Suffolk County Gambling Ring Busted
Warrant Executed At Home Of Woman, 93

July 15, 2003

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. -- Suffolk County authorities arrested eight men in connection to an illegal gambling ring run by the Bonanno crime family that brought in $20 million a year, prosecutors said.

The arrests were made Monday night, said District Attorney Thomas Spota's spokesman, Bob Clifford.

Authorities said Tuesday that two of the eight men were soldiers in the family, while the others were associates.

Investigators had been looking into the ring for the last four months, and there were signs it had been in existence for 20 years, Clifford said. Locations to take bets were set up in the Bronx and Manhattan, and the money was funneled to Costa Rica, he said. More than half of the alleged bets were on professional football.

Investigators also executed search warrants at various locations, one of which was the home of a 93-year-old woman. Betting slips were found there, and the woman was questioned but not arrested, Clifford said.

More arrests were likely, he said. Two of those arrested were arraigned and out on bail by Tuesday afternoon; the others were being arraigned.

[ source: WNBC ]

(Damn, I hope my bookie wasn't involved! )

This keeps up, they're gonna have to go back to busting open parking meters, as we saw them do in
"Donny Brasco."

Y'know what? What really is the harm in sports betting? Is the ONLY "problem" that the good ol' government doesn't get a cut of it? Ridiculous... totally harmless fun. To me at least. You think they'd go after murderers or something... oh, wait...

Interesting, about the money being funneled to Costa Rica. That's where many of the off-shore sports books are located. From what I understand, they are all pretty much mob-established and operated. I wonder if there's a connection.

I agree with you Geoff. That type of Gambling is harmless. It ain't like Drugs. But the Government would give more harsh sentences to a sports betting operator then they would a drug dealer

Since I live (not to far) from where this happened, I know a little bit more about this case.

You may be happy to know (some of you) that the gambling ring is back up and operating. The feds closed the one shop and they reopened in another location.

The feds can't do anything now, because they will never win the case with the little ammount of evidence they would have busting this new shop right now. So they will most likely do another 1-4 year investigation before they move in on it at all, if they can.