Gambling Addiction

Manhattan man pleads guilty to stealing to feed his lottery habit


His unlucky numbers turned out to be 5 and 15.

A compulsive lottery player pleaded guilty today to stealing $2.3 million from condo and co-op buildings he managed in Manhattan to feed his love of randomly drawn ping-pong balls.

Richard Bassik, 67, will be sentenced to 5 to 15 years behind bars after accepting a deal that could keep him locked up until death. With time already served, Bassik’s best hope for freedom won’t come until early 2015.

"I hope when he gets out, it’ll be on his own two feet and not in a pine box," said defense lawyer Michael Soshnick. "That would be a particularly pathetic way to pass into the next world."


Bassik admitted to pocketing the seven-digit loot between January 2005 to August
2009, using his property management company to raid accounts of 19 different properties.

The buildings suffered between $7,000 and $881,000 in losses and Bassik said he’d often cover his tracks by moving money from account to account.

"I claimed these were innocent mistakes, when in fact, they were thefts," Bassik told the court after pleading guilty to 14 counts that included scheme to defraud and grand larceny.

Almost all of the stolen money went to a variety of lottery games he played in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Soshnick said.

"It was a weekly ritual for him," Soshnick said. "He didn’t have any viable defense. He was clearly guilty as charged."

Bassik, who wore a short-sleeve shirt, glasses and close-crop haircut to court this afternoon, will be formally sentenced on Oct. 15.

Three women in court today said they live in buildings Bassik ripped off. One of the victims said she was livid after learning Bassik had a previous conviction -- busted in 1976 for kidnapping a 6-year-old boy and demanding a $100,000 ransom.

"He needs to be off the streets," said the female homeowner, who declined to give her name.