UNION CHIEF GETS PROBATION ON GAMBLING CHARGE: [CHICAGOLAND FINAL Edition]
Chicago Tribune [Chicago, Ill] 13 Apr 1999

A suspended labor union president who was convicted of syndicated gambling for accepting $197,000 in sports wagers over a three-week period was placed on probation and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine Monday.

Joseph Abate, 35, who lives in the 4700 block of North Chester Avenue, appeared before Cook County Circuit Judge Daniel Kelley, where he was sentenced for the Class 3 felony.

"Putting it in its proper perspective, drug dealers and burglars are afforded probation," Kelley said. "I see no reason you should not receive probation also."

Abate, who was president of Local 225 of the Laborers International Union, could be expelled from the union because of his conviction, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Labor, who attended the hearing.

The operation was discovered when a Chicago police officer, who received a tip about the sports betting operation, served a search warrant on Abate's apartment in March 1997. The officer found wagers written on water-soluble paper in a kitchen drawer near a sink, a sports catalog and a dozen cellular telephones in a bedroom.