A Brooklyn-based illegal online gambling business concern that was allegedly below 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 uncertain an indictment that charged quintet defendants for their roles in “Rhino Sports.”
This was a “price-per-head” bookmaking business, allegedly overseen past a reputed Lucchese soldier, the aptly named Susan Anthony Villani, 57.
Villani has a story of gambling-related arrests geological dating backward to 1988. In 2004, he went digital, according to the indictment.
Rhino Sports ran for 16 years until 2020, and was used past around 400 to 1,300 gamblers a week, to the highest degree of whom were based in New York City.
What’s Price-Per-Head Bookmaking?
Illegal play and extortion are steady and dependable revenue generators for the New York Mafia. But inwards recent years, the Mob has moved its traditional street-corner bookmaking operations online.
The “price-per-head” bookmaking simulation typically involves agent-bookmakers who render customers usernames and passwords that net ball them access offshore websites where they tin position bets.
No financial transactions are made online. But inside information of bets are stored and tracked on the site. Many of these seaward sites are based inwards Costa Rica, where they are legal, and this was the display case with the Rhino Sports site.
Collections and payouts are made inward person, past the agents. Indebted gamblers are often “persuaded” to borrow money at luxuriously interest group from Sicilian Mafia loan sharks to stay fresh gambling.
Villani’s bookmaker-agents included members and associates of the Lucchese criminal offense phratry and other La Cosa Nostra families, according to prosecutors.
Also named in the bill of indictment are Joseph Louis Barrow “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 court of law 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 idea 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 inwards link with involvement in various criminal schemes. These included illegal gambling, money laundering, and attempted extortion.
“As alleged, this deal demonstrates how members of La Cosa Nostra uphold to mesh inwards illegal gambling operations and money laundering money-marking schemes that direct to threats of violence against anyone who stands in their way of life and has resulted in millions of dollars inward profits to the Luchese offence 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.