Major Bust in New Jersey

Author: Simon Dexter

In a week when the final series of the Sopranos was released on dvd, fans of the show regularly referred to as ‘the greatest television drama of all time’ may have suspected that perhaps New Jersey was a nice, quiet place after all. That was until a major police bust at the poker room of Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino and Hotel, believed to be the site of an illegal bookmaking ring. Unlike Nevada, sports betting is illegal in New Jersey.

Police have arrested eighteen people and five more are being sought by authorities. Four of those arrested are allegedly associated with Philadelphia mob boss, Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino. The men are identified as Andrew Micali, Anthony Nicodemo, Michael Lancellotti Vincent Procopio, of Brigantine. Tony Soprano may not have been pleased that such an operation was taking place so close to his patch, but how did it work?

According to police, the ring engaged in massive money laundering with the direct assistance of rogue casino employees who didn’t record some exchanges of cash and gambling chips. This is apparently a common method of money laundering at casinos known as chip washing.

In effect, it involves taking cash, turning it into poker chips, ‘washing’ the chips by betting and then turning them in before taking cash out. Since March of last year, police estimate the gang have taken more than million in bets on college basketball and football games.

Tags: gambling laws, US Legislation

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 22nd, 2007 at 11:57 am and is filed under News & Promotions Blog, Poker News.