Conceived Through ‘Fertility Fraud’

When Heather Woock was conceived, her mom sought the help of a fertility specialist. (Leah Klafczynski for NPR)

Jake Harper, Side Effects Public Media:

January 28, 2020

When Heather Woock was in her late 20s, she started researching her family history. As part of the project, she spit into a tube and sent it to Ancestry, a consumer DNA testing service. Then, in 2017, she started getting messages about the results from people who said they could be half-siblings.

“I immediately called my mom and said, ‘Mom, is it possible that I have random siblings out there somewhere?\’” said Woock, of Indianapolis. She recalled her mom responded, “No, why? That’s ridiculous.”

But the messages continued, and some of them mentioned an Indianapolis fertility practice that she knew her mom had consulted when she had trouble conceiving.

Woock researched and finally learned the truth. Dr. Donald Cline, the fertility doctor her mother saw in 1985, is her biological father.

“I went through an identity crisis,” she said. “I couldn’t look in the mirror and think about, ‘Where did my eyes come from? Where did my hair color come from?’ I didn’t even want to think about any of that.”

Woock hadn’t known that her mom had used artificial insemination to conceive her, and neither of them knew the doctor had used his own sperm.

“We now know Cline used his own sample and squirted it into my mom,” Woock said.

In the 1970s and ’80s, Cline deceived dozens of patients and used his sperm to impregnate them. He has more than 60 biological children — and counting.

For Woock, as the story of her parentage sunk in, it was distressing for another reason: She wanted to start her own family and was having trouble conceiving. And now she needed to turn to the fertility industry that had so badly betrayed her mom.

“We were doing all of the calendaring … everything that is out there to help you get pregnant, we were doing that,” Woock recalled.

But after six months, when she still wasn’t pregnant at 32, she went to a fertility clinic for some tests, which can include

fertility tests for males

to try to underline all possible issues.

“I had to fill out all this paperwork, and there’s a slot that says kind of like, ‘Is there anything else you’d like to share?’ ” Woock said.

Yes, there most certainly was.

The Odds Of ‘Fertility Fraud’ These Days

New allegations of doctors using their own sperm keep coming to light — because of genetic-testing services like Ancestry revealing networks of half siblings — in states like

Idaho

, Ohio, Colorado and Arkansas.

But those doctors performed artificial inseminations decades ago. Could what happened to Woock’s mom happen in a modern fertility clinic?

Dr. Bob Colver, a fertility specialist in Carmel, Indiana, said it’s a question many of his patients have asked. But it’s unlikely, he said. These days, there are more people involved in the process, and in vitro fertilization happens in a lab, not an exam room.

“Unless you’re in a small clinic where there’s absolutely no checks and balances, I can’t even imagine that today,” Colver said.

It’s now illegal in

Indiana, Texas and California

for a doctor to use his sperm to impregnate his patients. But there’s no national law criminalizing what’s called “fertility fraud.”

A photo of Larry Hobson holding his daughter, Heather Woock, as an infant. Woock’s mother consulted with a fertility doctor when she was having trouble getting pregnant.(Leah Klafczynski for NPR)

Fertility medicine has advanced a lot since the 1980s, but women trying to get pregnant today with the help of medicine face a baffling array of treatment options that can be hard to navigate and can be hugely expensive. And some critics say the growing, multibillion-dollar fertility industry needs more regulation.

For example, sperm banks may not get accurate medical histories from their donors, who could pass along genetic diseases. And there’s no limit on how many times a donor’s sperm can be used, which some donor children worry could increase the chance of inbreeding. Sperm donation guidelines from organizations like the American Society for Reproductive Medicine are voluntary. There was a contestant on

“The Bachelorette”

last year who said his sperm had helped father more than 100 kids.

Unrealistic Expectations

When Woock decided to get her first fertility treatment, she set preconditions with the clinic. She insisted on having a female doctor and insisted that a doctor be in the room for all appointments and oversee everything that happened.

Her experience with her clinic was very different from her mother’s with Cline, but nonetheless there were surprises along the way.

The clinic told her that her problems conceiving could be because of husband Rob’s low sperm count and motility (meaning his sperm weren’t great swimmers). They advised a form of in vitro fertilization that involved injecting one sperm directly into one of her eggs in a petri dish.

When doctors told Woock she needed IVF, she felt pretty optimistic.

“I’m thinking going into this that our chances of success are 70, 75%,” Woock said.

A 1985 photo of Kimberly Hobson (left) pregnant with her daughter, Heather. Kimberly is photographed alongside her husband, Larry Hobson, as well as relatives who were also expecting.(Leah Klafczynski for NPR)

Fertility treatment can be really expensive, and patients may start treatment with unrealistic expectations. That’s because success rates are complicated, and some clinics use only the best numbers in their

advertising

For example, clinics can advertise high fertilization rates. But a 70% fertilization rate doesn’t mean 70% of eggs turn into babies — plenty can go wrong after the lab combines egg and sperm.

Success depends on your age, your clinic and the type of procedure you need. But most of the time, assisted reproduction procedures such as IVF don’t work. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which

tracks assisted reproduction rates

in the U.S., reports only about 24% of attempts result in a baby.

‘Add-On’ Technology — And Prices

When Woock started her first IVF cycle, she gave herself shots, a couple a day, to stimulate her ovaries to get multiple eggs ready at once. Multiple eggs means more chances for fertilization.

But the drugs have side effects. They gave her headaches and made her moody and less patient.

“I was actually allergic to one of the medications, which just means that you keep taking it and deal with the itching and rash,” Woock said.

But she hung on until it was time for a doctor to surgically retrieve her eggs, at which point patients can face even more choices. Because the couple’s fertility problem appeared to be with Rob’s sperm, the clinic offered to use a special device to help pick the best sperm for IVF.

“We were kind of like, ‘Yeah, why wouldn’t you?\’” Woock said. “If it’s gonna give us a better chance, do it.”

A device like that is called an add-on. Add-ons are often new technology, described as cutting-edge, which can appeal to patients. Examples of add-ons include

genetic testing for chromosomal abnormalities in embryos

— which some specialists argue improves the odds of a live birth — and

assisted hatching

and

endometrial scratching

, both methods claiming to facilitate implantation.

An exam table at Midwest Fertility Specialists, a fertility clinic in Carmel, Indiana.(Lauren Bavis/WFYI)

Jack Wilkinson, a biostatistician at the University of Manchester in England,

researches add-ons

, which he has found can increase costs — and, he said, they may not work.

“We quite often see there’s no benefit at all,” Wilkinson said. “Or, possibly even worse, that there’s a disadvantage of using that treatment.”

Wilkinson said the device Woock’s clinic offered could work, but the evidence supporting it is thin.

Failed Fertilizations

The clinic called Woock the morning after her egg retrieval. None of Woock’s eggs fertilized. The procedure revealed that her husband’s sperm quality wasn’t the only fertility issue the couple faced.

“They immediately saw that there was something wrong with my eggs,” Woock said. “My eggs are just total crap.”

She underwent a second round of IVF with the same result — no fertilization.

“Getting that news the second time … felt even more set in stone that this was going to be a very long, challenging road,” Woock said.

Challenging and expensive. Most states, including Indiana, don’t require insurers to cover fertility treatment. Without insurance, a round of IVF can cost more than $10,000 — even more than $20,000 — with no guarantee the patient will get pregnant.

Woock was lucky that her employer-provided insurance covered a lot. But it still wasn’t cheap. She had to pay for some medications, “plus, you have to pay lab and facility fees that insurance doesn’t pay,” Woock said.

Donor sperm and eggs aren’t generally covered, either. Those can be tens of thousands of dollars.

Woock faced a hard choice: After two failed attempts, did she want a kid enough to go through IVF again? She and her husband decided they did. So Woock did a third round of IVF. And then a fourth. When that didn’t work, she gave up on using her own eggs.

“What I expected as I was growing up and picturing my children is not what I will see,” Woock said.

Woock and her husband decided to try donor eggs. If all goes according to plan, she could still carry a child. She wants to keep trying.

“I realize that pregnancy is incredibly challenging on your body and your mental state,” she said. “If I can make it through a year of IVF, I can make it through morning sickness.”

This story is part of a partnership that includes

Side Effects Public Media

NPR

and Kaiser Health News. The story was adapted from Episode 6 of the podcast

Sick

. You can hear more about the fallout from Dr. Donald Cline’s deception on Sick’s first season, at

sickpodcast.org

One Jersey Cash 5 Ticket Wins $216,368 Jackpot in Hudson County

TRENTON (Jan. 29, 2020) – One lucky ticket matched all five numbers drawn winning the $216,368 Jersey Cash 5 jackpot from the Tuesday, Jan. 28, drawing. The winning numbers were: 04, 21, 24, 31 and 39 and the XTRA number was: 03. The retailer will receive a bonus check for $2,000 for the winning ticket sold. That ticket was sold at Ramirez & Son’s Service Station, 165 60th St., West New York in Hudson County.

Acting Executive Director James Carey announced that there were 298,092 tickets purchased for the drawing. By adding XTRA, for an additional $1.00 per play, winners are able to multiply their non-jackpot prizes by the XTRA number drawn. For correctly matching four of the five numbers drawn, 44 ticketholders won $600 each and five others won $1,800 each with the addition of XTRA. Moreover, for correctly matching three of the five numbers drawn, 1,689 ticketholders won $16 each and 308 others won $48 each with the addition of XTRA. Lastly 4,141 ticketholders each won $2 for correctly matching two of the five numbers drawn with the addition of XTRA on their purchase.

Wildwood Boardwalk Taken Over by Trump Backers

By Max Pizarro | January 28, 2020, 12:51 pm | in

City Confidential

WILDWOOD – She never made it here from Philly.

If she did, she confessed, it was a long time ago, a vague memory, and now, as she came up against the boardwalk, her face very nearly registered bug-eyed disbelief at the sight of the sea.

There’s an

ocean

here.

She didn’t say it.

The body language in the knife-sawing cold off the beach told the story.

She was in Wildwood for one reason.

“Trump,” the non-swimming fiercely winterized Trumpite told InsiderNJ, as she folded into the maw of bulky red phalanxes in the vicinity of the convention center.

A helicopter circled.

A man, ramrod in blue with the sea behind him, stood at the entranceway to the Wildwoods with a sign urging all able-bodied Trump backers to register to serve in the military.

No one argued.

All up and down the boardwalk vendors behind tables laid out with wares urged the frigid Trump troops to further arm themselves for the developing circus.

continue to read

These Behaviors Make You A Scam Target

(NAPSI)—If you spend a lot of time on social media sites or looking for great online deals, you may wear a

bullseye

when it comes to scammers hunting for prey, according to groundbreaking fraud research from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust and the Stanford Center on Longevity.

A recent study found nearly half of America is likely to interact with fraudsters-but you can protect yourself.

Researchers surveyed more than 1,400 Americans and Canadians who were targeted by scammers and reported the fraud to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), which tracks scams. Nearly half of those surveyed did not engage with the fraudster. However, 30 percent engaged to some degree but ultimately did not lose money, while 23 percent engaged with the fraudster or offer and lost money.

What separates victims from non-victims?

“The path to victimization begins with engagement,” said FINRA Foundation President Gerri Walsh. “Social media and website scams are flourishing. Every time you respond to a friend request from someone you don’t know or click through to an unfamiliar website, you run the risk of being exposed to a scam.”

Your chance of falling victim to a scam varies by type—for instance, online purchase scams, tech support ploys,

fake

check or sweepstakes frauds—and by the method in which you are exposed to the offer. For those exposed to a scam through social media or a website, the numbers are chilling. When exposed to a scam on social media, 91 percent engaged and 53 percent lost money. The odds of losing money to website scams were only slightly lower: 81 percent of consumers in the study who were exposed to a fraud via a website said they engaged—and 50 percent lost money.

Other factors heighten the likelihood of falling for a fraud. Consumers were more likely to be victimized if they were isolated and didn’t have anyone to discuss the offer with, according to the study. Consequently, those who engaged scammers and lost money were less likely to be married and more likely to be widowed or divorced. “Sadly, loneliness and fraud victimization seem to go hand in hand,” noted Walsh.

You’re also more likely to engage and lose money if you’re feeling financial strain, or have low levels of financial literacy, the study found.

Protect Yourself

Take these steps to protect yourself from fraud:

• Ask for input from others.

Scammers try to isolate their victims. Don’t be afraid to contact a friend, or a company or organization you trust for advice. It also helps to do additional research before sending any money. One easy action: Do an Internet search to see if the website or pitch has been flagged as fraudulent or potentially fraudulent by news organizations or members of the public.

• Focus on your financial health and literacy.

Individuals under financial strain and those with lower levels of financial literacy may be more susceptible to scammers.

• Knowledge is power.

Knowing about scams and scammer tactics can be your best defense in successfully reducing the effect of scams. Keep up with the latest frauds by subscribing to consumer newsletters and seeking out information on current scams.

One-third of consumers who were targeted by a scammer, but did not engage with the offer, already knew about the specific type of scam. In addition, consumers who understood the tactics and behaviors of scammers tended not to engage with fraudsters.

To learn more about how to protect your money, visit

www.FINRA.org/LearnMore

“Journalist” Can’t Decide: Slumping Gun Sales or Best Year Ever?

source NRA-ILA

On the eve of the annual Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas, Associated Press reporter Lisa Marie Pane wrote an article titled, “

Gun industry gathers amid slumping sales, rising tensions

.” But it seems as though the AP and their reporter were more concerned with promoting an agenda than accurately reporting the news or reviewing readily available data.

The story was published by the AP on January 19

, picked up by

ABC News on the same day

, and reproduced in various other national and local outlets in the following days.

The opening paragraph references “slumping sales,” and later paragraphs expound on the reasons and impact of this supposed downturn. The author also makes sure to gratuitously proclaim that the SHOT show is being held “about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from the deadliest mass shooting modern U.S. history” [sic].

Slumping firearm sales? Really?

Pane’s half-cocked story came out about two weeks after

The Washington Examiner

published “

Record gun sales checks in 2019, NICS at all-time high: FBI

” and after

The Hill

published an article titled, “

2019 gun sale background checks highest since system launch in 1998

.”

NICS checks are not a mystery or a Friday afternoon news dump; detailed reports are issued monthly. In early December, MarketWatch published a piece titled “

Gun-purchase background checks on track for record high in 2019

.” Similar articles were run in other outlets.

Even the Associated Press itself ran such an article,

published on December 3

of last year and also picked up by ABC News on that same day.

The author?

You guessed it: Lisa Marie Pane, the

same

author who wrote the more recent piece alleging slumping sales.

Record-breaking pace or slumping sales? A closer look at the NICS reports can provide some answers.

The FBI reports there were 28,369,750

NICS firearm background checks in 2019 – the most ever.

Now, this number does include permit checks and rechecks but the FBI also provides a breakdown of NICS checks by type.

Last year saw the fourth-highest number of checks for handguns and the sixth-highest year for dealer sales checks ever.

That does not include NICS checks on private sales (41,775 last year) or all dealer sales to permit holders in the 24 states that issue so-called NICS-exempt permits, which can be used as an alternative to the NICS check when purchasing a gun from a licensed dealer.

That means that the number of sales checks may appear artificially low. As the FBI notes in the “NICS Firearm Background Checks: Year by State/Type” report, “Since the permit check is done in place of the NICS check in most of the affected states, the low handgun statistics are often balanced out by a higher number of handgun permit checks.”

In other words, some number of the 3,738,203 permit checks run in NICS exemption states were likely people who ultimately purchased a handgun (or other firearm) with their permits, perhaps even multiple firearms. The overall NICS records do not necessarily account for these permit-based sales. What we do know, however, is that there were a lot of NICS checks for the issuance of NICS-exempt permits.

Another important consideration is that firearms are durable goods – they do not spoil or breakdown, assuming minimal care. Firearms purchased in 2018 still exist. Firearms purchased in the late 90s, when NICS began, still exist. Not every year will be a record-breaking year for sales, and it can be misleading to label any year that doesn’t significantly top the last one as a “slump.”

Maybe Lisa Marie Pane can’t make up her mind, but we’re here to tell you: 2019

was

a record-breaking year for sales and permit checks in total. That indicates the American tradition of firearms ownership is as strong and vibrant as ever, and attendees at the 2020 SHOT Show have much to celebrate.

Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association continues to work hard to protect your Second Amendment rights, just as we have for 148 years.

Legislative Package to Improve Access to Palliative and End-of-Life Care Now Law

(TRENTON) –

With nearly

40 million

adults throughout the country having a serious illness within the past three years and nearly

20 million

suffering from chronic pain that interferes with their daily activities, Assembly Democrats Shanique Speight,

Gov. Murphy

Cleopatra Tucker and Nancy Pinkin have sponsored three bills to improve access to both palliative and end-of-life care in New Jersey. All three bills were signed into law by the Governor this week – one on Monday and two on Tuesday.

The aim of each law is to help prepare both medical professionals and the general public for the potential need for end-of-life and palliative care. One law (formerly bill A-4682/

S-3118

) will establish a public awareness campaign to promote early conversations about this subject to help improve decision-making when it comes to the kind of care patients may need during the final stages of their life.

Another law (formerly bill A-4683/

S-3116

) will require hospitals and various long-term care facilities to identify the end-of-life care needs of new patients/residents, provide them and their families with information and train personnel. The stipulations will apply to assisted living facilities and residences, personal care homes, nursing homes and other locations where sick and elderly individuals are supported.

“Many people never learn about or give much thought to the

kind of care

they will want towards the end of their lives, which may be something that greatly impacts their well-being,” said Assemblywoman Speight (D-Essex). “It’s important for patients to have conversations about what they want their final stages of life to look like and for caregivers to be equipped with the knowledge they need to make that happen. These laws will increase awareness and spark more discussions about end-of-life care.”

“With the

median

age of most towns increasing rather than staying the same, our senior population continues to grow,” said Assemblywoman Tucker (D-Essex). “We have to consider the needs of our aging population and find a way to provide them with compassionate care wherever they are in their lives. We should be helping them plan ahead to ensure their needs are met in their final years.”

Individuals struggling with pain and detrimental symptoms due to medical issues that are not necessarily life threatening will also receive assistance through the final law (formerly bill A-4685/

S-3117

). This law will require hospital emergency departments to utilize a screening tool to identify patients in need of palliative care and then provide those patients with information on the benefits and applicability of that care.

It will also require hospitals to keep the unique needs of patients with intellectual or developmental disabilities in mind whenever it is determined they may need palliative care.

“Palliative care is about having the ability to experience the best quality of life possible,” said Assemblywoman Pinkin (D-Middlesex). “Palliative care plans help people identify who can take care of them when they return home and what resources will be necessary to meet their needs. Educating patients upon their arrival to the emergency room will save time and resources while ensuring that the patient has a voice in the care they receive for their chronic illnesses or end-of-life needs.”

How To Make Your Business Look More Professional

Gloucestercitynews.net(January 28, 2020)–Running a business is not an easy task, and it is down to every business owner to make choices that are going to benefit the company in the long term. Some of these choices will be about how to make the business look more professional to the outside world – to customers, suppliers, and investors – in order to make more sales and increase profits.

It can be hard to determine just what is going to help do this, especially when you are working in the business and are close to what is happening. Ideally, you will want to take a step back and reassess what you are doing to ensure that your business is as professional as possible. Here are some ways to achieve this.

A Good Website

When a potential customer comes across a new company and thinks about buying from it, the first thing they are going to do is check its website.

It is expected that all businesses would have a website

(if there are no results when a name is searched, it will look highly suspicious), but that website also needs to look professional in order to win business.

image courtesy of unsplash.com

There are no excuses for a poor looking website; there are many web designers who will be able to help you decide what you are looking for and create something that works perfectly for your business. Even if you choose to do the job yourself, intuitive programs such as

WordPress

mean that you don’t have to understand coding to have a great looking and user-friendly website. This is essential if you want to look professional.

Your Premises

Some people choose to

work from home

, but others would prefer not to, or they don’t have a choice; if they own and operate a customer-facing business, then working from home is not going to work for them. If this is the case and you need premises to sell items from or to meet customers in, then you need to ensure it looks good and is well maintained. A shoddy-looking building is not going to inspire confidence in any potential customer, and an investor might not want to give you any money either if you can’t look after your office or warehouse space properly.

Installing a brand new building in place of an old one, such as

a steel building from Armstrong Steel

, will help you to look more professional. Everything will look clean and well maintained, and you will be able to specify exactly what you want, ensuring that your employees are comfortable too. This will give a great first impression to anyone who visits your business.

Have Business Cards

Ordering business cards

may seem like an unnecessary expense, especially when you are just starting out, but they can show your business in a much more professional light.

Networking

is an essential part of business, and if you don’t have business cards to hand out, what will you do when you are meeting new people who might be able to help you? You will either miss the opportunity or write your details on a scrap of paper – both ideas are unprofessional, and a business card would solve these problems.

Brigid Harrison, Candidate for Congress, Calls for Van Drew\’s Resignation

[January 27, 2020 – Longport, New Jersey] – As first reported in the

New York Times

on Sunday, an unpublished manuscript by former National Security Adviser John R. Bolton confirmed that President Trump directly told Bolton in August that Trump planned to freeze $391 million in security assistance to the country of Ukraine until officials helped with investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens.

The following is a statement from Brigid Callahan Harrison, Democratic candidate for New Jersey\’s 2nd Congressional District:

\”I began this campaign to challenge Jeff Van Drew for one reason – because he put his self-interest ahead of the people of the 2nd Congressional District. This issue has now become far deeper and more serious than the self interest of a career politician.

\”Van Drew chose to violate the trust of those who voted for him, including me. He ignored the voices of New Jersey\’s second congressional district, the progressives, moderates, and independents who united to get him elected. He then accepted a backroom Trump handshake that has already brought him hundreds of thousands of dollars of support.

\”But with the recent revelations by John Bolton, it is now clear that this issue is far more severe.

\”Van Drew chose to obstruct Congress\’s rightful authority to investigate very serious allegations and assisted in withholding crucial information related to the 2020 election, and with Mr. Bolton\’s account, there is now a clear smoking gun.

\”These actions are no longer just disgraceful or disrespectful or based on self-interest, they have now evolved to the point that Van Drew clearly helped conspire to help Trump get away with a crime.

\”I was the first to publicly suggest that Van Drew deserved a primary challenge for his actions, and now it is clear, with this breaking and developing information, it is time for him to step aside and resign.

\”Oligarchies are created when citizens are denied access to information – the very tactic that Van Drew sought to use to enable President Trump to use the federal government to influence the outcome of the 2020 election. Van Drew has not only been a pawn to Donald Trump but is now a clear co-conspirator to a crime and can no longer serve our community effectively.”

H1 – Is PayPal cracking down on online casino players?

Gloucestercitynews.net (January 28, 2020)–PayPal has been a cornerstone payment method for online casino players for many years now. From its beginnings, in the early 2000s, this service has processed billions of online transactions. Of these, using the

PayPal payment method for online casinos

deposits and withdrawals account for a fair chunk.

source unsplash.com

But now as we enter a new decade it seems that PayPal is following the recent trends of other payments providers with a tightening of its rules and regulations.

What could be the possible effects of this for online casino players and what will the future shape up to be? We’ll attempt to answer these questions and more below.

H2 – German online casino payment crackdown

The early warning signs that PayPal was about to make a move towards more stringent regulations for casino players started to show in 2019. Around halfway through the year PayPal announced plans to stop supporting payments to and from online casinos in Germany from October 21, 2019.

This came after a warning was issued in June 2019 by the Lower Saxony state in Germany to an unnamed international payment processor. The warning was concerned with the payment provider being used to fund illegal online casino transactions in that region.

PayPal’s terms of service in Germany were quickly updated following the warning to say that they would not process payments for “offers that are not legal in your respective whereabouts, including some online gambling offers.”

This move reflects a wider game change regarding casino licencing in Germany. At the current moment, only the state of Schleswig-Holstein is able to offer legal gambling licences but all this is set to change.

Countrywide gambling licences will be issued in early 2020 but only on very strictly limited terms for sports betting. Given this, the future of the online casino industry in Germany looks very uncertain indeed.

H2 – Will there be a worldwide PayPal casino crackdown?

The above case from Germany is for a very specific region and payment provider but it does highlight a wider trend. For many years online casinos have been viewed by some as being the ‘wild west’ of the internet. The wider industry is making drastic moves to smarten up their image and operations which in turn affects payment providers.

Now that states, governments and even trading blocks seek to enforce ever tighter rules and regulations for the gambling industry, all involved must be seen to comply. In the case of PayPal, their actions in Germany show us that they are willing and able to play by the rules when they need to.

As a business with a reputation to maintain across continents, PayPal cannot afford to be seen to be connected with any illegal activities or wrongdoing. If doing so means pulling out of one of Europe’s big casino markets then it looks as though they will do it without fear.

H2 – How does this affect casino players?

From the point of view of casino players, it means that they might have less choice of which payment provider to use in the future. Millions of casino fans around the world rely on PayPal to process their withdrawals and deposits. Not having their service as a payments option at any casino would be a major blow.

That said, let’s not forget that tighter rules and regulations should be working in favour of online casino players. If it forces PayPal and other payments providers to up their game then it is a good thing. In turn, this creates a safer and more secure playing environment which can be seen as a positive.

Nominations Open for 2020 New Good Neighbor Awards

The New Jersey Business & Industry Association and

New Jersey Business

magazine are seeking nominations for the 60

Annual New Good Neighbor Awards that honor outstanding economic development projects in New Jersey.

\”New Good Neighbor Awards recognize the visionary architects, builders and financing professionals who turn exciting ideas into reality and make New Jersey a better place to live and do business,\” said NJBIA President & CEO Michele N. Siekerka, Esq. \”This competition showcases the best of the best who invest in communities, create jobs, and improve lives.\”

Projects can be nominated in any of these three categories: New Construction, Community Enhancement (parks/streetscapes), and Renovation/Expansion. Eligible projects must have been completed (construction or capital expenditures) within the past two years (Jan. 1, 2018 – Dec. 31, 2019) and can be nominated using the

online form

on NJBIA\’s website.

The deadline for submitting nominations is

Feb. 14

NJBIA will contact eligible nominees and ask them to provide details about their projects. Judging will be based on projects\’ economic benefits, job creation, architectural merit and community involvement. Winners will be profiled in

New Jersey Business

magazine\’s July issue, as well as on NJBIA\’s website.

The 2020 New Good Neighbor Awards will be presented on July 14.

Last year, New Good Neighbor Awards were given to

13 winning development projects

that collectively represented $488 million in capital investments and provided 5,124 construction and 2,900 permanent jobs. Press releases and short videos about the winners produced by NJBIA yielded reports from media outlets throughout the state.

For further information about the New Good Neighbor Awards program, contact

events@njbia.org

. Information about last year\’s winners can be found

here

and short NJBIA videos about their projects can be viewed

here