November 25, 2025 • 10 mins
Rocco Jerome and Rob Holmes from SenecaForever.org have details on how the recent pull-tab gaming pause is adversely affecting Kentucky chairities.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for checking in here on news radio Waight forty
w h S. I'm Terry Minors. I make a living talking.
I'm making a lot of nice, great people throughout the
course of the year, just talking about various things that
go on in the community. Two of my favorites that
I talked to, well, they were here yesterday. No, I'm
just kidding. See, I set you guys up. You felt
that coming, didn't you, Rocko? No, you you guys are
(00:23):
two of my favorites.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Rock and Robert back from Seneca Forever and uh, I
was Rocco and I were talking a little bit. Rob
It's good to see you again. By the way, seeing
Jerry Vento one Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, the Hall of Fame induction. That's last time we
were here. We had a great crowd. I got only
slightly and.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
The abriated and only slightly.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We had a fantastic But.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
You're in charge, you should behaviors.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I mean, I create the illusion of that.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
At least I didn't.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
I didn't know that though, So there has to be
a debriefing after this.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Know that you have some really you know, prominent alums. Yes,
and did the did the previous mayor this time, not
this time, he's something else. Abramson. I missed him today.
Actually it was a visitation for someone, but I mean
I missed him earlier today. He's everywhere all of.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
It, and he's been very supportive of our organization.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
So that's good.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
We appreciate what.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Isn't Diane Sawyer one of your grants too?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Yes, she is of her.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
She hasn't come back around as often as she used to.
She's still living.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I think that's about she's living in the East Coast
and you know, kind of living that retirement in New York.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
She's up in one of those New York towers and
somebody's probably putting grapes in her mouth right now.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I didn't say that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
That's a good.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Well.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I think she still technically works for ABC News, Is
that right?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Okay, So she.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Just occasionally they'll have her do a special special feature.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Yeah. Nice, But she's your alum.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I mean that's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
She represents us well.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
No doubt about it. So anyway, I'm glad that went well. Yeah,
it was great. Hall of Fame than you already picked
next year's class for this.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
We got one or two, one or two we're not
ready to announce yet, but we got we got oneted
in mind.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
All right, that's good.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Don't you drop me a hint later, I sure will.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I like to tease a few friends, you know how
you were waiting on that Hall of Fame invitation. You're
not getting it in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
What was the main band of the British invasion?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
The main band?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The main band of the British invasion in the nineteen sixties,
the Beatles. Well, mister, mister Paul McCartney graduate graduate high school.
People that went to Seneco will know what that means.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Anybody else, I'm sorry he is, Sir Paul McCartney.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
It is.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Didn't they also give Ringo that title as well? It's like,
is that that's stretching it is?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
They may have I think they may have just made
him like some sort of like a prince, like a
duke or something.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, it's it's like, let's not stretch that out too much.
I mean, next thing, you know, you're gonna be handing
that out to Cato Kalan or somebody. Just too much. Anyway,
welcome back. But Rocco, you and I were talking about
something that I, you know, read about in the news
and then realized this affects a lot of people and
it's these charitable electronic pull tab gaming device. Tell me
(03:06):
more about that.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, that's been a fantastic way for us to generate
a lot of money to help with our costs, just
to help Seneca High School to continue to thrive and
be more successful, and for students there to and the
the academic as well as the sports programs to have
what they need to be successful, and also for kids
that are come from from underprivileged homes to be able
(03:31):
to not go hungry, to be frank. And we also
give a lot of money to Dare to Care and
a thing called Hope Village.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, that's right, Dare to Care. I mean, obviously we're
all familiar with that. I mean it was started because
a kid starved around Thanksgiving time in nineteen sixty nine.
Bobby Ellas was his name.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Very proud to be involved, you know, I mean, as
long as I've known you, we've talked about how I've
wanted to work at some sort of a nonprofit all
the years I worked at magazines. So finally do things.
So largest of.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Rob, what has changed with the charitable electronic pull tabs.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Uh, well, several things have changed. We are now currently,
along with thousands of charities across the state of Kentucky,
are now dealing with a pause in the gaming uh
for two of our vendors. So in the state of Kentucky,
there are three vendors that manufacture the machines, and so
two of those three vendors, by design designation of the
(04:27):
Horse Racing Commission, you cannot use those machines right now.
So it's a big impact. So two thirds.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
How did that happen?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
There was a fishing uh, some fishing incidents, and what
that basically is is where there was a group of
professional criminals that went around to different sites across the
state and even in other states, and they used fake
money to trick the machines into thinking that they were
depositing money, and then they cashed out with one of
(04:57):
the tickets.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
So when you said fishing event, pete, yes, Okay, that's
the other. So if this is hackers, this is all
kinds of things created problems with these machines. Yes, and
so the Commonwealth of Kentucky has paused anything they're allowed
to do. And obviously that interrupts you guys with your charitable.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Fundraising quite suddenly, right, Yeah, it was out of nowhere literally,
you know, on a Friday, four thirty. We got that
message last Friday. But you know, we look at this
as an opportunity to do that that's twofold one is
to get our message out to the public and let
them know the good works that charities do, such as
(05:39):
Seneca Pass and Present, but also the thousands of charities
throughout the state of Kentucky. Because you're talking about tens
of millions of dollars that all of us as a
collective group give back to the community. So now with
that on pause, there are so many projects and so
many things and individuals and families that are affected by this.
So it's not just an organization is losing income. It's
(06:04):
it's people. Uh, it's depriving people the ability to receive
funds from us.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
And this is just a game that people choose with
their own discretionary income to play, right.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
It's a supercondorsed thing.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, it's called a superconductor for good because it's it
just generates so much money, so much more frankly than
most of the ways that we can fundraise.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
So this affects our organizations all around the Commonwealth. It
sure does people who would normally have these games available
for people and all that's just shut down, unplugged.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
It's pretty heartbreaking on it.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So what happens. Where do we go from here?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, again, we look at it as an opportunity to
work with the Horse Racing Commission. We're delighted that they
are concerned as we are about these safety issues and
protecting our machines and protecting the integrity of charitable gaming.
So we want to partner with them and work with
them to solve those issues. And one of the things
couple of things have happened very quickly is those gaming
(07:02):
manufacturers have used their technology and their access to technology
to make those bill validators, the bvs as we call them,
to make them more sensitive and make them basically phishing proof.
And so that has already begun. And I think they
believe the gaming manufacturers and talking to them, they believe
(07:24):
that they've satisfied that criteria for the State, that the
machines are as safe as they possibly can be given
the technology. And so we're saying, now that we've met
that criteria, it's time for us to turn back the
games back on. So that's what we're asking the state
to do. But we want to work with them as
a partner. It's not an adversarial relationship. We want to
(07:45):
work with them, we want to be in compliant, but
we also want to share with them the good works
that we do as as charitable organizations, because I think
that this is an opportunity, educational opportunity. I'm not exactly
sure they know exactly what all of these charities do
and the impact that this pause has happened.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, they're cutting off the water hose that feeds a
lot of people. Now.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yes, here during the government shutdown, we were able to
give a lot to Dare to Care to help them
replenish their food kitchens or their food pantries, something that
we frankly maybe wouldn't be able to do right now
under the current circumstances.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
So last week, Terry, just for instance, to pick it
back on what Rocco said, last week, we did a
turkey drive at Seneca High School where we were able
to feed up to thirty families. Well, if the turkey
drive was scheduled this week, it's a serious jeopardy because
we don't have the funds. This is all built around
these these game gaming systems, and taking two out of
(08:43):
the three out of the equation is it's like, I
imagine this tell McDonald's tomorrow that they can't sell hamburgers,
they can only sell fries, and see, I see what
their stock looks like after you tell them the hamburgers are.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
At least so one of these machines systems is available
to you.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yes, one is still available. Uh, and so people are
you know, are planning in theory, but it's nowhere near
you know, when you have all three up.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And running, it's a three lane highway cut to one's.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yes, we don't have to slowly, Yeah, we don't. We
don't have that brand of game at all of our
locations for example.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
So and with us we have one hundred approximately one
hundred and seventy machines. So you know, we're only running
right now.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Maybe forty state legislature goes back to work in January.
Does that have any bearing on this?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
It has a big bearing. And so what we want
to do is is encourage people to contact your state
legislature and say to them, please don't pause and disrupt
charitable gaming work in partnership in conjunction with the charity
so that we can you know, follow the law and
and and make a safe experience for our gamers when
(09:57):
they when they show up at our at our different locations.
But also too, don't pause the gaming, which the n
effect rips the safety net, one of the social safety nets,
because that's what all of us working together has created
a social safety net for people in the general public.
So we're asking people to contact your state legislature and say,
(10:18):
please work with the charitable gaming organizations so we can
continue the good works.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Makes sense. Sorry. The website for your organization is Seneca
forever dot org.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Correct, and we have a fundraiser going right now for
day to Care.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
That's the way that people.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Can help now.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Appreciate that, Seneca Forever dot org. Keep up good work, gentlemen.
Thanks for the info on that.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yes, thanks sorry for having us.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yes enlighten me a little bit about it. I heard
about this at the poll tab gaming and then it
was like then I didn't hear about it anymore, But
I see now it affects real people in real way.
Sure does quickly, all right, Robin Rocco, welcome back anytime.
You always welcome here, fellows, all right back in a
few you're on news radio. Wait for
Thanks for checking in here on news radio Waight forty
w h S. I'm Terry Minors. I make a living talking.
I'm making a lot of nice, great people throughout the
course of the year, just talking about various things that
go on in the community. Two of my favorites that
I talked to, well, they were here yesterday. No, I'm
just kidding. See, I set you guys up. You felt
that coming, didn't you, Rocko? No, you you guys are
(00:23):
two of my favorites.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Rock and Robert back from Seneca Forever and uh, I
was Rocco and I were talking a little bit. Rob
It's good to see you again. By the way, seeing
Jerry Vento one Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, the Hall of Fame induction. That's last time we
were here. We had a great crowd. I got only
slightly and.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
The abriated and only slightly.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We had a fantastic But.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
You're in charge, you should behaviors.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I mean, I create the illusion of that.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
At least I didn't.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
I didn't know that though, So there has to be
a debriefing after this.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Know that you have some really you know, prominent alums. Yes,
and did the did the previous mayor this time, not
this time, he's something else. Abramson. I missed him today.
Actually it was a visitation for someone, but I mean
I missed him earlier today. He's everywhere all of.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
It, and he's been very supportive of our organization.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
So that's good.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
We appreciate what.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Isn't Diane Sawyer one of your grants too?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Yes, she is of her.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
She hasn't come back around as often as she used to.
She's still living.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I think that's about she's living in the East Coast
and you know, kind of living that retirement in New York.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
She's up in one of those New York towers and
somebody's probably putting grapes in her mouth right now.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I didn't say that.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
That's a good.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Well.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I think she still technically works for ABC News, Is
that right?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Okay, So she.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Just occasionally they'll have her do a special special feature.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Yeah. Nice, But she's your alum.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I mean that's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
She represents us well.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
No doubt about it. So anyway, I'm glad that went well. Yeah,
it was great. Hall of Fame than you already picked
next year's class for this.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
We got one or two, one or two we're not
ready to announce yet, but we got we got oneted
in mind.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
All right, that's good.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Don't you drop me a hint later, I sure will.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I like to tease a few friends, you know how
you were waiting on that Hall of Fame invitation. You're
not getting it in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
What was the main band of the British invasion?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
The main band?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The main band of the British invasion in the nineteen sixties,
the Beatles. Well, mister, mister Paul McCartney graduate graduate high school.
People that went to Seneco will know what that means.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Anybody else, I'm sorry he is, Sir Paul McCartney.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
It is.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Didn't they also give Ringo that title as well? It's like,
is that that's stretching it is?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
They may have I think they may have just made
him like some sort of like a prince, like a
duke or something.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, it's it's like, let's not stretch that out too much.
I mean, next thing, you know, you're gonna be handing
that out to Cato Kalan or somebody. Just too much. Anyway,
welcome back. But Rocco, you and I were talking about
something that I, you know, read about in the news
and then realized this affects a lot of people and
it's these charitable electronic pull tab gaming device. Tell me
(03:06):
more about that.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, that's been a fantastic way for us to generate
a lot of money to help with our costs, just
to help Seneca High School to continue to thrive and
be more successful, and for students there to and the
the academic as well as the sports programs to have
what they need to be successful, and also for kids
that are come from from underprivileged homes to be able
(03:31):
to not go hungry, to be frank. And we also
give a lot of money to Dare to Care and
a thing called Hope Village.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, that's right, Dare to Care. I mean, obviously we're
all familiar with that. I mean it was started because
a kid starved around Thanksgiving time in nineteen sixty nine.
Bobby Ellas was his name.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Very proud to be involved, you know, I mean, as
long as I've known you, we've talked about how I've
wanted to work at some sort of a nonprofit all
the years I worked at magazines. So finally do things.
So largest of.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Rob, what has changed with the charitable electronic pull tabs.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Uh, well, several things have changed. We are now currently,
along with thousands of charities across the state of Kentucky,
are now dealing with a pause in the gaming uh
for two of our vendors. So in the state of Kentucky,
there are three vendors that manufacture the machines, and so
two of those three vendors, by design designation of the
(04:27):
Horse Racing Commission, you cannot use those machines right now.
So it's a big impact. So two thirds.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
How did that happen?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
There was a fishing uh, some fishing incidents, and what
that basically is is where there was a group of
professional criminals that went around to different sites across the
state and even in other states, and they used fake
money to trick the machines into thinking that they were
depositing money, and then they cashed out with one of
(04:57):
the tickets.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
So when you said fishing event, pete, yes, Okay, that's
the other. So if this is hackers, this is all
kinds of things created problems with these machines. Yes, and
so the Commonwealth of Kentucky has paused anything they're allowed
to do. And obviously that interrupts you guys with your charitable.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Fundraising quite suddenly, right, Yeah, it was out of nowhere literally,
you know, on a Friday, four thirty. We got that
message last Friday. But you know, we look at this
as an opportunity to do that that's twofold one is
to get our message out to the public and let
them know the good works that charities do, such as
(05:39):
Seneca Pass and Present, but also the thousands of charities
throughout the state of Kentucky. Because you're talking about tens
of millions of dollars that all of us as a
collective group give back to the community. So now with
that on pause, there are so many projects and so
many things and individuals and families that are affected by this.
So it's not just an organization is losing income. It's
(06:04):
it's people. Uh, it's depriving people the ability to receive
funds from us.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
And this is just a game that people choose with
their own discretionary income to play, right.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
It's a supercondorsed thing.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, it's called a superconductor for good because it's it
just generates so much money, so much more frankly than
most of the ways that we can fundraise.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
So this affects our organizations all around the Commonwealth. It
sure does people who would normally have these games available
for people and all that's just shut down, unplugged.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
It's pretty heartbreaking on it.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So what happens. Where do we go from here?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, again, we look at it as an opportunity to
work with the Horse Racing Commission. We're delighted that they
are concerned as we are about these safety issues and
protecting our machines and protecting the integrity of charitable gaming.
So we want to partner with them and work with
them to solve those issues. And one of the things
couple of things have happened very quickly is those gaming
(07:02):
manufacturers have used their technology and their access to technology
to make those bill validators, the bvs as we call them,
to make them more sensitive and make them basically phishing proof.
And so that has already begun. And I think they
believe the gaming manufacturers and talking to them, they believe
(07:24):
that they've satisfied that criteria for the State, that the
machines are as safe as they possibly can be given
the technology. And so we're saying, now that we've met
that criteria, it's time for us to turn back the
games back on. So that's what we're asking the state
to do. But we want to work with them as
a partner. It's not an adversarial relationship. We want to
(07:45):
work with them, we want to be in compliant, but
we also want to share with them the good works
that we do as as charitable organizations, because I think
that this is an opportunity, educational opportunity. I'm not exactly
sure they know exactly what all of these charities do
and the impact that this pause has happened.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, they're cutting off the water hose that feeds a
lot of people. Now.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yes, here during the government shutdown, we were able to
give a lot to Dare to Care to help them
replenish their food kitchens or their food pantries, something that
we frankly maybe wouldn't be able to do right now
under the current circumstances.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
So last week, Terry, just for instance, to pick it
back on what Rocco said, last week, we did a
turkey drive at Seneca High School where we were able
to feed up to thirty families. Well, if the turkey
drive was scheduled this week, it's a serious jeopardy because
we don't have the funds. This is all built around
these these game gaming systems, and taking two out of
(08:43):
the three out of the equation is it's like, I
imagine this tell McDonald's tomorrow that they can't sell hamburgers,
they can only sell fries, and see, I see what
their stock looks like after you tell them the hamburgers are.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
At least so one of these machines systems is available
to you.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yes, one is still available. Uh, and so people are
you know, are planning in theory, but it's nowhere near
you know, when you have all three up.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And running, it's a three lane highway cut to one's.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yes, we don't have to slowly, Yeah, we don't. We
don't have that brand of game at all of our
locations for example.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
So and with us we have one hundred approximately one
hundred and seventy machines. So you know, we're only running
right now.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Maybe forty state legislature goes back to work in January.
Does that have any bearing on this?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
It has a big bearing. And so what we want
to do is is encourage people to contact your state
legislature and say to them, please don't pause and disrupt
charitable gaming work in partnership in conjunction with the charity
so that we can you know, follow the law and
and and make a safe experience for our gamers when
(09:57):
they when they show up at our at our different locations.
But also too, don't pause the gaming, which the n
effect rips the safety net, one of the social safety nets,
because that's what all of us working together has created
a social safety net for people in the general public.
So we're asking people to contact your state legislature and say,
(10:18):
please work with the charitable gaming organizations so we can
continue the good works.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Makes sense. Sorry. The website for your organization is Seneca
forever dot org.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Correct, and we have a fundraiser going right now for
day to Care.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
That's the way that people.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Can help now.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Appreciate that, Seneca Forever dot org. Keep up good work, gentlemen.
Thanks for the info on that.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yes, thanks sorry for having us.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yes enlighten me a little bit about it. I heard
about this at the poll tab gaming and then it
was like then I didn't hear about it anymore, But
I see now it affects real people in real way.
Sure does quickly, all right, Robin Rocco, welcome back anytime.
You always welcome here, fellows, all right back in a
few you're on news radio. Wait for
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