WTF? “Simply Ridiculous” and Victims Are Being Traumatized All Over Again … Shame On MGM Resorts Owner of The Mandalay Bay and Their Share Holders!

“Looking At Both Sides”

I’m sure just about everyone around the world heard what took place a while back at a concert being held outside “The Mandalay Bay resort-casino.” October 2017 when a gunman opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, leaving 58 people dead and 851 injured, courtesy of Yahoo News and originally appeared on abcnews.go.com …

“This is absolute gamesmanship. It’s outrageous. It’s just pouring gasoline on the fire of (the victims’) suffering,” Eglet said. “They are very distraught, very upset over this. MGM is trying to intimidate them.”  ~Lawyer Me. Eglet says for the Victims.

“Last week, MGM filed suit in federal court against 1,000 defendants who are victims of the shootings or other interested parties. The lawsuits are intended to be a self-protective, preemptive strike by MGM. The company says it is only suing people who have already sued MGM or notified it that they plan to do so. It isn’t asking for the shooting victims to pay it any money. Nevertheless, the move has predictably prompted widespread outrage and prompted calls on Twitter” to #BoycottMGM

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Does the SAFETY Act apply to a hotel?

The 2002 law is called the SAFETY Act (for “Support Antiterrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies”). Passed in the wake of 9/11, the intent was for the Department of Homeland Security to review security products and services for federal certification. If they received that certification, the law protects their providers from lawsuits in the event of a terrorist attack where those products are in use. It’s worth noting that MGM did have a security firm at the concert at the time of the shooting, and that security firm was certified under the SAFETY Act. 

Attorneys for the victims are as outraged about this lawsuit as you might expect. “Their theory is that this security company goes to D.H.S. and gets some type of certificate, and so now MGM is immune, and everybody in the future who hires the company is immune,” Craig Eiland, who represents many of the victims, told the Times. “It’s outrageous, and that’s not what the law is, and we would all be less safe.”

MGM argues the shooting qualifies as an act of terrorism and thus is covered under the SAFETY Act. The Department of Homeland Security has not weighed in one way or another on that question. What is clear is MGM wants to establish, first of all, that MGM can’t be sued for the shooting, and second that it especially can’t be sued in state or local courts.

HOW THE VICTIMS and FAMILIES OF LOVED ONES LOST FEEL?

‘It’s like being kicked again to the ground’: Las Vegas massacre survivors speak out against MGM suit…

JOYEETA BISWAS, Good Morning America …

“MGM Resorts files lawsuits against Las Vegas shooting victims in the effort to avoid
liability”

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“It brings it all up again, and takes me right back to being helpless,” said Jason McMillan, who was paralyzed from the waist down in the attack.

“Hearing that I’m being sued — it’s not only insulting, it enrages me to think that this company can just try to skip out on their responsibilities and their liability for what happened.”

McMillan vowed not to back down in the fight against the company.

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“To blame the victims, to say it’s anyone else’s fault other than their own – it’s absurd. I can’t believe the audacity of them. They’re not going to get away with anything – We’ll keep this going, as long as it takes,” he added.”

The press conference was fraught with emotion, as survivors recounted details of what happened to them or their loved ones in the attack, and their painful journey towards recovery.

Joyce Shipp, 72, whose 50-year-old daughter Laura Shipp was killed in the shooting, said she was still learning to cope with the aftermath.

“I wasn’t at the concert but I live it every day. Every time we go outside we see Mandalay Bay. It’s hard to get that out of your head,” she said.

“The fact that [MGM is] trying to sue us — it’s outrageous,” she added. “That they would have the audacity to put me through that again — It’s like being kicked again to the ground.”

{MGM’S RESPONSE}?

In response to the press conference, MGM spokesperson Debra DeShong provided the following statement:

“It is heartbreaking to hear these personal accounts of an unspeakable tragedy. We grieve with all of the victims. No one wins from endless litigation and it will not change the fact that one person is responsible for this horrendous act of violence and he took his own life rather than face justice.” (Partial) 

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My Own Personal Opinion and Feelings?

Although I do agree with what the MGM spokesperson said about the shooter “taking his own life rather than face justice,”

I still feel strongly that the MGM is just trying to escape taking ownership and accountability for what took place on their property! They checked in the shooter with NO Checking of His Bags which contained loads of firearms regardless if HE opened the window and started shooting at the victims below. 

MGM and its shareholders need to “do the right thing here” and drop these ridiculous lawsuits against the victims. You are only making more chaos and trauma for them and prolonging their healing. How about putting your feet in the loved one’s shoes and it was YOU who lost a loved one that night? I’m sure you’d be looking at this the same way as all the victims we lost and the feel the same way these families and survivors are feeling now …

PLEASE Visit to see the souls we have lost:
https://www.ktnv.com/news/photos-remembering-those-killed-in-las-vegas-mass-shooting#

As my thoughts and prayers are still with you! xoxo

~Catherine Lyon

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Was Problem Gambling A Factor For The Las Vegas Mass Shooter? News About It Around The Web…

“My first and foremost thoughts before my post are to send love, prayers, and condolences to all of those who were lost and the families suffering a loss of loved ones by another senseless shooting.

I wish a speedy recovery for all those who were injured. To them? I want to say, PLEASE, if you begin to experience any delayed trauma or symptoms of PTSD, do not hesitate to reach out for help. There is NO SHAME in doing so. Know you are loved and not alone. The world and I have you in our prayers”
~Author/Advocate, Catherine Townsend- Lyon

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I was sent a link to an article that was put out courtesy of The New York Times and found a couple more I will be sharing snippets within my post. The first was about the shooters gambling patterns and behaviors. As I have shared through social media, the more I read and heard coming from news reports, my gut feeling was telling me that this disgusting man may have had a gambling problem.

For the regular person who has NO CLUE about having a problem or addicted to gambling, would not see the same warning signs as I or others who have. While detectives and FBI profilers grapple with finding the motive or the WHY the shooter had killed, I think his gambling played a role in some way.

 

“He was a high-stakes gambler recognized in the casinos of Nevada. He dabbled in real estate investments in Texas. His last known full-time employment was 30 years ago. He was twice divorced. He had a pilot’s license and had owned two single-engine planes.” (courtesy – The NY)

Now CNN and MSNBC happen to make a few remarks ‘off the cuff’ about the shooters gambling, but not in a way that would link it to be a factor in what this disturbed man carried out. Oh, they mentioned he was a millionaire, he made many trips to gambling destinations like Reno, Vegas, and gamble on cruise lines. He liked playing a $100 dollar a hand on video poker machines. Even millionaires can run out of money when addicted. Millionaires also carry out crimes and murder.

And as you all know I am a recovering compulsive gambler, so when I read that in another article I just laughed. The paper wrote he would act ‘isolated’ when playing the machines, no smiles, no talking to others around him. That is called being “zoned out” when you have been playing for hours. What many don’t know when those machines, they are NOT like playing poker at a table. When you’re on video poker machines, each card that is dealt by the machine has a deck of electronic cards behind it!

So it is impossible for one to “card count” regardless if you were an accountant and are a “methodical math or numbers buff” when playing these machines. You are literally playing with 5 decks. The shooter was hitting machines that claimed a high 90’s percentage payout or payback while playing, but even then? The house is usually the one who will win not the player in the long run.

 

 

“Details about Mr. Paddock’s career and livelihood were sparse, aside from observations by neighbors and family members that he routinely gambled large amounts of money. “He was a gambler, that was his job,” his brother, Eric Paddock, told reporters Monday at his home in Orlando. “He was a wealthy guy, playing video poker, who went cruising all the time and lived in a hotel room.”

The statement above kind of makes you laugh. If people were making a real living as a video poker player? Wouldn’t there be loads of them in the press and news? And I’m sure there would be even more people not becoming addicted gamblers right?

Having a problem with gambling or being addicted has many phases to ones down spiral into a black abyss. It is also a doubled edged sword. If you are winning? You think you will win each time you gamble. But if you take a big loss? You will be out chasing lost dollars and keep gambling thinking you can win back your money. Las Vegas is in the business to MAKE money, your money.

So they will entice you with many “perks” as they comp meals and rooms to keep you there or come often. And perks is how he met his current girlfriend by the way. She worked in the industry as a “High Limit Hostess.” Most all casinos have them. Same with going to the bars or dance clubs.

They have “drink ladies” to mix up all your drinks and keep you ordering more alcohol when you PAY for a table. It sure is different times. It used to be, and maybe still is, that casinos gave away alcoholic drinks as the gambler played to try and make you feel “special,” keep playing longer as the more you drink the more stupid you get with money! Lol.

 

“The Shooter was 64, lived with his current girlfriend, Marilou Danley, 62.
She worked as a “high-limit hostess” at the Atlantis Casino in Reno, Nev. from 2010 to 2013, according to her LinkedIn account. On Monday, the casino said that she left the company several years ago. High-limit hostesses attend to members of a loyalty club called Club Paradise who spend large quantities of money and receive discounted hotel rooms, meals and other amenities, according to the casino’s website.”

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So, was it really fun and games for the shooter when he played? Was it just numbers for him? Was it he just had to WIN? Or was he chasing some loss? The Los Angeles Times reported.

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“The shooter wanted to win and, like any savvy video poker player, he knew which machine to lock down at Mandalay Bay.

“There was only one in the casino — a Jacks-or-better 9-6 machine, meaning it paid 9-to-1 credits on the full house and 6-1 on the flush and offered the casino only a slim advantage. Mandalay Bay was having a contest for a $100,000 drawing and players, based on the amount of their play the next day, would get tickets to enter. He got ready to work.

David Walton, a video poker playing pro, headed down to the casino floor early to nab the good machine. 

There sat the shooter. Not playing it. Just sitting there. Waiting. Walton settled into the machine next to him — not one with as generous a payout schedule — and waited for midnight. When it struck, the shooter hit the machine lightning quick, going at a rate of $120,000 per hour.

He barely spoke. Walton said Paddock played 24 hours straight that day in 2007. Before the drawing, Walton wandered over to look at the 4-foot-by-4-foot drum holding all the tickets to the drawing to size up his chances at the $100,000.” (courtesy LA Times)

“Those hopes were diminishing quickly.  “Every ticket on there I saw through the mesh said ‘Stephen Paddock. Stephen Paddock. Stephen Paddock, Walton said. “He won.”

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Now, my feelings are the shooter may have won that day, but a decade later, he would ride an elevator up to the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, smash out two windows in his suite with a hammer, and aim a 10-minute, rapid-fire volley of gunfire at the 22,000 people gathered below for a country music festival and as he hit hundreds he killed 58 and injured hundreds more. The shooters brother Eric Paddock told reporters last week, “he gambled for more than 20 years.

“Successfully …. He did it because it was a way to have a fun life, and he didn’t go poor or broke doing it.”

Well, sorry, I would have to disagree. If gambling brought so much fun in his life, why did he feel he needed to KILL? Had he finally hit his”rock bottom”?

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I guess we won’t know for many weeks to come. Now that investigators had sent and served many search warrants on the shooters financial holdings and assets, I am sure we will get those answers.

Was he going broke? Had he blew through all his millions of money? As a recovering addicted gambler, I know just how fast it happens. The shooter is not immune to the dangers of gambling addiction. He is human. Just because you think you can afford a gambling habit, does not make you again immune to becoming an addict. If he wasn’t having money problems from his gambling?

Then maybe the disease took a mental and emotional toll on him and had begun to take over. Gambling is a 24/7 addiction. Even after you walk away from the slot or video poker machine, a card table, craps or roulette wheel.

I know, I had been there. It is exhausting. And it is why many first coming into treatment do have some mental health issues like I did. I had to be on Wellbutrin for over a year from all the obsessive gambling had depleted my brain chemical that triggers your “pleasure and reward” area of my brain.

I also was put on anti-anxiety medication as it was in “high mania” mode when first coming to the crisis center AFTER my hospital stay from my first suicide attempt which was not my last. That is how bad I had spiraled down into “blackness.” Of course, I was severely depressed as well.

So as I close, let us remember that many families and loved ones are holding funerals and memorials for their loved one who were taken to soon and in a senseless way. It is NOT about the shooter. And again, my condolences to those families dealing with the loss.

THIS COULD HAVE BEEN Prevented if we had gun control laws in the books. That is another post for another day…

Author/Advocate, Catherine Townsend-Lyon

 

(News Snippets Courtesy of “LA Times & The New Times” Referenced Articles)