"These details were buried in a 22-page federal indictment unsealed in Brooklyn on Thursday that accused more than 30 defendants of wire fraud, operating illegal gambling businesses, and money laundering conspiracy. The case offers an inside look at the high-tech, high-stakes world of underground gambling operations that continue to thrive despite the proliferation of online betting. The "highly sophisticated and lucrative fraud scheme" started in 2019 with weekly poker games that targeted wealthy people in posh neighborhoods of New York City and beyond."
"There was the "Lexington Avenue Game," which was largely controlled by the Bonanno crime family and took place in an apartment building where a penthouse is available for $30,000 per month. The indictment said the Gambino crime family ran the "Washington Place Game" - referring to a Greenwich Village brownstone that sold last year for $17 million and had been featured in "Keeping Up with the Kardashians.""
Federal prosecutors named more than 30 defendants on charges including wire fraud, illegal gambling, and money laundering. The scheme began in 2019 with weekly high-stakes poker games targeting wealthy players in upscale New York neighborhoods and luxury locations like Las Vegas and East Hampton. Organized crime families ran separate games in expensive properties; conspirators used rigged shuffling machines and an X-ray poker table to cheat players and generated more than $7 million. Prominent NBA figures were hired as "face cards" to lure wealthy victims, and security details, nicknamed enforcers, guarded the venues and managed access.
Read at Business Insider
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