New York Mets Fire Manager

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http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=5797424&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines

Charlie Samuels has been fired by the New York Mets. He was the 27 year manager for the team and has been let go for illegal gambling. Apparently he bet on NFL games and he’s being looked at for possibly using club funds to bet.

On the surface this really doesn’t seem like much but it always goes much deeper. This will be much worse if they find out Samuels bet on baseball. While it is still done, baseball is not the most popular game to bet on but this is in New York and there may be more of a market there. Major league teams prohibit illegal gambling to protect the integrity of the game. Even though Charlie didn’t bet on baseball, he appears to have a problem if it warranted an investigation. There’s a good chance that he owed money to a bookie and he either stole club funds to pay his debt, or he was in the perfect position to provide information to a bookie about the Mets to affect the gambling line and make more money for a bookie. When you deal with a bookie, he may come across as a decent person but he is still a criminal and his bosses get dirtier the higher up you go.

Everybody should be worried about illegal sport betting. If you are a sport fanatic, you should want the contest you’re watching to be pure competition. It should not be affected by an athlete who is keeping the score within a certain area so the spread can be favorable to the criminals that got to him. Athletes, especially in college, need to avoid gambling for their years at school as an athlete. Right now the NCAA has a somewhat lax view if an athlete is caught in a illegal poker game.

I met Michael Franzese at a training a couple of years ago. He used to be a Capo in the Columbo family before he walked away after serving time in federal prison. He told me he would target athletes at poker games and when they ran out of money, he would loan them money. Well the money added up and they could rarely pay back the whole amount, so now they owed him money and favors. He would get the athletes to provide information on the teams they were on and control the score when they were playing. There went the integrity of the game. If that contest you are watching is being controlled by the mob, you might as well be watching a staged wrestling match. The purity of the game is lost when illegal bookies are involved. Bravo for NYPD for investigating this in a city where the politicians care little but rely heavily on organized crime.

 

 

Gambino Family Mobster gets 11 years

 

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http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20101029/UPDATES01/101029039/1005/NEWS01/Reputed+East+Hanover+mobster+sentenced+in+racketeering+scheme

Mobster Andrew Merola of the Gambino crime family got 11 years in prison for racketeering. Included among this was illegal gambling and part of that was betting over the internet to an off-shore location. Also, he defrauded several stores on a bar code scheme, also a credit card and identity theft charges were included. Racketeering is basically making crime an organized business involving several people.

Nobody really likes to talk about illegal gambling and organized crime. Either people are in denial about organized crime, including police officers and superiors, or they know it’s going on and are simply ignoring it. This case took place in New Jersey, home of the Sopranos, so people will say since it was on television they will believe it. Andrew Merola is a part of the Gambino family that once claimed John Gotti as the head. The operation did not shut down and conitnued after he went to prison and ultimately died. Gotti’s lawyer was involved in the family and if Gotti wasn’t so Hollywood, they both might have gotten away with a lot more. Bruce Cutler, Gotti’s lawyer was also involved to a certain extent in Gotti’s affairs.

When a person bets even locally with a bookie, part of that money goes to guys like Merola. Sports betting is only legal in Nevada and no where else in the United States. Organized crime hides even better in little towns where there is little, if any, vice enforcement. If you bet 5 dollars on a parlay card, even though it seems like only a little money, part of it goes to organized crime. Bookies don’t just show up in society, if they do, the person that controls the area he is working in will soon contact the bookie. If the bookie is allowed to continue, he will owes money to the underworld person that runs his area and he always has to pay. That’s why if you don’t pay your bookie, you will get a visit because the bookie owes a certain amount to his new bosses no matter what. That’s how it works. He needs his money to pay for the right to run a book.

Betting on-line may be a little different since they secure payment through a credit card. Still the money goes back to families like the Gambino family. Hollywood has given these guys more power due to the romanticizing of the mafia. Most of the mobsters started out as little gang thugs that robbed old women of their purses and dealt drugs on the corners. Later in life they put on a 1000 dollar suit and everybody thinks they grew a brain. Nearly every bookie is also connected to illegal drug dealing.

Gamble at your local casinos. They employ people in your community. On-line betting isn’t as legit as it’s being made out to be as thug Merola demonstrated.

If you want to throw your money away, just give a twenty dollar bill to the next corner dope dealer you see. That’s how guys like Merola started and you.

Legit Lottery Gets Corrupted By Family

Image by Lisa Brewster via Flickr

http://detnews.com/article/20101013/METRO/10130424/Detroit-family-accused-of-running-illegal-betting-ring

Even though the Kingpin Herbert Lee Daniels of this dysfunctional “family” died last month of a “broken heart” according to his lawyer, a Detroit family is in trouble with the feds for an illegal gambling operation. This family took the legitimate lottery numbers that the state provided and took their own bets on what those numbers would be. If you bet a nickel, you could win up to 250.00 dollars. This type of gambling is particularly attractive to poorer folks in the inner city. They can spend what little money they have on drugs or booze and take a little chance with the change they have left over. Since this operation was done without a paper trail, winners did not have to pay tax on the winnings and the family avoided those taxes also.

The family ran this operation and set it up in various convenience stores and houses throughout Detroit. They say this operation has been going on for decades. The Drug Enforcement Agency was involved in the raid. Don’t forget that fact.

Big deal it’s just gambling. Well the problem is these people were ripping off the same poor people that were betting in his businesses. The taxes he cheated on could have gone to getting his community resources to help the poor. Instead, this family got rich off of their vices. If this was going on for decades, they paid off politicians and city leaders over the years. That’s more money that could have gone back into the community.

Why was the DEA involved? The DEA does not do Illegal Gambling cases. That would have most likely been the FBI’s case. This started out as a drug case and probably still is one. They may have had a witness go bad. Whatever the reason, drugs are connected to this and not in the information yet. As in most illegal gambling cases, illegal drugs are connected. This family was about money and this is organized crime. People that run illegal gambling businesses will launder their dirty drug money through the illegal gambling business because they know that they will get little or no time for the illegal gambling business. These people made a lot of money and got too big that red flags were set off. They also had to lie on their business records to cover for the illegal money that they were earning for the drugs and gambling. Money has to be laundered some way.

Just an opinion but some of that illegal money was probably dumped into some of the churches in those neighborhoods. There is a lot more to this case and since it’s a federal case, all may not ever be released on it. It will most likely be settled before it ever goes to court.

This is another example of when a Vice crime went legit, the criminals still corrupted it.

Internet Gambling Is Almost Always Illegal Gambling (Follow the Money)

Image by lism. via Flickr

http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/nyfo091510.htm

In an agreement, the Goldwater Bank in Scottsdale, Arizona, agreed to forfeit $733,804.92.  This agreement was to resolve a civil forfeiture claim against the bank since the bank new the funds were used to launder money, to property used in an illegal gambling internet business, and to property used to operate an illegal gambling business. The bank got off easy in this case. There are safeguards in place to protect banks as long as they abide by the Bank Secrecy Act. Basically when a red flag goes up, they are to report the suspicious activity. It does not always mean that it will get investigated but it still is the bank’s responsibility. The illegal offshore gambling businesses, which included Pokerstars.com is estimated to gross around $13,335,248.91. This amount was deposited in a bank account between the months of January to May of 2009. Only five months were looked at which means that a whole lot more money had most likely been deposited before then.

So why should that matter to the average citizen gambler? Well, the money has to be laundered to make it legal. That means the person that is making the money has to make a fake way to show that the money was made often escaping taxes. When you bet online, you are most likely placing a bet to another state or offshore which is a violation of the federal wire act. Even though you will probably not be prosecuted for doing it, you are still breaking the law. Furthermore, you may think it’s harmless but, the illegal money made by the promoters many times will fund other illegal acts such as the illegal narcotic business. On the local/state level bookies almost always connect to illegal drugs and and organized crime. In Indianapolis, it connects to the Outlaw Motorcycle gang and a long known organized crime family in New York with an Italian name. In 1998, Americans paid around 68 billion for illegal drugs. It is estimated today, according to Doug Dunlap of the FBI lab, that illegal gambling, in America, profited around 400 billion dollars. Bookies and others that run illegal gambling businesses know if they cover other illegal crimes that they do with illegal gambling, they won’t get much if any time. Soon it will be revealed, if it hasn’t already, illegal gambling will connect to terrorism. It is not a victim-less crime.

People feel safe in cyberspace thinking it is a free zone to do whatever they feel. We know that identities are stolen, child pornography is traded and grown men solicit young children for sex. We are still at an infant stage in local law enforcement with internet investigations, especially due to budget constraints. With the advancement of technology, law enforcement is going to play catch up and will be there one day to stop the transfer of illegal money from one illegal act to another. There are casinos everywhere. You can only bet on sports in Nevada but can do about everything else at your local casino.

If you really think that illegal gambling is harmless, try not paying your bookie and see what happens.

Pea Shake Arrests

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http://www.theindychannel.com/news/24956152/detail.html

Here in Indianapolis, only two people were arrested in a raid on an illegal gambling house known as a pea shake. Pea shakes are very unique to Indianapolis and are set up in the African American community. They have been around for some say forty to fifty years. They are so unique to this area that the FBI’s Lab have never heard of them other than what they learn from local agents through the local police. They may have originated in the Caribbean islands where they have a similar lotto type of gambling in poor neighborhood houses.

The Pea Shakes are basically running a type of lottery when a person places a bet ( can be as low as a quarter ) they wait until noon and then usually two more times a day when the person running the shake performs the shake. He basically has a plastic red bottle filled with round dice that has either one number or two numbers on each dice. They are round and these are the “peas”. They will shake out usually three peas and if it corresponds with the ticket the bettor bought, they win. The odds to win are worse than the scratch offs you buy legally from the state lottery. The shake is actually more complicated than previously described but thatis the basics of it.

The house is many times a house that does not pass inspection and more than one of them have had fires inside them before being used for the illegal gambling business. They are never up to code and they remain fire traps. The owners do not put too much money into the houses other than a counter on which the shake and business is conducted. A house can profit up to a million dollars a year but the people running it will never admit it and the illegal money ends up in a lot of peoples’ pockets in and out of the African American community. The money makes it’s way to politicians, clergy, and once in a blue moon to a charity. The majority of it ends up non-taxed in one persons pocket. Still, the illegal money has to be laundered somewhere.

For many years, uniformed police officers were given a good talking to if they even wrote a car leaving the pea shake, a ticket. It was very frustrating for a beat cop to see this illegal gambling business in his or her beat and knowing that it was protected. Nobody in the local government would even say what it really was a part of; organized crime. You would hear people mumbling that they have been around forever and they are not hurting anybody. Their clientèle consists mostly of African American males but occasionally you would see a white man, one that I know had a serious gambling addiction. The customers are usually poor individuals trying to win a bet to get a little extra money. Once in a while they win. There are many times bootleg movies being sold in the house and during the raids, someone always seems to have narcotics on them.

Well things tend to run their course. Politicians die and neighborhoods get fed up with the traffic, litter, and even the loitering during the work hours in their neighborhoods. Even police department heads that look the other way had to deal with the complaints. Being politically sensitive, the new Indiana Gaming commission did not want to touch them. Why should they? The city government in Indianapolis allowed them to prosper for many years and nobody at the gaming commission understood what a pea shake was.

The raids started before the merger but the new administration wanted them shut down due to all the complaints. The clergy cried racism as they always do and tried to say that African Americans are treated unfairly and disproportionately arrested more than their white gambling counterparts. I can tell you that was a complete lie from the clergy since the vice detective that has made the majority of the illegal gambling arrests (200 plus) has arrested many more white people than black. It shouldn’t matter what color the person is, it’s illegal. Why would the African American men of the cloth complain to the new public safety director in Indianapolis about arrests being made in the illegal gambling businesses in the African American community? Why aren’t they more concerned with the fact that they are feeding a hidden addiction that is present in their community? We didn’t see them stick up for all the people that were arrested in poker raids over the last five years. They were of all races in those games. Where were they when the dog fighting ring was broken up recently in the Indianapolis African American community? They were gambling at the dog fight. There would be no dog fight without illegal gambling. There is only one reason why the clergy cried racism and tried to get the police to lay off the filthy pea shakes and the reason is money, money, money.

If the community really wants these, the politicians that have lined their pockets over the years should have changed the law and gotten pea shakes legalized. The reason they didn’t use their ability as law makers to get the law changed on the pea shakes that many of them have vocally stated weren’t hurting anything is money, money, money.

Money, money, money……..

Somebody will try to complain on me for blogging this but I am off duty and these are my opinions and not those of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Former Councilman in Rhode Island Indicted For Muscling a Payment

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http://7thspace.com/headlines/356190/rhode_island_town_councilman_indicted_for_extorting_gambling_payments.html

This former councilman was a bookie and one of his bettors owed him 6000 to 8000 dollars in gambling debts. Of course the councilman couldn’t call a collection agency to collect. When a bookie makes money, some of that money is owed to organized crime. When the bookie doesn’t pay up then he hears it from the organized crime elements to get the money. A bookie can only take so many of these hits from bettors not paying up before he ultimately has to act and extort the person to collect the illegally made money.

Illegal gambling (note I said illegal, I have nothing against legal gambling) ultimately breeds violence and other crimes. If you have illegal sports betting around, connect the dots. You are going to find politicians, lawyers, police, and others that indirectly protect the bookie.You will also find it connects to other crimes that are not so acceptable like narcotic dealing. Sometimes the proceeds from narcotic dealing is laundered through illegal gambling since penalties are very low for people convicted of illegal gambling. I had one person recently tell my undercover officer that he knew that if he got caught, he wouldn’t get much if any time so the risk was worth it to run the illegal business. I wasn’t mad at this man for saying that since it was true. I did arrest him later and he was decent even though much of his property was seized.

Why is this an area that organized crime flourishes? Because it’s generally okay to gamble and the church even promotes it. Also, since it is misdemeanor charges usually, federal law enforcement can not enforce it. Most police departments do not know how to investigate these crimes mostly due to the fact that they rarely get these cases. When they do get these complaints, they are put way down on the list because on the surface, gambling is not that important. Many prosecutors, mayors and councilman are connected to illegal gambling either directly or indirectly through high priced lawyers and businessmen. Look at political contributions. You will find one or more bookies or people connected financially to a bookie on the lists. Also, most state police departments are involved in highway patrol and their budgets to investigate are lower than many city departments therefore they will not touch vice type investigations usually. Lastly, many states have gambling commissions with detectives that can enforce gambling laws. These are good cops but are also constrained by budgets and long term investigations may eat up too much money. Many of these commissions are also at an infant stage just starting out so it will take some time before they are really up and running making quality investigations and convictions.

I was told recently that addiction of gambling is also called a “hidden addiction.”  It has no smell, the person eyes aren’t bloodshot and so forth. Since it is unseen, it gets less attention as the other addictions. It can still be devastating but you never get to hear those stories. This man that owed the ex-councilman money, I’m sure he has an addiction. It’s affected his life, job, and I’m sure his family. His addiction got so bad, I’ll bet he went to the feds with his problem and now look what has happened.

Jon Daggy

Illegal Gambling and Bogus Charities

Image by angellea via Flickr

Published: September 1, 2010 3:00 a.m.

Non-profit director admits to gambling

Charity wasn’t goal of poker den, he says

Rebecca S. Green | The Journal Gazette

FORT WAYNE – The head of a local non-profit admitted Tuesday to running an illegal gambling operation out of a north-side strip mall.

Ralph T. White, 56, pleaded guilty to charges of corrupt business influence and unlawful charity gaming contracting in connection with the investigation into the now-shuttered Parnell Poker Palace.

Last week, George Kotsopoulos, 52, pleaded guilty to promoting professional gambling in connection with the case.

In exchange for White’s guilty plea, prosecutors will dismiss charges of theft and professional gambling. White must also cooperate with investigators and prosecutors, something that will likely lead to additional guilty pleas in the case, prosecutors said Tuesday in court.

Along with White and Kotsopoulos, three other men were charged in March after an Indiana Gaming Commission investigation into Parnell Poker Palace, which operated at 4608 Parnell Ave. from December 2008 to June 2009. It was operated by White, 56, Charles I. Keller, 68, and Larry L. York, 47, in a building owned by Kotsopoulos.

White, Keller and York were all charged with corrupt business influence, theft, unlawful charity gaming contracting and professional gambling.

Also charged was Edward Miers, 44. He faces charges of unlawful charity gaming contracting and professional gambling.

White runs White’s School of the Arts Community Development Programs, a non-profit organization that he has said offers 24-hour child-care for about 90 children, plus educational and athletic programs, including martial arts.

For a while, White’s School of the Arts was a “qualified organization,” allowing it to obtain an annual charity game night license. At the time, Indiana law allowed non-profit groups and charitable and fraternal organizations to obtain a license to sponsor gambling events for charity.

State lawmakers amended the laws concerning charity gambling, making licenses available only to veterans and fraternal organizations.

When it was open, visitors to Parnell Poker Palace could play poker, craps, roulette and blackjack three days a week from noon to 3 a.m.

White, Keller and York recruited and hired dealers and pit bosses and paid them cash, according to court documents. They enlisted “investors” to help finance the Poker Palace and split the revenue between themselves and White’s School of the Arts.

State law forbids anyone from being paid a salary at a charity gaming facility, and all proceeds from the games must be used by the qualified organization for charitable purposes. The rent charged to the casino must not be based on the proceeds from any event.

During his guilty plea hearing Tuesday, White admitted to unlawfully paying workers associated with the casino.

Tim McCaulay, Allen County deputy prosecutor, asked White whether the casino was a for-profit gaming house “masquerading as a lawful charitable gaming enterprise.”

“Yes,” White responded.

White faces a sentence of no more than two years in prison, work release or community correction when he is sentenced in October.

rgreen@jg.net

Many investigations of illegal gambling, especially a poker house like the one above always claim they are giving to a charity. Two separate investigations had the promoters putting the totals on a board of how much money they have donated to date. Of course further investigation showed that was a complete lie. One poor 65 year old woman that was arrested thought they were playing for charity. I don’t know what steams me more, the fact that they lie about this and pocket all the illegal gambling proceeds or the fact that they aren’t actually donating to a charity.

This man that pleaded guilty won’t get any time in jail even though they said he could get up to two years. Too many judges, prosecutors, and lawyers are involved in illegal gambling. This is where state revenue and the IRS step up to the plate. They should take all the illegal gambling proceeds and taxes they owe (yes you may still owe taxes on illegal gambling proceeds) and donate them to a charity.

Why should it surprise me though? Illegal enterprises (organized crime) always try to make it look like they are doing something righteous instead of illegal. It’s just another diversion tactic to get away with breaking the law and evading taxes.

Jon Daggy

Outlaw Motorcycle Gang and Illegal Gambling

Image by cindy47452 via Flickr

http://www.wsoctv.com/download/2010/0615/23907974.pdf

The link above is a lengthy .pdf file of a federal indictment on the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang in North and South Carolina, Maine West Virginia, Tennessee, Montana, Wisconsin and New Hampshire. I missed all this in June when it happened. The Outlaws were indicted for murder, racketeering, kidnapping, narcotic dealing, and running an illegal gambling business. One of the Outlaws was killed by an ATF agent after the agent was fired upon.

Motorcycle gangs started when World War Two veterans returned home and bought military surplus motorcycles. They developed a rowdy reputation and developed motorcycle clubs. Later many of the clubs morphed into criminal empires. I would guess that here are very few military veterans that are in motorcycle gangs these days. The Outlaw MC clubhouse was located on my beat in Indianapolis when I was on uniform patrol. I got to know a few of them and for local uniform police, they follow the law for the most part not to bring any attention to them. They are however an organized crime group using drug dealing and weapon selling to finance their activites.

The main reason I am posting the indictment, is it shows that they were also involved in an illegal gambling business. In this case, they put several gambling machines in clubhouses and the Outlaws would get a 60 to 40 split with the owner of the machines. I assume the Outlaws got the 60 percent.

A couple of years ago, I investigated illegal gambling that partly involved a bar. The bar was involved in illegal sports betting and the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang had free reign inside this bar. I did not connect them to the illegal gambling but it is commonly known in law enforcement that when the Outlaws frequent a bar in full colors, they have a stake in that bar and are somehow profiting in it.

For those that don’t believe illegal gambling connects to organized crime, read the indictment. Of course they are all innocent until proven guilty.

Cleveland police Raid Illegal Gambling Joint

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http://www.casinogamblingweb.com/gambling-news/gambling-law/with_casino_coming_cleveland_police_raid_illegal_gambling_club_55631.html

Cleveland police raided an illegal gambling business. Of course they found drugs, weapons and even naked women. I can honestly say that I have not come across any strippers in any investigations or raids that I have done on illegal gambling establishments. Weapons are almost always present and drugs are either found or somehow involved. A retired detective told me when I started investigating illegal gambling that if you dig deep enough, the case will lead to drugs. So far it’s been proven true. In one case, it was the illegal promoters were financing their girlfriend’s and wife’s prescription drug habits. The bookie cases had cocaine dealing involved also.

Illegal gambling needs to be enforced, but if Cleveland just started enforcing the gambling laws because a new casino is coming, they will have a lot of catching up to do with illegal gambling. I hope the officers that are assigned to investigate it are clean and passionate about the investigations. If they aren’t they will investigate these cases minimally. There will be little support from the administration, especially not publicly.

Good work Cleveland police. Illegal gambling cases, though neglected by most police departments, lead to other crimes. It is not a victim-less crime.

Owner will pay up to keep bar

Image by Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar via Flickr

Owner will pay up to keep bar – News – Citizens Voice.

Illegal gambling promoters rarely get jail time. Still as this story states, it’s connected to a corruption probe. Paying 100,000 to keep his tavern is a small price to pay. This guy pleaded guilty to using wire communications to transmit illegal wagering information. Sports betting is only legal in Las Vegas. This also applies to parlay cards which illegal bookies make a load of money.

The feds can get you for internet gambling also. Even though it’s advertised, internet gambling is illegal. More on this later.