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In response to a query from local news outlet Patch, Republican Mayor Gary Grasso confirmed the existence of the donations from the Capri restaurant and the Are We Live nightclub, two Burr Ridge businesses owned by Filippo “Gigi” Rovito.    

Rovito, whom NBC Chicago previously reported has alleged ties to the Chicago Outfit, is facing federal charges of operating an illegal gambling business and conspiracy to collect extensions of credit by extortionate means.

He was among 22 people arrested in coordinated raids by the FBI April 29 following a long-running investigation dubbed “Operation Porterhouse Parlay,” which allegedly uncovered links between illegal gambling operations and restaurant networks spanning Northwest Indiana and suburban Chicago.

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The reforms, announced at the end of August, introduced a package of what it referred to as “evidence-based” legislation. 

As well as a statewide exclusion register, the package also set out to reduce the number of poker machines from the current figure of 87,000 across 2,100 clubs and hotels. 

The government said it aims to achieve this by increasing the forfeiture rate when gaming machine entitlements are traded from one in three to one in two. 

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Under Section 106 of New Zealand’s Gambling Act 2003, a class 4 licence holder, also known as a “corporate society” by the regulator, “must apply or distribute the net proceeds from class 4 gambling only to or for an authorised purpose specified in the corporate society’s licence”.

The DIA worked directly with class 4 gambling operators (commonly known as pokies trusts), and discovered ‘widespread issues’ such as cases where money that should have been available for community grants was instead spent on society expenses, such as the purchase of additional gaming machines.

Vicki Scott, the DIA’s director of gambling, said the investigation had delivered significant results, while stressing that work to improve compliance and ensure communities received their share of gambling proceeds would continue.