Posted: 07 Apr 2010 01:29 PM PDT

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — The lawyer for the owners of a concrete reinforcing business accused by state casino investigators of having ties to mobsters blasted the agency for implying that an official who recommended the company be allowed to work in the Atlantic City casino industry is biased, stupid or corrupt.

John Donnelly, the lawyer for Joseph N. Merlino and his mother, Phyllis, fired back Wednesday at the state Division of Gaming Enforcement, which on Monday leveled blistering criticism at state Casino Control Commissioner William Sommeling.

Sommeling, who had acted as the hearing officer for Bayshore Rebar of Pleasantville, said he believed the Merlinos' claims that they had cut ties to the criminal side of their family. Merlino's father, Lawrence "Yogi" Merlino, was a mobster who died in the witness protection program. Merlino's cousin is jailed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino.

In its criticism, which was nearly unprecedented in its level of harshness, the gaming enforcement division said Sommeling ignored voluminous evidence that the Merlinos continue to have contacts with organized crime figures, despite their protestations to the contrary. The division said Sommeling reached "a predetermined result," which it characterized as "a travesty."

In a 30-page response made public Wednesday, Donnelly wrote that the gaming enforcement division "engages in name-calling and unsupported allegations that the hearing examiner was biased, incapable of understanding, or corrupt."

He asserted that gaming enforcement division knows the Merlinos are not associated with organized crime.

"Yet it has pursued a scorched-Earth prosecution, and now makes a disrespectful and dishonorable personal attack" on Sommeling. "Adjectives, adverbs and allegations, no matter how vile, are not proof. The DGE's position has been, from Day One, if it says it is so, then it is so. No proof is needed."

A spokesman for the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, which includes the gaming enforcement division, declined to comment Wednesday.

Dan Heneghan, a spokesman for the Casino Control Commission, said none of the commissioners would comment Wednesday because they have to consider the matter and render a final decision, probably in early May.

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Video gaming debate something to chew on - Batavia Sun

Posted: 30 Mar 2010 04:59 PM PDT

I, for one, am jumping on the video gaming bandwagon.
Put those darn machines in every bar. In every restaurant. In every private club, hotel lobby and ladies' bathroom. The more the merrier, because the money generated from these machines will build our roads and schools and sewers and bridges. It will put the unemployed back to work, more policemen on the streets, and, heck, it might even save the planet from global warming and alien invasions.
And the really cool thing? None of this revenue that's going to get our financially anemic state back on track will come out of my pocket. Not one quarter.
That's because I don't gamble.
Well, that's not entirely true. Once upon a time I had a real problem with little portable machines taking my hard earned cash.
In fact, I couldn't walk past one of those tempting slots without dropping some serious coin. And the problem was much more sinister than a sugar addiction.
I fed those machines hoping for the big payoff.
The blue gumball wouldn't do. Left teeth and tongue that disgusting Tidy Bowl hue. The white ones tasted like toothpaste; pink reminded me of Pepto-Bismol. In retrospect, I should have stopped with yellow: The banana flavor was at least tolerable. But when you're hooked, you dig deeper in your wallet until you walk away a winner.
For me, it was having the big red gumball drop into my hand.
I was not proud of my problem. But with the right support and a jaw-dropping dental bill, I overcame it. And I've been slot-free ever since.
Which is why I welcomed the Back to Work Illinois folks to our editorial board on Tuesday with open arms. The four visitors, part of a coalition of civic, business, labor and community leaders, are on a whirlwind tour to explain why communities shouldn't opt out of the gaming act signed into law last summer. It's expected to bring in $375 million annually; yet 74 government bodies have said no thanks, including Kane and DuPage counties, along with such nearby towns as Naperville, Batavia, Campton Hills and East Dundee.
The Back to Work Illinois coalition claims to be impartial, that this tour of editorial boards is purely educational. But it's obvious the group is made up mostly of those standing to gain from this gaming.
They also told us some 15,000 businesses will be eligible to operate up to five machines apiece. So it was no surprise the big concern around the table was how the new law will be implemented and regulated.
The BWI insists these machines, the first of which will be in place in November, will be easier to keep tabs on than the "gray games" now operating. They also say the amount that can be wagered is similar to Bingo; and that all the money will go into state and local coffers, rather than the pockets of the bad guys.
All of which makes sense, until you remember what got us into this fiscal mess in the first place. The biggest gamble might be assuming the state can get this right.
Still, I say we take a shot. Sure, allowing more gambling could further erode the fabric of our society. But at this point, I'm more concerned about eroding schools and highways -- not to mention savings accounts.
As we all now realize, being in the red's no fun -- unless you're talking gumballs.

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Gov. Perry puts his game face on for tech symposium - News 8 Austin

Posted: 07 Apr 2010 09:11 AM PDT

Gov. Rick Perry and city and business leaders are putting their game faces on for the inaugural Game On! Symposium Wednesday at the campus of Advanced Micro Devices.

The symposium will bring together leaders from the video gaming industry as well as education and business communities.

The groups will strive to strengthen Texas' digital media and video game education programs.

Texas is already home to more than 120 video game development companies who employ more than 3,500 workers and spend more than $234 million in the state.

The symposium runs all day at the AMD Lone Star campus.

For more information on the event, click here.

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Bringing FarmVille To Your Browser Bar - Kotaku Australia

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 02:42 PM PDT

From the FarmVille toolbar to a virtual pet that runs on your browser bar, Conduit's Ltd is helping gamers connect with games without having to change their web page.

You might have never heard about Conduit Ltd, but odds are you've seen some of its technology. Conduit created a technology that allows publishers an easy way to create browser bar nested applications that bring games, players and gaming communities together in the tiny spaces at the top of your web browser.

Toolbars are certainly nothing new, and most traditional examples are intrusive programs that change your home pages, redirect your searches and generally make themselves so much of a nuisance that you're looking for a way to remove them almost as soon as they've installed.

Not so with Conduit.

Conduit allows its customers to create browser-based applications that run in the chrome of the browser window. The FarmVille toolbar that shows you how much time you have to harvest your crops? That's Conduit. The Xfire toolbar that keeps track of your friends, lets you send messages and updates you on the latest live streaming videos? That's them as well.

Any company can use Conduit technology to create a quick and easy application that runs in the browser bar, from simple RSS feeds with instant notifications of new stories, to entire game, such as Pitsi, a tiny virtual pet that currently has more than 3.5 million users. That's a whole hell of a lot of Tamagotchi.

The company has more than 220,000 publishers creating applications and more than 100 million active users, according to company president Adam Boyden, and with the amount of flexibility the Conduit technology allows, that number will only grow.

So why is Conduit important to games?

"It's been very popular within the game space because companies have been able to build tools which have helped them make their games more easily accessible or interact with their game-related content more easily within the browser," says Bowden. "It gives game publishers, developers, and community sites a constant engagement potential with end users."

It's not just games, either. The Conduit App Store features applications for Facebook, Twitte and many different categories, making it possible to have most of the content you browse the web for easily accessible at the top of yours screen.

Best of all? It's all free.

Head over to the official website to see how Conduit can improve your internet gaming experience.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Gaming Communities

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

“Lawyer for mob kin blasts NJ's innuendo in AC case - Morris County Daily Record” plus 3 more

“Lawyer for mob kin blasts NJ's innuendo in AC case - Morris County Daily Record” plus 3 more

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