A Brooklyn-based illegal online gaming business organization that was allegedly under the shelter of the Lucchese Crime Family offered bettors “twisted customer services,” prosecutors clained Wednesday. Their policy was, “Do what we say or face terrifying consequences.”
That’s according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. On Wednesday, it unsealed an bill of indictment that supercharged quintet defendants for their roles in “Rhino Sports.”
This was a “price-per-head” bookmaking business, allegedly overseen by a reputed Lucchese soldier, the aptly named Susan Brownell Anthony Villani, 57.
Villani has a account of gambling-related arrests dating endorse to 1988. In 2004, he went digital, according to the indictment.
Rhino Sports ran for 16 years until 2020, and was used by around 400 to 1,300 gamblers a week, to the highest degree of whom were based in New House of York City.
What’s Price-Per-Head Bookmaking?
Illegal gaming and extortion are calm and dependable revenue generators for the New York Mafia. But inwards recent years, the Mob has moved its traditional street-corner bookmaking trading operations online.
The “price-per-head” bookmaking posture typically involves agent-bookmakers who gift customers usernames and passwords that permit them access code seaward websites where they tin localise bets.
No financial transactions are made online. But details of bets are stored and tracked on the site. Many of these offshore sites are based in Costa Rica, where they are legal, and this was the slip with the Rhino Sports site.
Collections and payouts are made inwards person, by the agents. Indebted gamblers are often “persuaded” to borrow money at heights involvement from Cosa Nostra loan sharks to preserve gambling.
Villani’s bookmaker-agents included members and associates of the Lucchese criminal offense household and other La Cosa Nostra families, according to prosecutors.
Also named in the bill of indictment are Joe Louis “Tooch” Tucci, Jr., 59, and Dennis Filizzola, 58, who worked as factor “muscle,” collecting money from customers.
James “Quick” Coumoutsos, 59. and Michael “Platinum” Praino, 44, are described inwards lawcourt documents as “significant bookmakers and moneymakers for the business.”
Pandemic Pivot
In 2020, as the pandemic hit, the FBI wiretapped Villani. The reputed Lucchese made man was recorded discussing the thought od diversifying inro gambling casino gaming instead of sports betting at a clip when to the highest degree sports were canceled.
Villani and his codefendants are supercharged with racketeering inward connection with participation in various felonious schemes. These included illegal gambling, money laundering, and attempted extortion.
“As alleged, this carry on demonstrates how members of La Cosa Nostra go on to operate inward illegal gambling trading operations and money laundering money-marking schemes that track to threats of violence against anyone who stands inward their way of life and has resulted in millions of dollars inwards profits to the Luchese criminal offense family,” stated US Attorney Breon Peace.
“These charges illustrate this Office’s continued dedication to rooting La Cosa Nostra out of New York,” he added.
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