About this app
About Xmas Lightning
Its failure also leaves unresolved disputes over prediction markets and state and tribal gaming authorities, outside a comprehensive congressional framework. Those issues took on new significance during Senate floor debate over the bill, as concerns about federal commodities oversight extended to markets typically regulated at the state or tribal level.
The latest filing is an early step in filling some of that regulatory gap for the CFTC. The agency can issue regulations under its current statutory authority, but those regulations would not necessarily be as permanent as legislation passed by Congress.
For now, the important news is that the CFTC has officially started the administrative process. Only once the rulemaking progresses and the underlying proposal is available for public review will the extent of its eventual crypto framework become clear.
How to play Xmas Lightning
In an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune in June, Grasso complained that “some members of the Chicago news media stigmatize Italian Americans as Outfit members or mafia operatives whenever it serves to embellish a story.”
Federal prosecutors, however, do not mention the mafia in court documents. They allege the gambling ring generated millions of dollars through illegal sports betting, video gambling, and loansharking operations, with members using intimidation and violence—or the threat of it—to collect debts.
Rovito’s past criminal record includes convictions for aggravated criminal sexual assault and possession of a controlled substance.
How to play Xmas Lightning
Six days later, Interior determined that the land did not qualify for gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), forcing the tribe to shutter the operation and take the federal government back to court.
The arguments came as Scotts Valley asked US District Judge Trevor McFadden to issue a preliminary injunction blocking Interior’s July 30 decision. The outcome of the dispute directly threatens the tribe’s much larger ambition for the site: a proposed $700 million casino resort and hotel.
Under IGRA, gaming is generally prohibited on land taken into trust after 1988 unless it qualifies under specific exceptions. Scotts Valley claims its Vallejo property falls under the “restored lands” exception for federally recognized tribes.