quadriplegic social worker.Attaboy cops! Go get those criminals!
I think there is an important distinction here. This is a quote from the article:
Authorities described a multi-tiered gambling organization with Genovese crime family figures at the top and a network of operatives at the bottom taking bets and making a commission on the take, officials said.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I have yet to hear of a person placing bets with a bookie to be arrested on gambling charges. It appears that these people were acting as agents or bookmakers - thus the charge of "promoting gambling".
I think there is a key distinction here and one that you should correct in your story. There are lots of folks who place bets - whether online or with a corner bookie - that would read your comments and think they are in some kind of danger of being arrested.
Its a very simple but important distinction between placing bets and taking bets. In this case, and all others I have heard of, the ones in trouble are the ones taking bets.
I went to school with alot of these guys
The charges stem from promoting gambling, money laundering, racketeering, bribery, agg. assualt, and drugs to top it off. This started months ago and people being aressted now are more low level. Your talking about the under boss of the Lucchese fam.. This is real big shit. The Ny sweep was a couple months ago too, which includes players from Italy. Just in N.J. alone the ring was estimated at 2.2 billion.
Growing up with these kids was a blast and it wasn't unusal for their fathers to be missing for a couple of months. I went to school with the underboss son (Perna), the family actually was on probation, so their pretty screwed. Getting pinched was part of the deal back then. The problem is after so many arrest and with their over the top spending it was bound to bite them in the ass.
This is the real deal, no doubt about it
Their are still hundred of agent in N.J., with no connection.
Both parents and so-called community leaders should spend more time polishing their own morals and ethics, and less time privately and publicly bashing what, at heart, is really a hobby to most. My worry, though I am "wagering" that both the American public and government officials will soon get smart, is that the negative stigma attached to Internet gambling will never go away. It's just fine for a person to spend $100 a month on scrapbooking, quilt making, reading, the latest DVDs, etc., etc., but not acceptable to spend $100 per month on a hobby that can potentially earn hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
The hypocrisy is nauseating, though not surprising. For example, I reside in Illinois, and recently the Illinois government banned smoking in any public place. One must stand 30 feet from any public building before lighting up. So now even casual smokers are made to look like the corner drug pusher. Still, the Illinois government has done nothing regarding fast food/junk food freaks. And I suppose that nothing ever will be done until first all fast/junk food carry a label that reads: "SURGEON GENERAL WARNING: Excessive intake of this food item may cause obesity and other health problems." Tobacco is just an easier evil to blame for the high cost of health care.
While Internet gambling is arguably only a tangible pursuit if the player is winning, how come the US government and citizenry have no problem with the hordes of lottery players, some who are very, very addicted. For a country in debt and economic turmoil to not legalize and then tax American-based on-line wagering is yet another idiotic, yet predictable, mistake.