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From the
NY Times:
An illegal gambling ring with more than 2,000 bettors in the United States moved millions of dollars through banks and credit card companies and used an overseas website to place the wagers and keep the accounts, the office of the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said on Wednesday.
A Queens County grand jury indicted 17 people in the case, and all but three are in custody. The arrests were made by law enforcement officials in New York, Nevada and California, where most of the bookmakers and accountants for the ring were based, the office said. The head of the operation was identified as Cyrus Irani, 37, of Santa Clarita, Calif.
Mr. Brown said the ring had collected $32 million in illegal bets on football, basketball, baseball, hockey and other sports. He said Internet gambling was “a multibillion-dollar, worldwide industry.”
“Internet gambling has been compared by some to the crack cocaine epidemic of the late ’80s and early ’90s,” Mr. Brown said in a statement. “It is highly addictive.”
From the
NY Post:
A Queens lawmaker wants to legalize betting on professional sports in New York — and his proposed legislation has the backing of one of the state’s top prosecutors, Brooklyn DA Charles “Joe” Hynes, The Post has learned.
State Sen. Tony Avella’s bill would allow betting on baseball, football, basketball, hockey and soccer at the Aqueduct and Yonkers racinos and all casinos across the state, as well as off-track betting parlors outside the city.
Currently, only betting on horse racing is legal.
Such legalized betting in the sports-crazed Big Apple could become a cash cow for the state, where fans passionately follow — and often illegally bet on — the Yankees, Mets, Giants, Jets Knicks and Rangers.
Citing a study conducted by the New York City Partnership five years ago, Democrat Avella said betting on pro sports would generate more than $2 billion.
He said the state’s cut from the racino sports book would go to fund schools.
“We have to think out of the box. I’d rather come up with revenue this way rather than raising property taxes,” said Avella.
He claimed said studies show illegal sports betting generates more than $100 billion nationally and as much as $15 billion to $30 billion in New York City alone — much of it feeding organized crime.
And that’s why Hynes is supporting the measure. He said sports betting should be regulated by the government and benefit the public, not crooks.
From
NY1:
Investigators in Queens arrested dozens of people, allegedly tied to two major sports betting rings.
The Queens district attorney's office has indicted 38 people in connection with the two nationwide operations that spanned from Queens to Nevada, Florida and as far as Costa Rica.
Seventeen of the defendants were arraigned Wednesday in Queens. All of the defendants face multiple charges including enterprise corruption and money laundering.
The two operations allegedly worked together to make close to $178 million over nearly a three year period. Investigators say a majority of the money came from online betting sites.
Among those charged are a city sanitation worker, DOT highway repairman and a firefighter who prosecutors say delivered gambling money using a New York City Fire Department vehicle.
Prosecutors say gambling rings often lead to more criminal behavior.
From
1010WINS:
New York authorities said Wednesday they busted a lucrative offshore sports betting operation with links to the mob that took in a "staggering" half-billion dollars in wagers.
Thirty people and a corporation have been indicted in Queens in connection with the illegal enterprise that stretched across the country, authorities said.
The betting ring collected more than $567 million in a 28-month period and accepted wagers on many sports including football, basketball and hockey.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement the investigation uncovered evidence the betting operation had links to the Gambino and Genovese crime families. He said the gambling operation generated on average more than $20 million a month.
From the
Queens Chronicle:
Avella cited Bloomberg’s plans to delay the hiring of more police officers and to close some fire companies at night as among the worst of his proposals. “That’s stupid and puts people’s lives in jeopardy,” he said.
The councilman claimed the budget gap could be closed just by eliminating waste in city agencies and by enacting one of his longtime proposals: legalizing sports betting and turning it into a cash cow for the city.
If the city would just go after people who damage public property, it could raise as much as $100 million a year, Avella asserted, saying the Police Department alone spends $3 million annually to fix patrol cars hit by other drivers.
Meanwhile sports betting generates anywhere from $15 to $30 billion a year for organized crime syndicates, he said — money that would close the budget gap and then some.
