Cops in Royal Oak, Michigan, have gotten their digs renovated–thanks to bookies. From the Chicago Tribune:

The second floor of the citys police station has a new look thanks to money seized a decade ago from a sports gambling operation.

The department put up almost $34,000 for the $52,000 renovation completed Wednesday, most of it from money seized in 1999 when officers broke up a high-stakes football betting operation.

"It was a Super Bowl party on steroids," interim Chief Christopher Jahnke told The Daily Tribune. "We took a lot of money from the scene."

Vice forfeiture laws allow the department to keep and use money seized in gambling and prostitution cases.

"We were looking for the proper way to spend it," Jahnke said, and the upstairs area hadnt been updated since the building opened 46 years ago.

"We used to get complaint after complaint that this was a dirty, dingy place," he said.

Now it has upgrades, including new carpeting and tiling, updated lunchroom counters and secondhand but good-quality furniture, including 15 desks, two conference tables, 30 chairs and lockable file cabinets.

Royal Oak cops renovate station with seized cash — chicagotribune.com.

I don’t know exactly what about this story is funny, but I like the irony of the proceeds of an illegal gambling operation funding the police department’s renovations.

Tim Donaghy, the NBA ref accused of gambling on games that he refereed, has plead guilty. From USA Today:

The Boston Celtics, favored by four points, faced the 76ers in Philadelphia on Dec. 13 and won 101-81 in what seemed to be just another NBA blowout featuring bad Atlantic Division teams.

On or about the same date in Pennsylvania, an NBA referee assigned to that game had spoken in code with someone by phone to give him his pick for what NBA team to bet on. The next day, that “top-tier” referee, Tim Donaghy, met with gambling associates in Pennsylvania to pick up his cash payment for the pick.

On or about Dec. 26, Donaghy made a similar call to give another pick. That night he worked the Memphis Grizzlies-Wizards game in Washington, won 116-101 by the 7½-point favorite home team.

And on or about March 11 of this year, Donaghy met with a man in Toronto and got a cash payment. That night he worked the game won by the 6½-point favorite Raptors 120-119 vs. the Seattle SuperSonics.

In a court very different from where he once worked, Donaghy, 40, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two felony charges in the gambling scandal that has stunned the sports world. Released on $250,000 bond from federal court in Brooklyn, he faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 9 for conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and transmitting betting information through interstate commerce.

“Some of my picks included games I had been assigned to referee,” Donaghy said. It is not known if he made officiating calls during the game to help the team he predicted would win.

The “rogue” referee, as NBA Commissioner David Stern described Donaghy, must pay a $500,000 fine and at least $30,000 in restitution.

Former ref Donaghy details his gambling deception – USATODAY.com

As with the Tocchet case, I would hope that some good can come out of what is an awful situation for everyone involved–namely, a serious discussion of the relationship between gambling and sports. But, since this is just a “rogue” referee, I guess we won’t be hearing too much more about gambling and sports—until the next “isolated incident” erupts into scandal.

This might put the kabosh on plans to bring an NBA franchise to Las Vegas…or not. An NBA ref has reportedly used his position to influence the outcome of games he had action on. From UPI:

An NBA referee is reportedly under investigation by U.S. authorities for allegedly fixing games over the past two seasons, the New York Post said Friday.

The newspaper’s report said the National Basketball Association was aware of the investigation but had been requested by the FBI not to comment.

The investigation allegedly involved members of New York’s organized crime community to whom the unidentified referee owed money because of a gambling problem. The Post said the referee allegedly made calls to affect the outcome of games he was betting on. The number of affected games was said to be “in the double digits.”

The FBI’s yearlong investigation was concluding and arrests were expected soon, the report said.
United Press International – NewsTrack – Sports – Report: NBA ref probed for gambling

That’s about the biggest crime you can pull in sports today–fixing games damages the credibility of the league itself.

That being said, it doesn’t look like this case has anything to do with legal sports betting. If the ref was in debt to New York’s “organized crime community” (what a euphemism!), he was probably betting with an illegal bookie to start with.

Still, it’s a bad way for the words “NBA” and “gambling” to be seen in the same sentence. I’m not sure this will hurt Mayor Goodman’s efforts to bring a team here, but it certainly won’t help.

I don’t have much of a reason for putting this story up, except to prove perhaps that gambling can flourish anywhere. From The Raw Story:

Police were searching for Senegal’s honorary consul after finding the consulate in Singapore was doubling as a gambling den packing up to 100 enthusiasts a night, officials said on Sunday. Benny Kusni, an Indonesian businessman appointed consul for the African nation last December, has not returned home since a police raid on the consulate Friday night. It was not known if he is still in the city-state.

The 31 people nabbed by police in the raid included 23 who are suspected of being part of the den’s operations on the top floor of the five-storey building.

A mixture of Malaysians and Indonesians were charged in court on Saturday with operating an illegal gambling den and could face fines of up to 50,000 Singapore dollars (31,800 US dollars) and jail time of up to three years.

…

Police were tipped-off last week after an investigation by The Straits Times unveiled the den’s operations, complete with semi- circular baccarat tables, quarters with mattresses and pillows on the floor and a well-stocked pantry.

In all, police recovered about 80,000 Singapore dollars (51,000 US dollars) in two metal safes plus gambling paraphernalia including chips and cartons of playing cards.

While the consulate was open for official business during the day to deal with visas and other issues, it was filled from evening to dawn with gamblers placing bets ranging from a minimum of 100 Singapore dollars (64 US dollars) to a maximum of 30,000 Singapore dollars (19,000 US dollars). Credit of up to 50,000 Singapore dollars (32,000 US dollars) was available.

A VIP room catered to high rollers, those with 100,000 Singapore dollars (63,000 US dollars) worth of chips.

Diners at a nearby coffee shop told The Straits Times they had been approached by young men and women to gamble at the den.

“There’s been some unfamiliar people going up the building in the past few weeks,” an unidentified employee at a lighting shop was quoted as saying.

“Many of them look fierce,” he said, “but there were also some young and pretty ladies.”

The Raw Story | Senegal honorary consul missing after consulate gambling den found

This sounds almost exactly like the “first class skinning houses” of 19th century New York City, with touts circulating through the city to bring business in. And if you want to read more about them, try Roll the Bones.

I’m not a big Stones fan, but I couldn’t resist the title. No, it’s not a typo: there really is such a thing as a baang, and baangs are big business in South Korea. From the Washington Post:

When a South Korean police squad cracked down on illegal computer gambling, they did it by literally smashing hard disc drives with hammers.

It took more than a dozen men and an excavator to destroy 670 computers seized from illegal Internet gambling salons in the southern city of Ulsan.

“There are more computers like that in our office waiting for disposal,” said Byeon Dong-ki, an officer at the Ulsan Police Agency.

South Korea’s myriad Internet cafes used to be a choice youth hangout in this ultra-wired country. The cafes soon became the cradle of the nation’s booming online gambling industry that now threatens to overwhelm video console games.

Just a few years ago, the cafes known as PC baangs were full of teenage boys slaying virtual beasts in the virtual universe of multiplayer online games, standing next to grown-ups staring intently at Asian checker screens, contemplating their next move.

Now the industry faces a formidable competitor — adults-only video casino bars, which are thriving across the country, where gambling is mostly illegal.

Only one of the country’s 17 legal casinos allows locals to gamble. Nevertheless, money-betting video games have mushroomed in recent years, first with virtual horse races and then video slot machines.

While no real cash is allowed to change hands, the government allowed gambling arcades a huge loophole by letting them give out “gift certificates,” which could then be easily exchanged for cash after payment of a 10 percent commission.

A boom soon followed amid suspicions that some operators had begun to unlawfully reprogram games to allow higher payouts and win more gamers.

“People come here for money, not for the fun,” said a young employee behind the counter at Whale Story, an adult game parlor in Seoul. “PC baangs are for kids,” said Park, who declined to be identified by his full name.
…
Arcades devoted to “Sea Story” reportedly had annual sales of more than $15 billion. The culture ministry also said that the value of gift certificates issued in South Korea over the past year totaled 30 trillion won ($31.5 billion).
South Korea Web cafes take hit from video gambling – washingtonpost.com

First of all, remember that this is a country where there are professional Starcraft players. You read that right–this article talks about the game’s popularity there. So there’s definitely an appetite for video gambling. Combine that with the seemingly-inherent human urge to gamble, and you can see why gambling baangs would be big business.

I’ll come clean–I just get a kick out of writing “baang.” I’m visualizing it as a Batman TV-show style graphic.

Illegal gambling is notoriously hard to stamp out, because it is usually socially acceptable. A Philippine anti-gambling group wants to change that. From INQ7:

A man from a remote barangay in Central Luzon unwittingly placed a bet on “jueteng,” the underground lottery so despised by the clergy in his area.

He didn’t win the pot, but got an unenviable prize just the same: The infamy of having his name displayed at the local chapel as a “sugalero” (gambler).

A new movement formed by antigambling advocate, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, is planning a similar shame campaign to discourage people from gambling, whether legal or illegal.

“We would like our chapters to come up with their own creative approach against gambling,” he said yesterday in a press conference launching the Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Sugal.

The new group was the archbishop’s answer to what he called the Arroyo administration’s relentless promotion of a “gambling culture” in the country.

Shame campaign vs gambling planned – INQ7.net

Like you, I wondered what a barangay is. It’s something like a village or ward.

Maybe this’ll work, but I think that it only have a chance if “sugalero” has negative cultural connotations. In the US, it’s doubtful that most people would find being called a “gambler” a mark of shame; Kenny Rogers, at least, embraces the label.

Internet gambling is getting bigger and bigger. The NCAA, for example, has learned that, shockingly, people are using the phrase “March Madness” to promote betting on its championship tournament. And the organization is piping hot mad: it’s issued cease and desist orders.

To protect Americans from online gambling, two Congressmen have re-introduced the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. Ostensibly, they want to protect children “placed in harm’s way.” Seriously. But given the fact that other countries are free to license online betting sites, and it is difficult at best to restrict access to them (at least with things like privacy rights and freedom of information cluttering up the scene), it’s doubtful that Congress can legislate the ability to place bets online away. How could it be done?

Well, this is the approach that China is taking (from China Daily):

China’s Internet media and content providers have pledged to protect cyberspace from pornography, gambling and other “unhealthy content” through self-regulation and legal measures.

The call was made at a regular meeting on Saturday held by the Internet News Service Work Committee under the Internet Society of China (ISC) in Haikou, capital of China’s southernmost island province of Hainan.

“In 2005 alone, we received 127,010 complaints from the public, including 68.2 percent about pornography and 8.15 percent about gambling frauds,” said Li Jiaming of the ISC.

Li said since his center was established on June 10, 2004, it has received 240,000 complaints from the public.

The work committee passed several self-regulation agreements in 2005, pledging to improve the conduct of Internet Industry Participants and promote and ensure the sound development of the Internet industry in line with the law.

China to cut down on pornography and gambling

While I was interviewed for a newspaper article on the subject, I observed that, in a nation where the President is under fire for allowing law enforcement to eavesdrop on people who call al-Quaeda, voters are hardly likely to get behind any attempt to prevent Americans from gambling where they want. It might be a bit of an oversimplification, but I’ve learned that pithy beats laboriously analyzed any day of the week, particularly when you’re talking to a reported on deadline. Still, it’s something to ponder: do we want the government exercising China-style influence over the Internet?

I’m doing a quick hit today because I’ve been totally pre-occupied with getting http://gaming.unlv.edu ready for the big relaunch. But this story was hard to pass up. Check out the intro from the Philly Daily News:

KNOW IT’S wrong, but I feel for the lunks who got busted for operating that illegal Port Richmond casino.

You heard about these guys, right? They were nailed last week for operating a gambling parlor called “The Players Club” – so classy! – out of a Castor Avenue warehouse.

They had nine gaming tables, a poker machine, an ATM and a sixpack-per-gambler drink limit.

What they didn’t have was off-street parking.

Bad move, dudes.

Neighbors were so pissed about sharing car space with casino-goers, they tipped off City Councilman Frank DiCicco about the club. He called the vice squad, and the sting was done.

Parking will get you every time in this town.

While I don’t excuse the guys who ran the casino – the place also generated trash and noise at all hours – I can empathize with their hunger for a taste of America’s $73 billion gambling pie.

Knock off even a crumb, baby, and you’re rolling in dough.

When we Americans aren’t flushing the rent money at legal casinos, we’re betting it at the track, using it to play Powerball, or gambling it away online. When we’ve lost our last dime, we can still watch celebrities play “Texas Hold’Em” on TV.

God help us, our addiction has spread even to Iraq. According to online sports-betting organization BetUS.com, the company has seen a steady increase in Iraqi gamblers now that the U.S. government has broadened Internet access in that war-torn land.

…

“I wish I’d known it was a casino,” Port Richmond resident Pat Longacre told me Sunday, as we gazed at the shuttered club, which exudes all the glamour of an L&I clean-and-seal. “I’m tired of driving to Showboat.”

Ronnie Polaneczky | In gambling biz, all bets are off for average folks

Yeah, that drive to the Showboat can be rough.

One question I get a lot is, “When did the mob leave Las Vegas?” I usually answer that organized crime is present in every major American city (and probably every major city in the world), so it is still here.

As I’ve said before, the idea of the mob “controlling” Las Vegas was and is a bit simplistic. Certainly several people involved with organized crime (Meyer Lansky, most significantly) had hidden interests in Strip casinos, but did “the mob,” as an entity, systematically acquire, build, and control the major resorts of the Strip? I wasn’t there, so I can’t say for sure, but it sounds a bit like a conspiracy theory to me, the sort of thing that is not falsifiable–can you prove that a secret cabal of mobsters DIDN’T control Las Vegas?

So I was interested to read a story in the Star-Ledger about sports betting (which is in the headlines so much these days) and organized crime:

One operation served working-class clients in North Jersey. The other sprouted in the state’s southern end and catered to millionaire athletes.

But police say the two disparate gambling rings dismantled this month shared an attribute: organized crime.

The multimillion-dollar betting operation run by a state trooper and former NHL star Rick Tocchet had ties to the Bruno/Scarfo crime family in Philadelphia, according to the State Police. And Bergen County prosecutors said a reputed Genovese family solider oversaw a sports book that processed $1 million or more a week in bets.

When it comes to illegal sports wagering, experts say, it’s a safe bet the mob is involved.

“They may get involved in more lucrative schemes here and there, but the day-in and day-out rent is paid by the gambling,” said Kevin McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor who headed the U.S. Attorney’s organized crime strike force in New Jersey.

The takedown of both rings was the latest proof that, even with the proliferation of legalized gambling and online wagering, the mob’s stranglehold on sports gambling remains intact.
…
These days, the agent said, some of the sophisticated rings are following the lead of corporate America. “They’ve outsourced some of their labor,” he said.

Instead of shelling out thousands each month to rent and protect an apartment in the Northeast, such groups are paying meager fees for wire rooms and phone banks in places like Costa Rica, where the gambling is legal and the bookmaking operations go unnoticed.

Still unclear is how the explosion of online betting will affect traditional bookmakers.

“The mob doesn’t like competition and those groups provide easy competition,” said McCarthy, the former prosecutor who is now a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. “The mob lost control of Las Vegas. I think the same thing might happen in sports betting.”
Gambling busts show mob is still a big player

I’m not privy to the same kinds of data as those involved in law enforcement are, but I imagine that Antigua would probably take exception to the claim that bookmaking is “unnoticed” there. In fact, the Antiguan government filed suit against the United States to force the recognition of its online bookmaking.

As I said in Cutting the Wire, the whole illegal gambling/organized crime problem boils down to a fundamental ambiguity: if placing wagers isn’t a crime, but profiting from accepting them is, there isn’t much of a stigma attached to the business of illegal betting. Coupled with the fact that most citizens would prefer to see finite resources directed against higher-priority targets (terrorist groups at the top of the list), and it’s easy to see why illegal gambling flourishes.

Three-card Monte, AKA the shell game, is remarkably resilient. Hundreds of years old, if not thousands, it just keeps soldiering on. The game has apparently been revived–in a slightly different form–on the roads of Kerala, India. From newindpress:

‘Natakuth’, a sort of street gambling, which is a punishable offence under Section 15 of Kerala Gaming Act, is becoming a flourishing business in the city.

Often, students and daily wage labourers fall prey to this game, which sometimes leads to clashes.

These gambling spots also are a haven for pick-pockets as onlookers usually crowd these places.

Places like the by-lanes of Mavoor road, KSRTC bus stand and the Puthyambalam Road are the favourite haunts for these gambling gangs.

A gambling group, usually comprises three persons and is equipped with only a pen and a ‘nata’ (a thick ribbon), will earn Rs. 1,500 to 2,000 a day.

Revealing his operations, a gambler said that usually one of the gang members, pretending to be a participant in the game, will attract potential ‘customers’ by winning a game, where he will double his money.

‘‘Getting ‘convinced’ of its potential to give handsome returns, the onlookers will join the game and try their luck, but they will never get back the money,’’ he says.

This might not literally be “the oldest trick in the book,” but it is definitely one of them.

TIP: If you are anywhere in the world, and you see a group of people “gambling” in the street, and someone “hits it big,” and everyone looks at you to bet next, don’t do it.

All professional gambling games are predicated on the idea of a house advantage, so if something seems to good to be true–like natakuth, it probably is.

This is why you don’t ask for free legal advice.
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Baltimore Ravens cornerback Corey Fuller did not, according to jurors, run a gambling house, even though prosecutors said he presided over games “like a pit boss.” Did the state fail to make its case, or are juries unwilling to convict people for the “victimless” crime of running a private casino?
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s illegal casinos, to be sure, but that headline is still pretty scary. The moral: don’t break the law in China.
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I’m always fascinated by illegal gambling busts, and today’s news does not disappoint. Three illegal casinos in Hawaii have been discovered and closed.
Read the rest of this entry »

For the past two days, most of the cable news networks have been playing up President Bush’s retorts to Senator Kerry’s remarks about terrorism. Here is the original quote from CNN:

”We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance,” the article states as the Massachusetts senator’s reply.

”As a former law enforcement person, I know we’re never going to end prostitution. We’re never going to end illegal gambling. But we’re going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn’t on the rise. It isn’t threatening people’s lives every day, and fundamentally, it’s something that you continue to fight, but it’s not threatening the fabric of your life.”

Kerry was a prosecutor before he got into politics, and made fighting organized crime a priority.

Bush campaign Chairman Marc Racicot, in an appearance on CNN’s “Late Edition,” interpreted Kerry’s remarks as saying “that the war on terrorism is like a nuisance. He equated it to prostitution and gambling, a nuisance activity. You know, quite frankly, I just don’t think he has the right view of the world. It’s a pre-9/11 view of the world.”

Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie, on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” used similar language.

“Terrorism is not a law enforcement matter, as John Kerry repeatedly says. Terrorist activities are not like gambling. Terrorist activities are not like prostitution. And this demonstrates a disconcerting pre-September 11 mindset that will not make our country safer. And that is what we see relative to winning the war on terror and relative to Iraq.”

Bush campaign to base ad on Kerry terror quote

I saw Bush’s speech this morning where he said that terrorism was “not a nuisance, like gambling and prostitution.” It felt great to have the President of the United States refer to the topic of my intellectual interest as a “nuisance.” I can only imagine what Frank Fahrenkopf’s going through at the American Gaming Association.

In all fairness, Kerry did call illegal gambling a nuisance, but that nuance has been lost on most of the news people.

In all honesty, I’m surprised that the AGA hasn’t issued any kind of statement objecting to either Kerry’s remarks or the Bush camp’s spin.

Since I’ve been called the leading expert on American gaming history, I’m sure people are just dying to know what I thnk. Here is my official stance on the issue: Illegal gambling is not a nuisance: for most of US history, it was a persistent illegal market that flourishes because of the gap between public law and personal morality. Today, it is, in most states, a pernicious threat to the revenues of state-sponsored gaming businesses.

If only Kerry’s people had vetted that blurb with a gaming historian, they might have saved themselves a lot of trouble.

Another point: one of the justifications for federal anti-Internet gaming activity is that Internet gaming can be used to launder money and support international terrorism–at least that’s what the Justice Department says. So we come full circle here. Is unsanctioned gambling just a “nuisance,” or is it a serious threat to homeland security?

Like many other Americans, police in Virginia Beach like playing poker. For almost a year, they’ve been holding a monthly Texas Hold’em tournament in the Fraternal Order of Police lodge. But now, because the tournaments are apparently illegal, they will cease. From HamptonRoads.com:

The game became an issue with the FOP after the state Department of Charitable Gaming determined that the tournament was illegal and reported the matter to city prosecutors.

The gaming commission said the tournament must be shut down, or the FOP would risk losing its license to hold charity bingo and raffle events, said Paul A. Farrell, the police officer who organized the event.

Farrell said the FOP allowed him to use its lodge for the event and provided a lunch buffet for participants.

He said the ruling was a shock to him because he had been assured that the game was legal as long as he did not take a �cut� of the proceeds.

Farrell said all proceeds � generated by a $75 fee charged to each participant � were turned over to the winners of the tournament.

�I thought I was doing everything on the up and up,� he said. �I definitely paid out everything that I took in.�

Cristman said state statutes outlaw all gambling in Virginia, with four exemptions: bingo and raffles held by charitable organizations; the state lottery; off-track parimutuel betting; and games held in private homes.

The FOP game, Cristman said, does not qualify under any of the exemptions.

Poker itself is not outlawed by state statute, he said, but playing it for money anywhere but at a private residence is illegal.

Poker tournament at police lodge declared illegal, canceled

So you can play poker all you want in a private home, but if you do so in a fraternal hall, you’re breaking the law. This makes perfect sense, and is another example of the fractured approach to gaming prohibition that I discuss in Uneasy Convictions.

The thing that struck me was that the whole set-up seemed like something from the movie Rounders. A police-sponsored tournament drawing people from all over (about 150 showed up to the final two games), everyone thinking they’re experts after watching televised poker. Probably the perfect set-up for a skilled professional to make a killing.

When even the police aren’t sure if their gambling is legal, you know that there needs to be some clarification.

I think that was the name of an Archie Shepp album in the 1960s. Anyway, today I’m talking about Newport, Kentucky. Once a major stop on the national “flourishing illegal casinos and vice” circuit, the city has cleaned up its image.

The city became a vice center in the 19th century, and remained so until an anti-corruption campaign in 1961. I think I touched on this in Uneasy Convictions, because Newport was one of the top targets of Bobby Kennedy’s Justice Department. You can read all about it in Ronald Goldfarb’s Perfect Villains, Imperfect Heroes, if you are curious.

Anyway, the Cincinatti Post has a few stories about Newport today. They are:

Girls, guns and gambling

Before there was Vegas, there was Newport

Casinos didn’t go quietly into the night

Newport: Envy of the region

This is part of a series to publicize a symposium entitled “Girls, Guns and Gambling: How Ordinary Citizens Drove Vice out of Newport,” to be held at Northern Kentucky University Thursday.

This should be a fascinating evening. If I was in the Cincinatti area, I’d be there in a heartbeat.

If you were from the Maple Park, IL area, DJ’s Tavern West was the place to get some gambling done…until a May 28th bust, that is.  From the Daily Herald:

Court documents that detail the search of the tavern at 221 Main St. in Maple Park and the Yorkville home of its owner, David Weeks, paint a picture of a little Las Vegas in the cornfields.

Illinois State Police officers went undercover for a 15-month investigation of the tavern, which came to a head May 28 with the arrest of 12 people including Weeks, the bar manager, and the Maple Park village president. The Maple Park police chief was arrested about a week later.

The investigation found a complex gambling system mixed with a small-town openness, the records show.

According to court documents and officials, here is a look at how authorities say the operation worked:
Nearly three-quarters of the front room of the tavern was taken up by nine video slot machines all hooked up to pay out illegally, Melvin said. Just like in Las Vegas, patrons put cash into the machines and played until they ran out of money or decided to cash in credits.

Undercover officers said in the report winning players would tell whatever bartender was on duty how many credits they had earned and the bartender verified it by pushing a button next to the cash register, officials said.

Then money changed hands, something undercover officers said they witnessed more than 30 times.

The knob next to the cash register was wired to the video slot machines to allow resetting of the machines’ credits, the report said. Illinois State Police officer Joseph Stavola wrote in a court affidavit that the wiring was for “no purpose other than illegal gambling.”
According to court documents, police found much more to whet gamblers’ appetites.
Bartenders offered two rolls of five dice for $1. Winning rolls were based on poker categories such as a full house or four of a kind. Winners could earn free drink tokens, a six-pack of beer or for five of a kind, the cash pot, which could get as high as $500.
On Wednesdays, a vertical spinning wheel came out of the back office to offer $2 for one of the 120 lines on the wheel, according to court records. Patrons not present for the spin forfeited half of their winnings to help prime the pot for the following week’s spin.
The wheel, which was also used for local raffles, was so large that when officers raided the bar they had to disassemble it to make it fit through the front door.
Other gambling options changed by the season. In the fall, a football square pool offered a one in 100 chance for between $2 to $10 a square, court documents said. During the summer, a weekly race car pool offered a randomly selected NASCAR starting position and a percentage of the pot for those whose car finished first, second or third place.
Despite the plethora of games, there was one key reason officials focused on the Maple Park bar.
“Book making,” Melvin said. “That’s why we paid more attention.”

The Illinois Attorney General’s office estimates the video slot machines generated $700,000 a year in profits.

Officials won’t disclose how much the book making generated, but in a weekend raid on one of the duller professional sports betting times, officers seized $8,300 from the bar and $40,522 from the Yorkville home of the bar’s owner, according to court documents. Stavola wrote in court filings that a frequent patron at the bar told him Weeks netted $65,000 from the Super Bowl betting alone.

Court documents describe a complex system set up to take and pay out bets on professional sporting events. Patrons could cash checks at the bar, provided the money was going toward gambling. Bets and payouts for sporting events were kept separate from cash flow generated by other games. A cash register at the south and north end of the bar made the division possible.

Bets were primarily taken at the tavern by bar manager Michael Faber and sometimes through his cell phone, according to the documents. When he wasn’t around, bartenders would collect envelopes of money for him or pass out envelopes left by him to winning patrons. Undercover officers allege they repeatedly saw such envelope transactions and contacted Faber on his cell more than 18 times to place bets that totaled more than $2,000.

The gambling in DJ’s, as told by investigators

As a historian, stuff like this is invaluable in reconstructing the history of illegal gambling, which I think is just as important as legal gambling in understanding how Americans approach gambling. 

They didn’t, unfortunately, take action on the mystery mammal.