About this app
How to play Magic Money Maze
A former Connecticut funeral director who stole clients’ prepayments to fund his excessive gambling habit will spend the next seven and a half years in state prison.
Philip Pietras, 52, admitted to stealing from more than 170 people, many of whom are senior citizens who sought to limit the emotional and financial burdens placed on their loved ones by prepaying for their funerals. But instead of placing those funds, meant for caskets and burial services, in escrow accounts, Pietras pocketed the money to gamble.
Pietras accepted a plea deal from the state, and prosecutors expect him to enter a guilty plea on Oct. 23 and be formally sentenced on Jan. 22, 2027.
How to play Magic Money Maze
“Despite the enhanced benefits implementation starting before the union sought recognition of any Red Rock employees, the District Court found that the timing and rollout of the benefits were intended to deter the union’s organising effort and ordered Red Rock to recognise and bargain with the union pending completion of the board’s administrative proceedings,” Station’s SCOTUS petition reads in part.
While Station has remained steadfast in its opposition to Culinary, the union has made gains elsewhere in recent years. The entire Las Vegas Strip is now unionised, and Culinary used city-wide strikes as leverage in late 2023 and early 2024 to gain new multi-year labour agreements with the city’s major operators, including Wynn, Caesars and MGM.
Other than Station, Las Vegas Sands had been the other largest non-union holdout in Las Vegas for many years. But when the Venetian-Palazzo was sold to Apollo Global Management in 2021, the firm had no issues with Culinary and ratified the property’s first-ever deal with the union in 2024.
About Magic Money Maze
Speaking at the launch event, MGA CEO Charles Mizzi emphasized that the framework is meant to foster progress rather than stifle it.
“Our role as a regulator is not to stand in the way of innovation, but to help create the certainty and confidence needed for innovation to flourish responsibly,” Mizzi said.
The charter does not create new regulatory obligations and was designed to complement legislation including the EU AI Act and GDPR.