The Wall Street Journal - 21.10.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ***** Monday, October 21, 2019 |A12A

Robert F. Messner, Assistant

Deputy Commissioner of Civil

Enforcement for the NYPD.

“You don’t want to have illegal

operations going on in a com-

munity, because it makes the

community feel unsafe.”

The most common type of il-

legal gaming in New York City

are lottery operations known as

“numbers” activities, followed

by poker rooms, Mr. Messner

said. “Occasionally we’ll see a

casino-type case but those are

pretty rare,” he said.

The NYPD is generally alerted

to illegal gambling by com-

plaints from neighbors, Mr.

Messner said. An investigation

follows, with undercover officers

often placing wagers to build

cases that lead to the dens’ clo-

sure, he said. Sometimes, police

conduct several stings before

raiding the alleged den.

The NYPD sometimes files

nuisance abatement lawsuits

against the businesses where

they say the illegal gambling

took place. The court actions

can lead to property owners

and store proprietors facing

fines, temporary closure of

their business or continuing in-

spections from police.

The NYPD filed 167 nuisance

abatement suits against busi-

nesses and properties that have

housed alleged illegal gambling

or drug operations from July

2017 through December 2018,

city data show.

Police raided an alleged

numbers racket run out of a

room with a secret door at the

El Duende Deli and Grocery in

Brooklyn last year after several

sting operations in which un-

dercover detectives placed

small bets, according to court

An alleged illegal gambling

den located just three blocks

from a New York Police Depart-

ment precinct in Brooklyn’s

Crown Heights went unnoticed

by officers until four men were

shot and killed there just before

dawn on Oct. 12.

But across the city, court re-

cords show, the police have

raided scores of suspected un-

derground gambling opera-

tions, and have gone to court to

shut down at least 15 in Brook-

lyn so far this year.

From high-stakes Texas Hold

’em matches in an unassuming

building in Midtown Manhattan

to a juice bar selling illegal lot-

tery numbers to a variety store

with slot machines, under-

ground gambling operations

can be found in all five bor-

oughs, court records show.

Police officials said at the

Triple A Aces Private & Social

Event Space, the alleged gam-

bling den in Crown Heights,

more than a dozen patrons

were wagering on dice and card

games when gunfire erupted,

leaving three wounded in addi-

tion to those killed. Detectives

believe a gambling dispute or

robbery may have motivated

the deadly shooting in the

Crown Heights neighborhood

down the road from the 77th

Precinct, officials said. An in-

vestigation of the matter is

continuing, and no arrests have

yet been made.

The shooting demonstrates

how illegal gambling can lead to

violent crime, police officials say.

“It’s a very dramatic exam-

ple, but you don’t want to have

a quadruple homicide,” said

BYTYLERBLINT-WELSH

ANDBENCHAPMAN

GREATER NEW YORK

records. This April, police filed

a nuisance abatement lawsuit in

State Supreme Court in Brook-

lyn, seeking to close down the

deli. The deli was fined $2,

and was subjected to up to a

year of unannounced inspec-

tions from the police, according

to a settlement in the case.

A lawyer for the grocery

store declined to comment.

At a space in a commercial

building on West 45th Street in

Midtown Manhattan, under-

cover detectives said they saw

people playing poker with ca-

sino-style chips on four sepa-

rate occasions between May

and November in 2018, accord-

ing to court records. Officers

said they bought between $

and $1,000 in chips during the

visits before eventually arrest-

ing three people.

A spokesperson for the Man-

hattan District Attorney said the

case has since been sealed and

declined to comment further.

Police Hunt Illegal Gambling Dens

Scores of operations

raided across the city

this year with at least

15 shut in Brooklyn

Police investigated a shooting, above, at an alleged gambling den in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. A variety store, below, had slot machines.

FROM TOP: JEENAH MOON/ASSOCIATED PRESS; AGATON STROM FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

STATE STREET|By Jimmy Vielkind

Carlucci Looks to Congress as Others Study His Past

As state

Sen. David

Carlucci pre-

pares a cam-

paign for Con-

gress, some

activists in his Hudson Valley

district say his previous

membership in a faction of

breakaway Democrats will

dog him in a primary.

Mr. Carlucci, 38 years old,

has been talking to support-

ers about a campaign and is

expected to make a formal

announcement on Monday. He

would seek the Democratic

nomination in the 17th Dis-

trict; incumbent Rep. Nita

Lowey announced Oct. 10 that

she wouldn’t run for re-elec-

tion.

Mr. Carlucci was elected to

the state Senate in 2010 and

immediately joined the Inde-

pendent Democratic Confer-

ence, which allied with Re-

publicans who held the

chamber majority until this

year. Progressive activists had

long criticized the IDC for

empowering the GOP, and or-

ganized Democratic primary

challengers that ousted six of

the eight former IDC senators

in the 2018 election.

“It’s a long road back,” said

Paul Diamond, an organizer

with Rockland United, a pro-

gressive group that backed

Julie Goldberg’s unsuccessful

primary challenge to Mr. Car-

lucci.

Mr. Diamond said he was

backing Mondaire Jones, a

former attorney for

Westchester County, in the

congressional race. Mr. Jones

said he was also upset by Mr.

Carlucci’s affiliation with the

IDC and that it showed the

senator couldn’t be trusted.

In an interview, Mr. Car-

lucci said he was focused on

achieving results and worked

across the aisle to do so. Af-

ter Democrats won the major-

ity this year, he became an

active supporter of Senate

Majority Leader Andrea Stew-

art-Cousins, a Democrat from

Yonkers, saying he was proud

to have sponsored more bills

that passed the state Legisla-

ture than any other senator.

“I’m aware there will be

people attacking all day long

about the past. I’ll be talking

about the present and the fu-

ture,” Mr. Carlucci said. “We

can attack each other all day

long, and it’s not going to do

one thing to lower property

taxes or get our kids a better

education.”

Last week, Chelsea Clinton

said on ABC’s “The View”

that she wouldn’t seek Mrs.

Lowey’s seat and Assembly-

man David Buchwald, a Dem-

ocrat from Westchester

County, announced his bid in

a video.

WALKING THE LINE:

Some leaders of the United

Auto Workers are upset that

Gov. Andrew Cuomo hasn’t

shown more support for their

strike against General Motors

Co.

Union members are picket-

ing outside GM facilities near

Buffalo and Rochester. Many

Democratic politicians, in-

cluding U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gilli-

brand, Comptroller Tom Di-

Napoli and Assembly Speaker

Carl Heastie, have stopped by

while in the area.

But Mr. Cuomo, a Demo-

crat, hasn’t done so.

The UAW backed Mr.

Cuomo’s re-election bid last

year, and leaders spoke on his

behalf while he was compet-

ing against actress Cynthia

Nixon for the Working Fami-

lies Party nomination. (Ms.

Nixon won at the convention,

but lost to Mr. Cuomo in a

Democratic primary.)

“He had his opportunity to

stand with us or not, and he

chose not to,” said Chris

Brancato, recording secretary

for UAW Local 1097 in Roch-

ester. “There’s no way you

can sugarcoat it or change it

to something else.”

Mr. Cuomo did tell the Buf-

falo News editorial board on

the second day of the strike,

which began Sept. 16, that he

supported the workers. Lt.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Demo-

crat from Buffalo, has visited

the UAW picket lines.

GM and the UAW an-

nounced a tentative agree-

ment last week to end the

strike, but picketing will con-

tinue at least until Friday

while union members vote on

the deal.

Mr. Brancato said he was

also upset that Mr. Cuomo

hasn’t acted on a union-

backed bill that would let

workers file for state unem-

ployment benefits after a

week of striking. Mr. Cuomo

said last week during a radio

interview that the bill was

“complicated because it’s in

the middle of that GM strike,

and how would that bill im-

pact the strike currently go-

ing on, if at all.”

[email protected]

Vaping-related illnesses and

deaths have spurred more

young people to seek help to

quit, physicians and psycholo-

gists treating teenage users of

e-cigarettes say, but few treat-

ment options exist and there

is rising concern that the pub-

lic-health response for cessa-

tion programs is inadequate.

Jonathan Avery, director of

addiction psychiatry at Weill

Cornell Medicine in Manhat-

tan, said many teen e-cigarette

users have been arriving at his

hospital’s emergency depart-

ment in recent weeks with

what they believe are compli-

cations from vaping.

In some cases, teens are

catching early symptoms of

vaping-related lung illnesses,

he said, but in others, it is

nothing medical—teens are

afraid they might be sick.

These patients, and others,

are now eagerly wanting to

quit. Those who have stopped

vaping are flooding his office

with calls on how to maintain

abstinence, he said.

“I don’t see so much the

kids unwilling to quit at all.

Now the kid and the parent

are both on board with quit-

ting,” Dr. Avery said. “What’s

missing is a youth nicotine

treatment center.”

Earlier this month, state of-

ficials reported that a 17-year-

old Bronx boy was the first

vaping-related death in New

York state. The city’s medical

examiner is still determining

the cause of death.

A survey released in Sep-

tember by the New York City

Department of Health and

Mental Hygiene said that 1 in

15 city middle-school students

had recently reported using an

e-cigarette. One in 6 public-

high-school students use e-cig-

arettes, the city has said.

A state effort to ban the

sale of flavored e-cigarette

products, which health offi-

cials say draw young people to

vaping, is tied up in state

court. A New York City Council

bill proposed earlier this year

that would ban menthol ciga-

rettes and flavored e-cigarette

products is awaiting a vote.

Meanwhile, 33 people

across the U.S. have died from

vaping-related illnesses, ac-

cording to the Centers for Dis-

ease Control and Prevention,

and nearly 1,500 have been

sickened.

A patient of Melodi Pirzada,

chief of pediatric pulmonology

at NYU Winthrop Hospital on

Long Island, started vaping

over the summer and came to

see Dr. Pirzada recently be-

cause, she said, she could “feel

a difference” in her lungs.

The 19-year-old New Hyde

Park woman, who attends col-

lege, is a singer and felt that

her breaths weren’t as deep

since she started vaping. The

woman said she began vaping

over the summer because she

wanted to try it.

“The whole generation is

hooked on it,” the young

woman said.

She is using willpower and

tapering usage of the device,

she said, as well as using nico-

tine gum and nicotine patches,

but “they don’t do anything.”

“I feel that once you start

no matter what you do, it’s

hard to stop,” the woman said.

“Nobody knows how to quit.”

Michael Steinberg, director

of the Rutgers Tobacco De-

pendence Program in New Jer-

sey, said the number of teens

enrolling in his program has

jumped dramatically in the

past few weeks.

Historically, a handful come

in over a year, he said, but 10

have come in over the past

month and a half. In group

therapy, he said, they are

coached by much older adults

to quit the habit now, with

older smokers taking the

younger people under their

wing.

The youngest patient en-

rolled in one of his cessation

programs, he said, was 12.

BYMELANIEGRAYCEWEST

Teens See

Dangers

Of Vaping,

Try to Quit

A 17-year-old Bronx

boy was the first

vaping-related death

in New York state.

The Parade That Perambulates the Quadrupeds

GONE TO THE DOGS: It isn’t yet time to trick or treat, but pets were already dressed for the occasion at the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade on Sunday.

JOHANNES EISELE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

NY