Hot Potato

What is Hot Potato?

A former Connecticut funeral director who stole clients’ prepayments to fund his excessive gambling habit will spend the next seven and a half years in state prison.

Philip Pietras, 52, admitted to stealing from more than 170 people, many of whom are senior citizens who sought to limit the emotional and financial burdens placed on their loved ones by prepaying for their funerals. But instead of placing those funds, meant for caskets and burial services, in escrow accounts, Pietras pocketed the money to gamble.

Pietras accepted a plea deal from the state, and prosecutors expect him to enter a guilty plea on Oct. 23 and be formally sentenced on Jan. 22, 2027.

About Hot Potato

Here are some of the dossier’s key findings, some of which raise questions around Evolution’s compliance operations during the period assessed.

Within the initial pages of its lengthy August 2021 report, Spectrum Gaming explains it carried out an extensive technical, operational and compliance review of Evolution’s “business practices, public record database research and an assessment of the company’s anti-money laundering compliance procedures and processes, as they related to the allegations contained in the ‘anonymous report'”.

Tests carried out using a VPN to access banned markets found Evolution’s games had been available to players in the prohibited jurisdictions of UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia.

What is Hot Potato?

That line got repeated as part of “Wizard 2.0,” with most media outlets assuming it was to be among the production’s new effects.

Our suspicion is that Dolan was referring to an immersive video simulator—likely intended for the lobby before the movie begins.

Either way, the idea was apparently delayed or scrapped.