damn lucked out on grabbing it at 6.5

Thought it was 7 or 7.5

Good thing Pitts kicker was so terrible

As soon as I saw it briefly drop down to -6.5 earlier in the week, I was all over it. It was -7 and -7.5

I must have the wrong site, i typed in gangsterbb and got espn

lost was on the over but also had western kentucky over so lost the juice anyways...nfl has no logic...steelers running ball down pats throat then do a reverse pass? CMON

joey had a big opening day kickoff at his place in boca last night

on the Merlino's Facebook page they just posted a picture of Skinny Joey in a pink shirt standing out in front of Merlino's with another guy I can't identify (I'm thinking he may be the GM of Merlino's)

I had over 51 for $500 but I got down on over 26 2H for $300 so I minimized damages. I know I made the right play, on to the next one

you and vegas call it.. philly is one of the biggest cities and only ny an la have our suburban population density.. from south jersey to philly is apx 70 miles.. not to mention jersey surburbs in jersey like Washington twp.. in pa the deleware County and Bucks counties together are bigger than philly it self by farr.. And Remember the guy who wasn't in the mob that gentleman gambler? when the fbi raided his house they dug up plastic pvc pipes in his yard full of Big time $$$... I believe he was from blue bell pa.. all that money from one thing only gambleing... wow just sports betting and numbers prove to generate millions..

NOPE I know for a fact they aint got NO involvement with any union.. if they are the have a problem with me than.... ! fact not in any union what so ever.... uncle joe got his money from an independent trash company owner.. NOW let me repeat myself one more time.. the pathetic philly mob aint involved with any construction man and their trade union ie plumber bricklayer ironworker carpenter hvac... tooo many guys like me around also.. we find out it will b over for them, fact.. if the police don't arrest them.. I will personally take it to a fire and maneuver level..

Het Dante, if you go to his restaurant web site check that wine selection merlino got.. reminds me of band of brothers.. when the Army Easy company took out hitler and raided his palace.. remember that wine champagne and alcohol hitler had.. he had tons of shit and some expensive stuff also.. well merlino has one hell of a wine selection himself.. that selection he got is worth $$$..

I have to agree. I don't see any evidence for really any involvement in labor unions by the family. Certainly not anything significant. Lou Fazzini had to go to the Gambinos to try and get a union membership.

Traditionally the family was never a union powerhouse. It had some ties to the Roofers Union and the Bartenders Union even before legalized casino gambling in Atlantic City. But their biggest union clout was probably through HEREU Local 54 during Scarfo's reign. And even then they had to give a piece of the Local 54 money to the Genovese family.

@Marine- you must not be in the Laborers Union 332... The Statens have been with the
Mob since the Scarfo days...

http://articles.philly.com/2004-04-18/news/25364669_1_mob-boss-joseph-skinny-joey-merlino-mob-ties

You've also got the Stagehands which Ciancaglini has by the strings. You've also got Ray Wagner and those guys down at the Convention Center... You ever hear the kind of stuff that's going on down there? Would love
To hear your thoughts on that for starters.

You're speaking of Joe Mastronardo and his son Joe Jr. All his clientele were high end, they didn't take bets that were below 10,000 dollars. They weren't in anyway Philly LCN affiliated and I don't think they were ever kicking up to anyone in that organization. They also never threatened their clients, if they were late or missed out on paying up. If a bettor with them couldn't pay up when he lost, they simply stopped taking their bets. That penalty alone was enough to keep most clientele upstanding, as once they were exiled from the Mastronardo's bookmaking joints, there was only one alternative and that was the cheaper, less reliable and more violent Philly Mob.

The Philly guys werent and still arent able to earn like the Mastronardo's did in bookmaking, they don't have the bank to cover those high end bets, I think. At least not in the Merlino era.

Yeah I think you're right. Nicky Crow and the Scarfo guys tried to shake
Down Joe Vito in the 80s and couldn't make it happen. Joe Vito doesn't want anything to do with the mob... Too much heat and you're right he's taking huge bets mostly white collar types not $100 street guy bets and he's got s national network not just Philly...

he has the rep as someone who is very underground meaning its hard for the mob to find him the crow said they could never find the guy very smart most bookies not so lucky look at all those bookies who were ruined by joey merlino

I think he had a NY connection (not that he was connected) but a family friend, relative from not sure which but it was mentioned somewhere on this board one time that shut the crow and others down.....pretty sure the feds dug up his yard and found millions buried around his mansion up on the main line

Lol @ anyone letting me lay ten dimes on something and then only cutting me off if I didn't pay. I would free roll them so quick it would make their fucking head spin. Haha. There is nothing wrong with using a south philly book, who cares if it's "the mob", just pay them when you loose like a man should.

That's an interesting article but it leaves the present-day connection between the Philadelphia family and Local 332 rather unclear. I say "present day" because you pretty much have to go back to the 1980's to find significant ties between the two.




You had the recent strike at the convention center by several unions, and the center filed a civil RICO suit against the Laborers, but I don't recall seeing any mention of the mob in the articles I read about it. Where are you getting this about Ciancaglini and Stagehands Local 8?

The NJ carpenters union, OUTSIDE of NORTH JERSEY, MEANING south Jersey area, are NOT influenced. This is a fact. I heard that the 1050 at the convention center is all Italian and they may be influenced. Local 8 still does bust ups on non-union jobs and Coryell been around a while. never know. Johnny Docs local 98 has to be touched up a bit. He's been around forever.

Lots of work going on in Philly. The unions may be taking payoffs to look the other way on some of the smaller projects, especially in South Philly. But, that may be favors not actual LCN "control"

Laugh all you want. Fact is that's how the Mastronardo's ran their bookmaking business and they were successful because of it. A lot more successful than any of the mob affiliated bookies. They didn't need to use the threat of violence to get paid, then again, they didn't take bets from bums. They were international with their books extending all the way to Costa Rica.

You wouldn't free roll anything, because until you paid up, you wouldn't be able to place any types of bets with them.

I used to get ESPN magazine. There was an article in there about this sports gambler in Vegas who was the winningest in history, or some shit like that. It was last year or the year before. The article talked about metrics and probabilities, etc., the numbers behind gambling. How you need to win 54% of your bets to be successful. Stuff like that.

Anyways, the guy, this huge gambler who wins all the time; he had Joe Vito's broter on his payroll and the article specifically states that.

You can't compare those guys. The Mastronado's are professionals. A lot of LCN guys are great handicappers. But there a ton of bookies who don't even watch sports. Just play the sides to get ahead.

Different levels of involvement. it's like anything in life. You get out of it what you put into it.

Mike Chang Jr. Works for Iatse. Other than that I've never heard of any mob ties in the union.

Mikey Chang had a kid?

2 kids. A son and daughter.

nicky whip: Billy walters is probably the big time gambler in vegas you are talking about and your are right on with him using every niche or math formula that he can find from the whiz kids in ivy league schools to help him gain an advantage and win

@MERLINO Yup. here's a link. Thanks dude.

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/...oversial-bettor

Another great gambler is Bob Voulgaris... the guys who win consistently are the guys who use metrics and their own advanced algorithms...

Math wins, "feel" loses.

Beat your bookie" Dom the dominator. Scores an odds.

Most mob wire rooms and Internet sites are offshore - Costa Rica, Panama, etc - as well and have been for some time. And the mob also has increasingly cut off dead beat gamblers rather than roughing them up. Neither were unique to the Mastronardos. It may have been a different clientele but there were/are books run by the NY families that dwarfed anything the Mastronardos had. And they weren't completely mob-free. They were laundering money through a Genovese associate in Florida.