her. Then one night I had the honor to meet that bus driver, and trust me, she wasn’t exaggerating. The parking lot could be a scary place, drunk men pissing on people’s cars, vomiting, and rudeness is just a few of the observances.
The bathroom’s smell like urine at times, one woman said they didn’t have proper disinfectant for the bathrooms. The women’s bathroom has urine all over the seats, women are not using the toilet seat covers, they are pissing all over the seats and floor, it’s really disgusting. This could be a disease incubator because thousands of people are using these facilities, and without the proper cleaning products, people could end up spreading diseases. Do they wash down the seats and machines daily? This is disgusting hygiene, and it’s not only happening at the Empire Casino, it’s happening all over. Why do women urinate on the toilet seats? Who does this?
This is a complete story about the Empire State Casino at Yonkers Racetrack, it’s about the truth, what really goes on behind the scenes, the screens, and behind the machines at Empire Casino. Why do the slot machine “Screens” roll out of control when people are playing them? Well, I recall that’s why they are under investigation for fixing a contest, and that’s what happened when a woman won twice two times in a row.
The contestants complained and felt the contest was fixed, and witnesses came forward acknowledging that the “Empire Casino Marketing Department” is shady and contests can easily be fixed with these computerized games. My advice to anyone going to any Casino, just go to play for fun, don’t go thinking you’re gonna win big because the odds are not in your favor. The only thing that you are going to try to win, is your hardworking money back.
Ex- employees have come forward saying that they have lost their jobs for complaining. The financial numbers are not meeting up, and security lay-offs have been discussed, this casino needs more security officers. Patrons have to pay for drinks, a Martini is $9 dollars, Beer $5 dollars, Rum & Coke $7 dollars. There is no happy hour in this place. The Empire Casino can be fun for the moment, it’s a lot of bells and whistles and smoke and mirrors, and party goers beware it’s a very costly night. There has been fights inside the casino, a man was brought out in an Ambulance after passing out one night and that can be scary when you are dealing with crowds of this multitude, a male kicked the taxi sign in anger and then got on a packed bus, no security to be found. People fighting over handicap parking and the list of complaints continues to go on and on. However, all the security guards have always made me and my crew feel comfortable, but, sometimes the crowd can get a little rough, you have to keep your guard up at all times at this casino.
The Empire Casino Television Commercial that you see advertised is very misleading to the public. The element has changed there it’s a stressed environment. There are less whites going there on a daily basis, the majority of its clientele are blacks and hispanics. The Latino music is very loud. The food is not that good either, the buffet tastes like dried up leftovers, the buffet had dried up rice and beans, mac and cheese, beef, and more, it seems that the casino is catering to a Latino clientele. The Restaurant buffet manager is a very nice man, however, we did tell him about complaints that we received from patrons, and about the restaurant service and quality of the food, and when we returned to casino restaurant after a couple of weeks, the casino did nothing about any of the complaints, absolutely nothing was done. Now, about the other restaurant at the casino, its expensive, but from what I understand you can get a good steak for $39.99 a person, although everything on the menu is a’ la carte. The Casino knows how to lore people in by sending the locals $5 & $10 dollar coupons monthly for a free play, and the discount coupons are to eat in the cafeteria, by the way the pizza is pretty good, and they hand out cheap gifts, meanwhile, people are maxing out their credit cards to try and win back their losses.
You Can Shout About It! Empire Casino Rant
The best advice I can give you is if you win a few bucks, get out leave, hold on to your wallets tight. It’s definitely over crowded inside the casino, once a machine pays it will then suck you in and in the end, you will definitely lose a lot of money if you are not careful, and the parking lot has it’s problems too. People are coming out of the casino long faced, feeling deceived, angry, depressed and broke. The slot machines hypnotize you, did you hear me, I’ll say it again, the slot machines hypnotize you, so make it a point to print out your ticket when you win, and put a smaller bill in the slot machine, if you decide to keep playing the same machine.
There is a lot of shady things going on in this casino, we saw it on a couple of occasions there was definitely scamming going on. People put a twenties into the slot machine, then, they hit the button and they win, then they quickly print the winnings out of the slot machine, and quickly put another twenty into the slot machine, taken off the pile of twenties in their hand and they continue this method over and over and in a matter of minutes they’ve won large amounts of money, and we reported it to the management of the casino. We wrote down the time, the number of the machine, and the day and a description of the people, and we gave it to the management so they can investigate this scam. Remember, the casino has plenty of camera’s up in the ceiling, it’s too bad the security officials who sit behind those camera’s don’t pay attention to the shady activity going on. They should react quickly, but they don’t. Recently, it was told to The Westchester News that security is investigating a lot of this shady activity that is going on inside and outside the casino. We’ll keep you posted on the scams that we are informed about day to day.
Instead of going to this casino, you might want to go play bingo, where you can control your spending or maybe you can buy yourself something special, go see a show in New York, something that can make you happy inside, something you can hold dear in your heart as a special memory, something like an entertaining movie or a Broadway show or an oldies show or a nice quiet dinner, maybe something like Westchester Broadway Theater, just somewhere nice or maybe you can give your money to your children or maybe use the money to pay for your children’s education because this casino certainly isn’t going to pay for your children’s education or your household bills. Please think about how you’re throwing your money away, think.
Local politicians have their fundraisers at Empire City Casino, recently, Nick Spano had a fundraiser at the Casino in there VIP room. I wonder who paid the bill? Did the taxpayer pay for his political party or does the casino comp these elected officials or former officials? Did the casino do it for free? Where is all the money that is supposed to be going into the Yonkers Schools from the profits of this casino, I’ll say it again 75 million in one night! Where is it? Yonkers School System is the worst and The Westchester News broke the story WATCH THE VIDEO.
One customer said, “You cannot win in this place, forget about it.” They come from all over to Yonkers Empire City Casino, and they all say the same thing you can’t win. The General Manager Bob is a very nice guy, but that doesn’t change the fact that people are not happy with their visit to this Casino. Patrons are getting robbed, but the security management thinks it’s not the casino’s fault because these patrons are losing there money at their own free will. We say it’s not the patrons fault because if they drop their wallets on the floor and management doesn’t think that their obligated to return it, somethings wrong, management is misleading the public.
Remember, this guy Fredrick Zappulla he killed his roommate in New York City, and then he cleaned himself up and came to Yonkers to play the slots before getting arrested. Can Yonkers get any worse? Geeze!
Empire City Casino in Yonkers is a losers playground it reeks of disappointments, losses and despair.
One thing that I saw there that I though was very sweet was a mentally challenged adult group home, and a mentally challenged man started screaming I won, I won, I win the money, I won, and he might have won $300.00 dollars on a .75 cents bet. I was so happy for him, and it made me feel good inside to see that precious moment. I don’t know if he really won, but if he did, good for him, if he didn’t shame on Empire City Casino and New York State Officials for targeting the mentally challenged group homes who are coming there in bus loads, shame on this casino for taking advantage of the slow and disabled.
Handicap people are losing their disability checks at the Yonkers casino, and the MTA is busing them there from all over the Metro Area. The Westchester News.Com broke the story and now it hit the networks and airwaves:
Links:
Links:
CONSUMER BEWARE OF CON EDISON
http://loudnews.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/con-edison-consumer-beware/
COMPLAINT BOARD
http://www.complaintsboard.com/bycompany/con-edison-company-a175401.htm
CON EDISON COMPANY COMPLAINTS
CON EDISON COMPLAINTS ARE MOUNTING
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/utilities/con_ed.html
The Westchester News
914 237-8631 Newsroom
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First of all, any casino impact on local communities is devastating and it will contribute to higher crime, poverty, social devastation and degradations of its citizens including vulnerable young children, whom will be temped soon they are of age along with drugs to enhance the emotion dilemmas.
Casino deal with cash and lots of it, taken from anyone whom wish and is eager to try their luck, including those whom work hard to bring home the basics to live and feed their family, and of course let us not leave out the addiction that is being developed here.
We all know the saying, Money is the Mother of All evils, so why are surprised!! with 540.50 million dollars annual revenues in 2009 Empire City is growing to hit the 1 Billion annual revenues.
But let us not forget that casinos deal with a lot of cash coming in from all sources including drug money, delinquent money, and so on. So it makes a casino the laundry mat for money.
The following article by J. Arlin Grabbe got my attention:
Money Laundering Offenses
Despite the various reporting requirements, prior to 1986 money laundering itself was not a crime in the U.S. But 18 U.S.C. 1956, which was enacted in 1986, and strengthened in 1988, 1990, 1992, and 1994, changed all that. This addition to the U.S. code set out three categories of criminal money-laundering offenses: transaction offenses, transportation offenses, and “sting” offenses.
Briefly, a transaction offense is any attempt to make a financial transaction using the proceeds from any illegal activity. A transportation offense is the attempt to transfer money across the border when the money was obtained illegally or will be used for illegal purposes. A sting offense is the attempt to make a financial transaction with money that is legal, but which a federal law enforcement officer has lied about and claimed it has come from some illegal activity. More specifically:
Transaction Offenses: It is a money laundering transaction crime for any person to conduct, or to attempt to conduct, a financial transaction which, in fact, involves the proceeds of specified unlawful activity, knowing that the property involved in the transaction represents the proceeds of some crime, and, while engaging in the transaction, with either a) the intent to promote the carrying on of the specified unlawful activity, or b) the intent to commit certain tax crimes, or with the knowledge that the transaction is designed at least in part a) to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of the proceeds, or b) to avoid a cash reporting requirement.
Transportation Offenses: It is a money laundering transportation crime for any person to transport, transmit or transfer, or to attempt to transport, transmit or transfer, a monetary instrument or funds into or out of the U.S., and, while engaging in the act, with either a) the intent to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity, or b) the knowledge the monetary instrument or funds represent the proceeds of some crime, and the knowledge that the transportation, etc., is designed, at least in part, (i) to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of the proceeds, or (ii) to avoid a cash reporting requirement.
“Sting” Offenses: It is a money laundering crime for any person to conduct, or to attempt to conduct, a financial transaction which involves property represented to be the proceeds of specified unlawful activity, or property used to conduct or to facilitate specified unlawful activity, said representation being made by a law enforcement officer or by another person at the direction of, or with the approval of, a federal officer authorized to investigate or to prosecute 1956 crimes, and, while engaging in the transaction, with the intent to a) promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity, or b) conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of the property believed to be the proceeds of specified unlawful activity, or c) avoid a cash reporting requirement.
Thus, as originally defined, “money laundering” only took place if the financial transaction involved (or some law enforcement officer said it involved) some otherwise illegal activity. But the definition kept getting redefined to broaden its scope. Eventually the failure to fill out one of the BSA reports became, by legal definition, money laundering also.
But the expansion of law didn’t stop there. Since some people attempted to evade the $10,000 threshold in the BSA reporting requirements, legislation was imposed that made “smurfing” or “structuring” a crime also. To divide a $10,000 cash payment into two $5,000 payments, in order to avoid filling out one of the BSA forms, is an example of structuring.
Structuring is defined in a 1991 amendment to the Bank Secrecy Act thusly: “Structure (structuring). . . . a person structures a transaction if that person, acting alone, or in conjunction with, or on behalf of other persons, conducts or attempts to conduct one or more transactions in currency in any amount, at one or more financial institutions, on one or more days in any manner, for the purpose of evading the reporting requirements . . . ‘In any manner’ includes, but is not limited to, the breaking down of a single sum of currency exceeding $10,000 into smaller sums, including sums at or below $10,000, or the conduct of a transaction or series of transactions, including transactions at or below $10,000. The transaction or transactions need not exceed the $10,000 reporting threshold at any single financial institution on any single day in order to constitute structuring within the meaning of this definition” (31 C.F.R. 103.11(p) (1991)).
Naturally all this paperwork made many cash-based businesses unhappy, and they complained to Congress. So the BSA was further modified to allow exemptions to the requirement to fill out currency transaction reports for businesses whose deposits or withdrawals of currency fall into any of the following categories (see 31 C.F.R. 103.22(b)(2)(1992)):
1) They are made from an existing bank account, and the business is an established U.S. depositor who operates a “retail type of business”. This means that the business sells consumer goods for which payments are substantially in the form of currency, just as long as it is not an automobile, aircraft, or boat dealership. (Reporting is still mandatory for the latter, because it was claimed that drug dealers often buy cars, planes, or boats with cash.)
2) They are made from an existing bank account, and the business is an established U.S. depositor who operates a sports arena, race track, amusement park, restaurant, hotel, check cashing service licensed by state or local government, vending machine company, theater, regularly scheduled passenger carrier, or public utility. (This exemption means, of course, that race tracks and sports stadiums now provide important mechanisms for laundering cash.)
3) They are made by a local, state or United States governmental agency or instrumentality. (Government agencies who handle large amounts of cash thus frequently become venues for money laundering activity.)
4) They are made from an existing bank account, and the business is an established U.S. depositor who regularly withdraws more than $10,000 to pay its employees in currency.
Also exempt from CTR reporting are currency transactions made with Federal Reserve Banks or Federal Home Loan Banks, transactions between domestic banks, or transactions between commercial banks and nonbank financial institutions.
Of course, despite these convenient alternatives, money laundering also takes place through casinos. The relative size of different casino sectors can be ascertained through their gross annual gaming revenue (GAGR). In 1994 Nevada casinos had $6.8 billion GAGR, New Jersey casinos (who fall under the BSA) $3.4 billion, the 60 or so riverboat casinos $3.3 billion, and tribal casinos about $3 billion.
How to Launder through Casinos
In the old days casino money laundering was as simple as walking into a casino with cash, buying casino chips, doing little or no gaming, and then turning in the chips for larger bills or a cashier’s check. But now such cash purchases of chips in amounts larger than $10,000 are subject to the various reporting requirements if done all at once.
Smaller amounts are also aggregated under certain circumstances. Purchases in the same gaming area of less than $10,000 in BSA and Nevada casinos are aggregated if they take place within the same 24 hour period (“gaming day”), and are reported on IRS Form 8362 if the aggregate total exceeds $10,000. BSA, but not Nevada, casinos also aggregate across gaming areas. (This means, for example, that chip purchases at the blackjack tables are aggregated with the crap tables in BSA casinos.) Tribal casinos under IRS regulations have to aggregate chip purchases over a year’s time. (A $6,000 purchase in January and a $5,000 purchase in August is supposed to result in the $11,000 total being reported on IRS Form 8300.)
The degree of casino compliance with the reporting requirements is not always clear. There has been virtually no IRS auditing of tribal casinos, for example.
In any case, cash in amounts smaller than $10,000 may be conveniently laundered through any of the casinos. Larger amounts may also be laundered, but will have to be spread across different gaming areas (in Nevada casinos), or different gaming days (in BSA or Nevada casinos), or divided up and laundered across several BSA, Nevada, or tribal casinos.
Another alternative available in Nevada casinos is to produce revenue through “verified winnings”. (“Verified” means a casino employee signs his name to a form that the money was won in the casino.) You may have noticed that slot machine payoffs of $1 million and more tend to take place on casino gala opening nights with plenty of photogenic “beautiful people” in attendance and extensive press coverage. This is not surprising given that some slot machines are controlled by software that has certain override features–”back doors” which give casino managers the ability to force payment of a jackpot. The same back door can also be a convenient money laundering mechanism, since payouts of verified winnings are not matched against personal identifying information under Nevada gaming law. Naturally, the existence of these software back doors is a secret guarded as carefully as the existence of back doors in banking software.
Verified winnings in amounts greater than $10,000 are reported by Nevada casinos on state Currency Transaction Incidence Reports (CTIRs). These are also forwarded to the IRS Detroit Computing Center, but are not entered into the Currency and Banking Retrieval System, since the forms do not include customer names or any identifying customer identification. The IRS considers them useless.
You draw your own conclusion about any casino and any laws govening it.
Tony
This pass october 29 i got A WINNING TICKET FOR THE AMOUNT OF 4,020,00 and after reading your post about SCAM, is TRUE.i cash it and people with suit was in every step in my way,it actually want my money after i got it, it look like profesional guys, exactly retire NYPD ,i tell my friends the story and we play along with the slot machine i spend around 450.00 in slot and no even a good prize,, they really have control of the place,. Well friends it happen to me, be smart play ,if u` win cash it and go home with a big smile,(to empire city Shame of U/ bye and see my self in aqueduct, next time……………