News

Sunday, 10 October 2010 10:24

Things took a bad turn this week for ten Canadian mafia operatives involved in a huge online bookmaking operation when they pleaded guilty to charges brought against them.

The charges were brought against the ten men who were involved in an illegal online bookmaking network that was operating via the Internet. The illegal operation had made a $26 million profit from wagers placed by punters over a period of seventeen months. The operation had taken more than 800,000 bets in that time and is believed to be the largest operation of its kind to date, not just in Canada but actually the largest in the world.

The whole operation worked by allowing gamblers to place their bets on credit once they had obtained approval by agents, who made checks to verify the gamblers were able to pay their debts if they lost money. Backing up the agents were members of the mafia in Montreal, who collected a percentage of all the profits for providing the agents with security. The Montreal mafia were responsible for bankrolling the whole operation and provided physical leverage if any gambler failed to pay their debts.

The operation covered a variety of sports betting from events including the hugely popular US sports of baseball, football and basketball. Gamblers placed their bets online through a website and call centre run by the mafia using payment processors to move the money around.

The arrests came after a seventeen month investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Eight of the men who were arrested and brought before Judge Claude Leblond in a Quebec court pleaded guilty to the charge of illegal bookmaking, although those identified as the ringleaders faced more serious charges. Carmelo Cannistraro and Domenico Velenosi were both charged with criminal organisation crimes in addition to that of illegal bookmaking, to which they both pleaded guilty.

The charge of illegal bookmaking carries a maximum two year prison sentence. The more serious charge of organized criminal activity carries a fourteen year maximum prison sentence.

Originally, the criminal case was scheduled for a November court hearing in this year. However, with the men charged all pleading guilty, the necessity for a full trial has been eliminated. This means that the ten mafia men will go before a judge to be sentenced on 19th January 2011.