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\n\tMohegan Sun, which wants to build a Massachusetts casino, uses liens as a collection tactic.<\/p>\n
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\n\tMohegan Sun, which wants to build a Massachusetts casino, uses liens as a collection tactic.<\/p>\n
\tREVERE \u2014 In 2006, years before Mohegan Sun arranged to lease 42 acres for a proposed casino and hotel at Suffolk Downs, the company went after a much humbler piece of real estate in the neighborhood, the home of an elderly man who had gambled far beyond his means.<\/p>\n
\tMohegan Sun won a court judgment to place a lien on 45 Clark Road, a white cape owned in part by Louis H. Cutler, an 80-year-old retiree who failed to repay $36,000 the casino had lent him for gambling.<\/p>\n
\tFoxwoods, too, put a lien on Cutler\u2019s house, in 2007, seeking repayment of $30,600 in gambling credit, plus interest and fees.<\/p>\n
\tNot only is the collection tactic uncommonly aggressive \u2014 a number of industry specialists said they had never before heard of casinos using it \u2014 but the liens raise questions about whether the businesses allow or enable gamblers to extend themselves too far.<\/p>\n
\tCutler\u2019s 2007 bankruptcy filing declared that his sole income was a monthly Social Security check of $640, yet two of the world\u2019s biggest gambling palaces \u2014 both applicants in the Massachusetts casino sweepstakes \u2014 had lent him more than $66,000 to make bets, and then went after his house when he could not pay it back.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt\u2019s extremely hard-core predatory behavior,\u201d said Tom Coates, who runs Iowa\u2019s largest credit counseling service and works with problem gamblers.<\/p>\n
\tThe two Connecticut tribal casinos have placed dozens of liens on homes across the state since the early 2000s, for amounts as small as a few thousand dollars, according to a Globe review of land and court records.<\/p>\n
\tMohegan Sun, for instance, recorded liens for $13,962 in Wayland in 2005; $6,396 in Worcester in 2007; $10,392 in Boylston in 2007; $14,961 in Everett in 2009; $7,437 in Beverly in 2009; and $18,604 in Gardner in 2012.<\/p>\n
\tThe liens recorded by Foxwoods include one for $20,000 in Boston in 2001; $6,922 in Lowell in 2006; $11,935 in Saugus in 2009; $44,807 in Arlington in 2009; $11,621 in Framingham in 2011; and $9,712 in Chicopee in 2013.<\/p>\n
\tExperts interviewed by the Globe \u2014 including current and former casino executives, academics, problem gambling counselors, and a representative of the American Gaming Association, the commercial casino industry\u2019s trade group \u2014 said it is unusual for a casino to use property liens to collect debts.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cFrankly, I have not heard of any casino company that goes after homes,\u201d said Whittier Law School professor I. Nelson Rose, an international expert on gambling law. \u201cIt\u2019s really extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tMohegan Sun, in a response letter to the Globe, said the company \u201ctreats this issue seriously and takes significant measures to ensure credit is extended in a responsible manner and that our policies to seek repayment of debt are equally responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe casino also defended the practice of using liens.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYour inference that our methods of seeking repayment are somehow more aggressive than other gaming companies is not accurate,\u201d said the letter from Charles Bunnell, chief of staff of the Mohegan Tribe. He noted a controversial practice by Nevada authorities to prosecute unpaid gambling debts as crimes.<\/p>\n
\tFoxwoods declined to comment. \u201cAs a matter of policy we do not discuss any topics that may involve litigation,\u201d said Dale Wolbrink, the casino\u2019s public relations manager, in an e-mail.<\/p>\n
\tPeople gamble their way into financial disaster all the time \u2014 it\u2019s one of the main arguments used by casino opponents \u2014 often by draining their own bank accounts, tapping college funds, or maxing out credit cards.<\/p>\n
\tCasino credit is supposed to be only a convenience for big players who don\u2019t want to travel with thousands of dollars in their pockets, not a loan for people lacking the assets to play, said industry consultant and author Gary Green, who has managed casinos. He said gambling companies normally run credit bureau checks before issuing credit, to see if the customer can afford the advance.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThey\u2019ve got to have the money in the first place before I give them the credit,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n
\tWhile gambling at Foxwoods Resort Casino, Lucille Ciampi found herself in trouble. \u201cI got a lot of credit. It was too much and I couldn\u2019t afford it,\u201d said Ciampi, 70. Foxwoods placed a lien on her Boston home in 2009.<\/p>\n
\tPlayers approved for credit will sign what is essentially a check for the amount of the loan, drawn on the customer\u2019s bank account.<\/p>\n
\tLater, when the gambler is ready to go home, he or she can repay the loan to a casino cashier. If the player leaves without settling the debt, as routinely happens, the casino deposits the check and the money is transferred from the customer\u2019s account \u2014 unless the account is short and the check bounces.<\/p>\n
\tGreen said it would be \u201cridiculous\u201d to use a lien to chase a gambling debt.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cFrom a PR standpoint, you can\u2019t have it both ways,\u201d said Green, in an interview. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to argue to legislators and the public and to you guys in the press that we\u2019re an entertainment business, we can\u2019t at the same time be foreclosing on people\u2019s homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCutler, according to Bunnell, applied for credit at Mohegan Sun in 1996.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cOur decision to provide credit to Mr. Cutler was based upon his significant assets at the time of his application and the lines of credit already extended to him at numerous other gaming facilities across the country,\u201d Bunnell wrote. \u201cMr. Cutler, a successful business owner, was a good customer at Mohegan Sun until 2004,\u201d when he incurred the debt.<\/p>\n
\tHe said Mohegan Sun offered to settle the debt for \u201capproximately 15 percent of the amount,\u201d but Cutler declined, and later went into bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cMohegan Sun takes credit extension abuse very seriously and employs commercially sound policies to offer casino credit to our patrons,\u201d Bunnell wrote.<\/p>\n
\tThe company did not answer questions about the amount of Cutler\u2019s credit line, or whether it was ever raised.<\/p>\n
\tOver at Foxwoods, Lucille Ciampi, 70, of Boston never thought she had a gambling problem; for her, playing slot machines was just a relaxing getaway.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cSome people like golf,\u201d Ciampi said. \u201cI like to pull the arm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThen on one overnight visit, \u201cI had lost my money and didn\u2019t have any more on me,\u201d she said. \u201cI was staying over so what was I suppose to do? Look at the stars? I thought lemme get some credit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tGetting credit was \u201cvery easy,\u201d she said, and even easier once she developed a record of paying it back. Then, one time, \u201cI ended up with more credit than I should have gotten.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe machines spun me around like a merry-go-round,\u201d she said. \u201cI got a lot of credit. It was too much and I couldn\u2019t afford it. I couldn\u2019t pay it back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFoxwoods put a $11,663 lien on Ciampi\u2019s house in 2009. She later negotiated a settlement to get the lien removed.<\/p>\n
\tShe looks forward to playing in a Massachusetts casino someday, though never again on credit.<\/p>\n
\tOne Massachusetts blackjack player said Foxwoods, which is now seeking to build a casino in Fall River, originally approved him for just a few thousand dollars in credit, but raised the limit when he asked for more.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI got it up to $12,000 in a matter of months,\u201d said the player, in his 60s, who asked not to be identified due to the stigma associated with compulsive gambling. \u201cThey don\u2019t care. They know they\u2019ll get their money in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIn 2012, the casino put a lien on the player\u2019s Southeastern Massachusetts home. \u201cIt\u2019s on there until I sell the house or it\u2019s foreclosed on,\u201d the player said. He still gambles sometimes, with cash, hoping to win his way out of a very deep hole.<\/p>\n
\tThe simplest way for a casino to minimize unpaid gambling debts is to be very conservative with credit, said Anthony Ricci, chief executive of the company that owns Parx Casino, in Pennsylvania, and a partner in a slot parlor proposal at Raynham Park.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI love being able to say for the record that we have never put a lien on anybody\u2019s house,\u201d said Ricci. \u201cNobody in the Legislature who voted for this casino bill is going to want to see us putting people out of their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tJay Snowden, chief operating officer for Penn National Gaming, another applicant for the Massachusetts slot license, said the company bases credit decisions on the financial history of each applicant, as well as the casino\u2019s relationship, if any, with the applicant.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe much prefer cash business unless the customer has a good justification and the means to justify the credit line,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\tSnowden reviewed the histories of five busy Penn casinos that issue credit and said he could find only one instance in which the company employed a property lien for delinquent gambling debt. \u201cThat was a very rare and extreme case,\u201d Snowden said, in which a customer who did not repay a $25,000 credit line could not be reached to negotiate a payment plan.<\/p>\n
\tCutler, from Revere, was a morning regular at the Bagel Bin Deli on Shirley Avenue, according to Billy Bell, 71, of Revere, who knew Cutler from the restaurant. Bell recalled Cutler as a friendly bachelor, who did not talk about the trouble he was in with the casinos and may even have misled people about it.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI got the impression the casinos banned him for being too good,\u201d said Bell.<\/p>\n
\tMohegan Sun alleged that seven gambling loans totalling $36,000 issued to Cutler in July and August 2004 were unpaid, according to court files. The casino sued, and in 2006 placed a lien of $41,635 \u2013 which included interest and fees \u2013 on Cutler\u2019s house, a 1955, three-bedroom cape, according to court and land records.<\/p>\n
\tFoxwoods\u2019 lien against Cutler\u2019s house was for $40,756.<\/p>\n
\tLiens, which accrue 12 percent interest a year, cloud the title to a piece of real estate, meaning the home cannot be sold or refinanced unless the debt is paid off. In certain circumstances, creditors can force the auction of the property to satisfy the debt.<\/p>\n
\tThe casinos were the only creditors Cutler listed in his bankruptcy filing. The court record catalogued his slim financial holdings. Beside the home he shared with his elderly sister, the entirety of Louis Cutler\u2019s listed earthly assets were these: $75 in cash and $250 in the bank; a life insurance policy with a cash value of $387; $200 in clothing, $1,000 in \u201cmiscellaneous household furniture\u2019\u2019; and a 1995 Buick Park Avenue with 117,000 miles on the odometer. Cutler said the car was worth $700.<\/p>\n
\tThe court in 2007 granted Cutler\u2019s motion to avoid the liens, because of bankruptcy rules that protect a debtor\u2019s residence.<\/p>\n
\tCutler died three years later, at 84.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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