00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 Start off with a sports bookie operation
00:07 busted in Staten Island,
00:10 finding out millions and millions of dollars,
00:12 exchanging hands.
00:14 Yeah, I mean, look, these still exist.
00:17 I think it's important for people to know
00:18 that these still exist.
00:19 There's always gonna be a market for this.
00:22 And first tell us more about the story
00:24 and then we'll dive into kind of why they do exist.
00:26 - Yeah, for sure, Craig.
00:29 The New York Police Department arrested 17 people
00:32 in Staten Island this past week,
00:34 part of an alleged illegal sports betting ring
00:37 run by the Gambino crime family.
00:39 So the Attorney General's office came out,
00:42 unsealed this document with 84 counts of indictments
00:46 across 17 individuals,
00:48 allegedly saying that there was this
00:51 sophisticated sports betting operation
00:53 with an offshore sports book
00:54 and then the subsequent loan sharking operation
00:56 where members of this alleged mob would go
01:00 and try to get money from the people
01:01 that had been betting with them.
01:03 Allegedly entangled roughly 70 bettors
01:06 and every week there would be about $500,000 in loans
01:10 that they were making, trying to collect payments on.
01:13 So a very old school kind of scenario here
01:17 with a bookie and the Italian mob
01:20 and Staten Island and things like that.
01:22 And you talked about, you know,
01:24 people are surprised maybe this still goes on.
01:28 You know, you're alluding to the fact
01:29 that New York legalized sports betting in January, 2022.
01:33 These crimes allegedly took place in September of that year
01:37 all the way to March of last year.
01:38 So yeah, like you said, it still goes on
01:40 and I'm sure we'll get into more why.
01:42 - Yeah, and let's do that now
01:44 because I think that, you know,
01:47 for new people who are watching this show,
01:49 maybe the new sports better, let's be honest, Sam,
01:52 there are a lot of folks that are streaming us,
01:53 they're 20 years old, 21, 19, you know,
01:57 prior to the offshore sports books, prior to offshore,
02:02 again, kids may not be familiar with that as well,
02:05 which were just basically sports betting
02:06 has been around for a long time,
02:07 you just had to do it illegally.
02:09 There were literally people back in the day,
02:11 back in my day that you pick up the phone,
02:14 you make a phone call and Sam,
02:16 the key to this with the sports betting
02:18 is that the bookies role in this
02:21 was essentially letting you bet
02:23 without having to put any money up.
02:26 So you just make a call and you say,
02:27 give me X amount on something.
02:30 They say, yes, no, maybe, I don't know how it would work.
02:34 And I think that is still the lure for people.
02:37 But I would tell you on a number of different levels, Sam,
02:40 why that is bad.
02:42 Number one, it's illegal.
02:43 Number two, you have no, you know,
02:46 you have no backing sometimes for the money.
02:48 And when you're betting legally,
02:49 you deposit money into an account,
02:51 you can afford to lose money.
02:53 And here in this case,
02:54 and we found out with Shohei Otani's interpreter
02:56 the hard way here,
02:57 sometimes you can't afford to lose
02:59 the money that you're betting.
03:01 - Yeah, Craig, these are cautionary tales for sure.
03:03 It could be enticing to have,
03:06 let's say they start you off with $500 of credit a week,
03:08 you bet on all these sports,
03:10 by the end of the week, you're down.
03:11 Okay, I'll try to make it back next week.
03:13 Maybe you call your guy and,
03:15 but eventually they come to collect for sure.
03:17 And with apps like DraftKings and FanDuel,
03:20 you know, you deposit $10, $20 at a time,
03:22 you lose the money, you have to put it back in.
03:24 The money is there being exchanged
03:26 before you can actually put the bet down.
03:27 So that's why these types of things
03:30 are really attractive to bettors as well.
03:32 You know, some people who bet a lot of money
03:34 can get limited on these apps as well,
03:36 but it's attractive to bookies
03:38 because it's a really easy way to pile up debt.
03:40 Now, what I thought was really interesting
03:42 in this whole thing is when they unsealed the documents,
03:45 they showed this transcripts of all these calls
03:47 back and forth with these guys talking
03:50 about how this would work,
03:51 talking about letting someone bet more and more
03:54 until it's time to collect.
03:55 You know, he had a really good week,
03:57 it'll all come back to us next week.
03:58 And then one really interesting nugget as well,
04:00 talking about, hey, this guy's been winning too much
04:03 on certain kinds of boxing bets,
04:05 certain specific rounds where you can make a lot of money
04:07 if you really know what you're doing.
04:08 So you're saying, hey, we need to limit him
04:10 and make sure he's just betting straight bets
04:12 and money line bets.
04:13 So for those out there who are, you know,
04:15 banging the drum of legal sports books are limiting us,
04:18 the offshore ones are limiting you as well.
04:20 As long as you're winning a lot of money,
04:21 they wanna make sure that you're losing.
04:23 So these folks face up to 25 years in prison,
04:27 numerous charges stemming from, you know,
04:29 enterprise corruption, criminal usury,
04:32 gambling promotion in the first degree.
04:34 So they're in for a lengthy sentence most likely,
04:38 they'll next appear in court next month.
04:40 (upbeat music)
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