Nesci & St. Louis, PLLC, Honored as Tier 1 Law Firm for DUI…

U.S. News – Best Lawyers Ranks Tucson Firm Amongst Top Firms in Arizona.

Tucson, Arizona (PRWEB) November 13, 2017

Nesci & St. Louis, PLLC, is proud to announce it has been named a Tier 1 firm in Tucson for DUI/DWI Defense by U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” for 2018. The Tucson firm is one of only three Arizona firms defending driving under the influence cases to receive this honor.

U.S. News determined its Best Law Firms based on client and peer feedback on whether a firm is: knowledgeable; responsive; civil; cost-effective; understanding of a client’s needs; and likely to be recommended to another client. The selection panel gave a score to each firm and grouped them in tiers, with Tier 1 being the highest. U.S. News said that it uses a tier system because many of the top-scoring law firms are separated by small margins. U.S. News ranked law firms in 186 metropolitan areas across the U.S. and 122 areas of practice.

Nesci & St. Louis, PLLC, partners James Nesci and Joseph P. St. Louis are both regarded as among the top DUI defense attorneys in the country. Nesci has been selected as one of The Best Lawyers in America for DUI/DWI Defense every year since 2010. St. Louis has received the same honor every year since 2013.

Attorney James Nesci is the Dean Emeritus of the National College for DUI Defense, Inc. He has written a number of books on DUI defense published in several states, including Nesci’s Arizona DUI Defense: The Law & The Practice, 4th Edition. Nesci has taught defense attorneys how to defend DUI cases at over 150 legal conferences. Peer and professional ratings organizations regularly rank him as a top DUI defense attorney.

Attorney Joseph P. St. Louis is the only Arizona attorney certified as a Specialist in both criminal defense (by the Arizona State Bar) and DUI defense (by the National College for DUI Defense, as authorized by the American Bar Association). Super Lawyers magazine has named him one of its best DUI defense lawyers in Arizona every year since 2009. St. Louis is also the past president of Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice.

Nesci & St. Louis, PLLC, also includes attorneys Russell Hughes and Anshul Krishn, and focuses exclusively on representing clients throughout Arizona charged with DUI and other criminal offenses.

Nesci & St. Louis, PLLC:

The Tucson criminal defense lawyers at Nesci & St. Louis, PLLC represent individuals charged with DUI and other crimes throughout the state of Arizona, including in the counties of Pima, Miracopa, Cochise, Pinal, Santa Cruz, and Yuma. Contact the law firm today to setup an initial case consultation. Call 520-777-0235 or visit https://www.azdefense.com/ for more information.


For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/11/prweb14912212.htm


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SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Pomerantz Law Firm Announces the Filing of a Class Action against SCANA Corporation and Certain Officers – SCG

NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against SCANA Corporation (“SCANA” or the “Company”) (NYSE: SCG) and certain of its officers.   The class action, filed in United States District Court, for the District of South Carolina, and docketed under 17-cv-03063, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired SCANA securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants’ violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased SCANA securities between January 19, 2016, and September 22, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until November 27, 2017, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class.  A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and amount of shares purchased. 

[Click here to join this class action]

SCANA is an energy-based holding company whose principal subsidiary, South Carolina Electric & Gas Company is a regulated public utility engaged in the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity primarily in South Carolina.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Defendants artificially drove up the price of SCANA’s stock by issuing false and misleading statements to investors, and omitting material information, concerning the progress, cost, and completion schedule of the multi-billion dollar nuclear construction project at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Fairfield County, South Carolina (the “Nuclear Project”); (ii) Defendants issued false and misleading statements and omitted material information, concerning the financial health of its lead contractor for the project, Westinghouse Electric Company (“Westinghouse”); and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, SCANA shares traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period, and class members suffered significant losses and damages.

Rather than disclose to the market that the Nuclear Project was facing serious design, construction, and cost headwinds, as described in a secret, 130-page report issued by Bechtel Corporation on February 5, 2016 (the “Bechtel Report”), Defendants doubled down on their strategy of deception and misdirection by issuing SCANA-produced promotional videos, press releases, and other public statements that created a fundamentally false and misleading impression to investors that the project was running smoothly within a reasonable budget and on schedule. Yet, as only recently disclosed to investors, for much of the Nuclear Project’s history, a formal construction schedule was never in place and costs were spiraling out of control.

In addition to material misstatements and omissions about the status and progress of the Nuclear Project, Defendants also issued false and misleading statements and omitted material information, concerning the financial health of its lead contractor for the project, Westinghouse.

On July 31, 2017, SCANA’s subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. and Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility, announced that they would abandon construction of two nuclear power plants in South Carolina, citing rising construction costs. 

On August 4, 2017, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that he was opening an investigation and state Senate leaders called for a special legislative session to investigate SCANA’s abandonment of the Nuclear Project.

In response to these announcements, SCANA’s stock price fell approximately 5%, or $3.36 per share, to close at $63.79 per share on August 4, 2017, after several days of unusually heavy trading volume.

On August 10, 2017, The Post and Courier published a “Top Story” article entitled “CEO: SCANA may not return to scuttled nuclear project—even if a new partner emerges.” The article reported on SCANA Chief Executive Officer Kevin B. Marsh’s comments to state lawmakers that “he wasn’t sure he would want to take the project back up after it fell years behind schedule and its costs soared billions of dollars over budget.”

Following this news, SCANA’s share price fell $1.32, or 2.13%, to close at $60.69 on August 11, 2017.

On August 29, 2017, The Post and Courier reported that a second class action had been filed on behalf of SCE&G customers, accusing SCE&G and SCANA of fraud and negligence in the years preceding the decision to abandon construction of the company’s nuclear power plants. 

Following this news, SCANA’s share price fell $0.84, or 1.39%, over the following two trading sessions, to close at $59.75 per share on August 30, 2017.

On September 22, 2017, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson requested that the State Law Enforcement Division launch a criminal investigation related to the Nuclear Project.

On this news, SCANA’s share price fell $1.96, or 3.43% per share, to close at $55.22 per share on September 22, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation.  Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions.  Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:
Robert S. Willoughby
Pomerantz LLP
rswilloughby@pomlaw.com

/EIN News/ —


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Britain’s water firms flush profits through tax havens

Rachel Millard For The Daily Mail

The owners of Britain’s largest water companies used offshore tax havens as they loaded up the firms with £24bn of debt.

Thames Water, Anglian, Southern and Yorkshire Water – which jointly supply almost 30m people – are billions of pounds in the red and paid no corporation tax last year.

Critics claim their debts were racked up by owners to drive down tax bills and extract huge profits.

The Paradise Papers have shone a light on the use of offshore tax havens by the rich and famous – but they are also popular with utility firms.

Thames, Anglian, Southern and Yorkshire all used offshore firms to borrow money. In total from all forms of financing, Thames now owes £10.5bn, Anglian owes £6.8bn, Southern owes £3.5bn, and Yorkshire owes £3.7bn.

Utilities financing expert Martin Blaiklock said: ‘How much of that cheap money has just been going straight into the pockets of the owners as opposed to benefiting the customers?’

The four firms set up subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands more than a decade ago to get around rules in the UK preventing them from raising cash on the bond markets. Although those rules have since been scrapped, many continued to use the offshore firms.

Often interest payments made through havens do not incur tax as they would in the UK.

Analysis of accounts by the Mail suggests money has been lent between different parts of the companies, generating interest payments that reduce taxable profits.

Southern Water Services Ltd paid £133.6m in interest during 2016-17 to Cayman subsidiary Southern Water Services (Finance).

Southern Water Services Ltd ended the year with an £84.9m tax credit.

Thames Water Utilities Ltd paid £356.8m on interest on inter-company loans and ended up with a tax credit of £70.3m. The firm has paid no corporation tax since 2006.

Anglian Water Services Ltd paid £286.5m in interest to subsidiaries while earning £192m in interest from other parts of the company. It ended the year with a tax credit of £37.9m. Anglian Water group has issued bonds via a UK company with a Cayman holding company it says is dormant.

Yorkshire Water Services Ltd paid £198m interest on inter-company loans and ended up with a £101.5m tax credit.

Thames’s former owner Macquarie and fellow shareholders paid themselves £2.6bn in dividends between 2006 and last year, while the firm faces huge fines for leaks. Water firms stress they are allowed to delay corporation tax to encourage investment. Anglian said it had invested £1bn in the region and paid £210m in taxes.

Ofwat, the water regulator, is unhappy about the offshore structures, warning the sector faces a huge crisis of public trust.

It also wants companies to bring debt down, and is expected to introduce tougher rules on the amount they can charge customers.

Aileen Armstrong, senior director for finance and governance at Ofwat said: ‘It’s clear that many people don’t like the idea of public monopoly utility companies relying on complex financial arrangements.’ Yorkshire Water says it plans to close its subsidiary. Thames and Anglian have also indicated they might do so.

A Thames Water spokesman said both Thames and its Cayman financing company were resident in the UK for tax purposes.

He said: ‘There is no tax benefit associated with the companies being registered in the Cayman Islands and the companies operate and are managed wholly from our UK office.’

An Anglian Water spokesman said its Cayman firm is dormant and serves no purpose.

He added: ‘As Anglian Water has always been registered in the UK for tax, it therefore does not, and never has, benefited from any tax advantage from this.’

A Southern Water spokesman said the firm is resident in the UK for tax purposes and that ‘there is no tax benefit’ to its Cayman Islands structure.

Yorkshire Water said it was taking steps to remove unnecessary offshore structures and pays all tax in full.

Finance director Liz Barber added: ‘Our policy is not to enter into transactions that have a main purpose of gaining a tax advantage and not to make interpretations of tax law that are opposed to the original published intention of the law.’

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HHS Nominee Alex Azar Is a Friend to Health-Care Firms: Gadfly

Industries traditionally don’t get to pick nominees to fill a president’s cabinet. But the Trump administration sometimes does it for them. 

Former Eli Lilly & Co. executive Alex Azar is a Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary nominee that drugmakers and health insurers can firmly support. 

Azar is already in the upper echelon of Trump appointees in terms of experience; he spent most of the Bush administration as general counsel and then Deputy Secretary of HHS. That bodes well for the general function of the agency. 

Trump’s HHS Nominee’s Former Employer

Eli Lilly

Azar’s career since the HHS bodes well for the pharma industry. He spent nearly a decade at Lilly, eventually rising to run its U.S. business. President Donald Trump tweeted on Monday that Azar “will be a star for lower drug prices!” But while Azar was at Lilly, the company significantly raised prices on its medicines. He seems unlikely to push his former industry to take the opposite tack. 

If Azar does go after drug prices, then he may focus on other actors, such as pharmacy benefit managers, that pharma likes to blame for rising costs. Or he may encourage the FDA’s bid to lower prices via competition. This may not be good for every pharma company, but it’s a far cry from the HHS’s stance under prior management. During the Obama administration, for example, the department tried to make it less profitable to sell expensive medicines to Medicare beneficiaries. Azar was on the executive committee of a lobbying group vigorously opposed to that effort.  

Azar’s appointment may be a boon for Obamacare-focused health insurers, as well.

While Azar has been a critic of the Affordable Care Act and a proponent of repeal, he doesn’t seem as zealous about it as former HHS Secretary Tom Price. Azar told Bloomberg TV in June that the ACA gives HHS a lot of latitude to “make it work a little better.” In contrast, when Price had opportunities to make the law function better, he didn’t always take them. Some of the agency’s more-obvious acts of sabotage — including sluggish responses to state requests for greater flexibility — may change. 

Early ACA enrollment figures for 2018 have been robust in spite of the efforts of Price’s HHS; any departmental shift toward supporting, rather than undermining, the law can only help. 

At a minimum, insurers and pharma firms may soon get an experienced secretary familiar with how the HHS works. But they can hope for something more: a much-needed friend in the Trump administration. 

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Max Nisen is a Bloomberg Gadfly columnist covering biotech, pharma and health care. He previously wrote about management and corporate strategy for Quartz and Business Insider.

To contact the author of this story: Max Nisen in New York at mnisen@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net.

©2017 Bloomberg L.P.

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SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Pomerantz Law Firm Announces the Filing of a Class Action against SCANA Corporation and Certain Officers – SCG

NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against SCANA Corporation (“SCANA” or the “Company”) (NYSE: SCG) and certain of its officers.   The class action, filed in United States District Court, for the District of South Carolina, and docketed under 17-cv-03063, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired SCANA securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants’ violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased SCANA securities between January 19, 2016, and September 22, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until November 27, 2017, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class.  A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and amount of shares purchased. 

[Click here to join this class action]

SCANA is an energy-based holding company whose principal subsidiary, South Carolina Electric & Gas Company is a regulated public utility engaged in the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity primarily in South Carolina.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Defendants artificially drove up the price of SCANA’s stock by issuing false and misleading statements to investors, and omitting material information, concerning the progress, cost, and completion schedule of the multi-billion dollar nuclear construction project at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Fairfield County, South Carolina (the “Nuclear Project”); (ii) Defendants issued false and misleading statements and omitted material information, concerning the financial health of its lead contractor for the project, Westinghouse Electric Company (“Westinghouse”); and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, SCANA shares traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period, and class members suffered significant losses and damages.

Rather than disclose to the market that the Nuclear Project was facing serious design, construction, and cost headwinds, as described in a secret, 130-page report issued by Bechtel Corporation on February 5, 2016 (the “Bechtel Report”), Defendants doubled down on their strategy of deception and misdirection by issuing SCANA-produced promotional videos, press releases, and other public statements that created a fundamentally false and misleading impression to investors that the project was running smoothly within a reasonable budget and on schedule. Yet, as only recently disclosed to investors, for much of the Nuclear Project’s history, a formal construction schedule was never in place and costs were spiraling out of control.

In addition to material misstatements and omissions about the status and progress of the Nuclear Project, Defendants also issued false and misleading statements and omitted material information, concerning the financial health of its lead contractor for the project, Westinghouse.

On July 31, 2017, SCANA’s subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. and Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility, announced that they would abandon construction of two nuclear power plants in South Carolina, citing rising construction costs. 

On August 4, 2017, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that he was opening an investigation and state Senate leaders called for a special legislative session to investigate SCANA’s abandonment of the Nuclear Project.

In response to these announcements, SCANA’s stock price fell approximately 5%, or $3.36 per share, to close at $63.79 per share on August 4, 2017, after several days of unusually heavy trading volume.

On August 10, 2017, The Post and Courier published a “Top Story” article entitled “CEO: SCANA may not return to scuttled nuclear project—even if a new partner emerges.” The article reported on SCANA Chief Executive Officer Kevin B. Marsh’s comments to state lawmakers that “he wasn’t sure he would want to take the project back up after it fell years behind schedule and its costs soared billions of dollars over budget.”

Following this news, SCANA’s share price fell $1.32, or 2.13%, to close at $60.69 on August 11, 2017.

On August 29, 2017, The Post and Courier reported that a second class action had been filed on behalf of SCE&G customers, accusing SCE&G and SCANA of fraud and negligence in the years preceding the decision to abandon construction of the company’s nuclear power plants. 

Following this news, SCANA’s share price fell $0.84, or 1.39%, over the following two trading sessions, to close at $59.75 per share on August 30, 2017.

On September 22, 2017, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson requested that the State Law Enforcement Division launch a criminal investigation related to the Nuclear Project.

On this news, SCANA’s share price fell $1.96, or 3.43% per share, to close at $55.22 per share on September 22, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation.  Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions.  Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:
Robert S. Willoughby
Pomerantz LLP
rswilloughby@pomlaw.com


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Pomerantz Law Firm Announces the Filing of a Class Action against SCANA Corporation and Certain Officers – SCG

NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against SCANA Corporation (“SCANA” or the “Company”) (NYSE: SCG) and certain of its officers.   The class action, filed in United States District Court, for the District of South Carolina, and docketed under 17-cv-03063, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired SCANA securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants’ violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased SCANA securities between January 19, 2016, and September 22, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until November 27, 2017, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class.  A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and amount of shares purchased. 

[Click here to join this class action]

SCANA is an energy-based holding company whose principal subsidiary, South Carolina Electric & Gas Company is a regulated public utility engaged in the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity primarily in South Carolina.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Defendants artificially drove up the price of SCANA’s stock by issuing false and misleading statements to investors, and omitting material information, concerning the progress, cost, and completion schedule of the multi-billion dollar nuclear construction project at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Fairfield County, South Carolina (the “Nuclear Project”); (ii) Defendants issued false and misleading statements and omitted material information, concerning the financial health of its lead contractor for the project, Westinghouse Electric Company (“Westinghouse”); and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, SCANA shares traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period, and class members suffered significant losses and damages.

Rather than disclose to the market that the Nuclear Project was facing serious design, construction, and cost headwinds, as described in a secret, 130-page report issued by Bechtel Corporation on February 5, 2016 (the “Bechtel Report”), Defendants doubled down on their strategy of deception and misdirection by issuing SCANA-produced promotional videos, press releases, and other public statements that created a fundamentally false and misleading impression to investors that the project was running smoothly within a reasonable budget and on schedule. Yet, as only recently disclosed to investors, for much of the Nuclear Project’s history, a formal construction schedule was never in place and costs were spiraling out of control.

In addition to material misstatements and omissions about the status and progress of the Nuclear Project, Defendants also issued false and misleading statements and omitted material information, concerning the financial health of its lead contractor for the project, Westinghouse.

On July 31, 2017, SCANA’s subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. and Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s state-owned electric and water utility, announced that they would abandon construction of two nuclear power plants in South Carolina, citing rising construction costs. 

On August 4, 2017, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that he was opening an investigation and state Senate leaders called for a special legislative session to investigate SCANA’s abandonment of the Nuclear Project.

In response to these announcements, SCANA’s stock price fell approximately 5%, or $3.36 per share, to close at $63.79 per share on August 4, 2017, after several days of unusually heavy trading volume.

On August 10, 2017, The Post and Courier published a “Top Story” article entitled “CEO: SCANA may not return to scuttled nuclear project—even if a new partner emerges.” The article reported on SCANA Chief Executive Officer Kevin B. Marsh’s comments to state lawmakers that “he wasn’t sure he would want to take the project back up after it fell years behind schedule and its costs soared billions of dollars over budget.”

Following this news, SCANA’s share price fell $1.32, or 2.13%, to close at $60.69 on August 11, 2017.

On August 29, 2017, The Post and Courier reported that a second class action had been filed on behalf of SCE&G customers, accusing SCE&G and SCANA of fraud and negligence in the years preceding the decision to abandon construction of the company’s nuclear power plants. 

Following this news, SCANA’s share price fell $0.84, or 1.39%, over the following two trading sessions, to close at $59.75 per share on August 30, 2017.

On September 22, 2017, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson requested that the State Law Enforcement Division launch a criminal investigation related to the Nuclear Project.

On this news, SCANA’s share price fell $1.96, or 3.43% per share, to close at $55.22 per share on September 22, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation.  Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions.  Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:
Robert S. Willoughby
Pomerantz LLP
[email protected]


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Sports betting isn’t legal, but firms are jockeying now

Atlantic City, N.J. — Some of the leading gambling technology companies expect the U.S. Supreme Court to legalize sports betting nationwide, and are jockeying for position months before a decision is even rendered.

NYX Gaming is suing London-based William Hill over the proposed acquisition of NYX by Las Vegas-based Scientific Games. William Hill, which owns stock in NYX, is threatening to use its voting shares to block the acquisition unless it receives certain assurances from Scientific Games about what the newly merged company will and won’t be able to do.

In its lawsuit, NYX terms those requests “extortionate” and anti-competitive. William Hill calls them “perfectly reasonable.”

The maneuvering takes place as the Supreme Court prepares to hear a case brought by New Jersey that seeks to legalize sports betting. Federal law now forbids sports gambling in all but four states: Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Sports betting isn’t legal nationwide, but firms are jockeying already

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Some gambling technology companies expect the U.S. Supreme Court to legalize sports betting and are jockeying for position in the new industry months before a decision is even rendered.

A lawsuit filed Thursday in Atlantic City shines some light on the scramble. NYX Gaming Group Ltd., a company based on the British island of Guernsey, is suing London-based William Hill PLC over Las Vegas-based Scientific Games Corp.’s proposed acquisition of NYX.

William Hill owns stock in NYX and is threatening to use its voting shares to block the acquisition unless it receives certain assurances from Scientific Games about what the newly merged company will and won’t be able to do.

NYX, a leading provider of gambling software, terms those requests “extortionate” and anti-competitive, according to its lawsuit. They include demands that Scientific Games not compete with William Hill, and that it hand over source code for some NYX products.

William Hill says its actions are “perfectly reasonable.” Scientific Games did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The maneuvering takes place as the nation’s highest court prepares to hear a case brought by New Jersey that seeks to legalize sports betting. The state is taking aim at a 1992 law that forbids state-authorized sports gambling in all but four states that met a 1991 deadline to legalize it: Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon. Nevada is the only state to allow single-game wagering.

“Many in the industry think it is only a matter of time before sports betting is opened up one way or another,” said David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. “With that mindset, it is important to establish a position now, as states and operators will be choosing partners quickly.

“For the past 30 years, gaming companies have been driven by the promises of expansion,” he said. “In the past that meant more states opening themselves up to casino gaming, but the final frontier may be sports betting.”

On Sept. 20, NYX announced it would be acquired by Scientific Games, which makes a variety of products for lotteries and casinos.

But William Hill is threatening to block the deal.

“William Hill has made clear to (Scientific Games) and NYX that it fears competition in the marketplace,” NYX wrote in its lawsuit. “William Hill has expressed its view that the U.S. sports betting market is a ‘two-horse race’ between William Hill and NYX, and that as of now, William Hill has control over NYX.”

William Hill spokesman Ciaran O’Brien said the company is defending the rights of its shareholders.

“Aggressive litigious activity is a hallmark” of mergers and acquisitions in the U.S., he said. “But it will not deter William Hill from seeking perfectly reasonable assurances about joint projects with NYX.”

Asked about the industry’s desire to line up market share ahead of a high court ruling on sports betting, O’Brien said: “This may give a clue as to the aggressive litigation being aimed at William Hill.”

Schwartz predicted other companies likely to seek a share of a U.S. sports betting market include CG Technology; the South Point Race Book; and Boyd Gaming, all based in Las Vegas. He also predicted some startup firms headed by gambling industry veterans will emerge.

In a report last month, Eilers & Krejcik Gaming LLC, which tracks state-by-state gambling legislation, predicted legal sports betting could be offered in 32 states within five years if the Supreme Court rules in favor of New Jersey.

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Sports Βetting Ιsn’t legal, Βut Firms Are Jockeying Already

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Some of the leading gambling technology companies expect the U.S. Supreme Court to legalize sports betting nationwide, and are jockeying for position months before a decision is even rendered.

NYX Gaming is suing London-based William Hill over the proposed acquisition of NYX by Las Vegas-based Scientific Games. William Hill, which owns stock in NYX, is threatening to use its voting shares to block the acquisition unless it receives certain assurances from Scientific Games about what the newly merged company will and won’t be able to do.

In its lawsuit, NYX terms those requests “extortionate” and anti-competitive. William Hill calls them “perfectly reasonable.”

The maneuvering takes place as the Supreme Court prepares to hear a case brought by New Jersey that seeks to legalize sports betting. Federal law now forbids sports gambling in all but four states: Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon.


WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press

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