South Carolina: Amodio to plead guilty; feds indicate investigation targets gambling, extortion

Amodio to plead guilty; feds indicate investigation targets gambling, extortion

By TIM FLACH and JOHN MONK

 

 

February 12, 2015

 

 

 

 

Former South Congaree Police Chief Jason Amodio, right, at his bond hearing in July 2014. He is accused of accepting bribes from former Lexington Town Councilman Danny Frazier, seated, in exchange for returning seized gaming machines to Frazier. THE STATE — FILE PHOTOGRAPH

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2015/02/12/4784662_anti-corruption-probe-targets.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

COLUMBIA SC — A corruption investigation is focusing on illegal gambling as well as extortion and fraud among law enforcement and political officials in the Midlands, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

 The revelation came in a proposed plea agreement with former South Congaree Police Chief Jason Amodio that was filed by prosecutors in federal court this week.

It’s the first indication of the scope of the joint federal-state probe that produced charges so far against three Lexington County officials – including former sheriff James Metts – as well as a restauranteur and a former Richland County deputy turned online gaming businessman.

The agreement gave no further information about the investigation.

Amodio is willing to plead guilty to two charges, the agreement says:

• Making a false statement to a federal grand jury in 2012 in connection with money received from an unidentified person that he called a loan to buy a truck. The panel was looking into bribes and kickbacks at that time, the agreement said.

• Misconduct in office, a state violation related to accepting payments for illegal gaming machines seized while he was police chief.

Federal and state prosecutors are recommending four years probation, saying Amodio provided “substantial” assistance in the investigation and still does so.

Probation on both charges would be served concurrently, with Amodio under confinement at his home for eight months. That is in lieu of up to five years in prison on the federal charge and up to 10 years on the state charge.

The deal must be accepted by a federal judge. No hearing on it is set.

Amodio must continue to answer investigators’ questions and provide material about “unlawful activities” as well as pass lie detector tests under the deal.

Failure to to that would void the agreement, subjecting him to new charges and imprisonment.
While the agreement doesn’t name who gave money to Amodio, former Lexington Town Councilman Danny Frazier is accused by a State Grand Jury of making such payments.

The plea agreement is dated June 18 but only made public Tuesday. It was reached the day after Amodio, Metts, Frazier and restaurant owner Greg Leon were indicted.

Metts awaits sentencing after pleading guilty Dec. 30 to a federal charge stemming from interference with the handling of two illegal immigrants at the county jail he formerly oversaw.

Amodio was police chief in the town of 2,300 residents near Columbia Metropolitan Airport for 11 years.

He quit the post in May 2013, citing unspecified personal and family reasons.

His resignation followed a raid on Town Hall by FBI and SLED agents in which unspecified items were seized.
 Amodio was a West Columbia police officer before going to South Congaree as second-in-command of its police in 2011, becoming chief 15 months later.

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2015/02/12/4784662_anti-corruption-probe-targets.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2015/02/12/4784662_anti-corruption-probe-targets.html?rh=1

 

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SC man guilty in deaths of wife, gambling partner

Associated Press

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

 

COLUMBIA — A Richland County jury has convicted a Columbia man accused of killing his wife and business partner.

 

The jury deliberated for three hours Tuesday before returning a guilty verdict in the trial of Brett Parker.

Prosecutors say Parker killed his wife, Tammy, in April 2012 and tried to frame it on business partner Bryan Capnerhurst. The two men were said to have been involved in an illegal gambling ring.
Parker testified last week that Capnerhurst came into his home and killed his wife, then demanded money from Parker’s safe. Parker says he got a gun from on top of the safe and killed Capnerhurst.

In closing arguments, prosecutors painted Brett Parker as a cold-blooded killer who bet that police wouldn’t be able to unravel the crime scene he staged.

“He bet wrong,” prosecutor Luck Campbell said.

Parker’s lawyers said investigators immediately became transfixed by Parker’s illegal gambling ring and made sure they only cared about evidence that might link him to the crime. He said Richland County deputies panicked after three months passed and people became restless because there were no arrests.

“Because of the pressure and the publicity they had to indict the person they indicted,” defense attorney Dave Fedor said.

Parker’s wife, Tammy, and his business partner Bryan Capnerhurst were found dead in the Parkers’ home in April 2012. Brett Parker told investigators that Capnerhurst came into his house looking for money, killing his wife, then holding him at gunpoint. Parker said he was able to get a loaded gun he kept on top of a safe and shoot Capnerhurst.

Prosecutors said Parker staged much of that scene, shooting his wife before Capnerhurst arrived, then getting a second gun to kill Capnerhurst, putting the weapon used to kill his wife in Capnerhurst’s hand.

To poke holes in Parker’s version, Campbell pointed out in her closing argument that gunshot residue was found in the blinds of Parker’s home, likely ending up there after Parker killed his wife and peeked out to see when Capnerhurst would arrive.

Campbell also pointed out one of several shots that hit Capnerhurst left a golf ball size hole in his arm. A medical examiner testified the wound would have caused Capnerhurst to let go of anything in his hand.

“Their defense is Brett Parker is too stupid to have committed these murders. And ladies and gentlemen for that final defense I agree with one thing — he’s too stupid to get away with it,” Campbell said.

Parker himself testified, denying he killed his wife. Parker’s 14-year-old daughter also testified that she saw her father give Capnerhurst a gun similar to the one found in his hand the day he died.

Prosecutors called several friends of Capnerhurst to testify and say he didn’t like guns and never owned a weapon.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2013-05-28/sc-man-guilty-deaths-wife-gambling-partner

 

SC Sheriff: 107 gaming machines seized

The Associated Press

Last modified: 2012-08-17T13:19:19Z

Published: Friday, Aug. 17, 2012

Copyright 2012 . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Greenville Sheriff's deputies and State Law Enforcement Division agents have seized 107 video gambling machines at three internet cafe sites.

Greenville County Sheriff Steve Loftis says the machines look more like computers than the old video poker machines. Loftis says undercover agents found most are slot games with cash payouts.

Greenville prosecutor Walt Wilkins says the internet cafes are gambling houses and law enforcement intends to halt the illegal gambling.

No arrests have been made.
 Twelve years ago, the state Supreme Court pulled the plug on video poker. Defenders in courtrooms across the state argue the new machines are legal as long as they promote products or services.   http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/17/4734448/sc-sheriff-107-gaming-machines.html  

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South Carolina’s Gambling Underworld Mixes Politics, Corruption

August 16, 2012

South Carolina’s Gambling Underworld Mixes Politics, Corruption

by Chad Hills

 

South Carolina’s history with gambling is not pretty. Nearly 33,000 video poker machines were shut down, banned and removed from South Carolina, back in 2000, due to a South Carolina Supreme Court legal decision that found the pro-video poker referendum to be unconstitutional “because the state does not provide for a ballot initiative in its constitution.”

Many families were glad to see the video poker machines go, as they had quickly become addictive and problematic.

Here we are in 2012, and video gambling machines are re-surfacing in South Carolina – this time under the cloak of “sweepstakes machines.”

Where do politics, gambling and corruption mix in South Carolina?

Former Mayor Bob Coble is now lobbying for Pace-O-Matic, a manufacturer of “sweepstakes machines” being used to reintroduce video gambling to South Carolina in “Internet Sweepstakes Cafes.” Richland County Councilman Damon Jeter, failed to disclose he’s on the payroll of sweepstakes promoter, Magic Minutes. Lexington Town Councilman Danny Frazier was caught red-handed, providing instructions on how to set up shop for illegal gambling machines. And the list grows …

Here are several news reports with more detail:

• Say It Ain’t So, Mayor Bob: Video Gambling’s New Payroll” [Free Times, City Watch, 6/13/12]
• Stacking the Deck: Politicians’ Ties Complicate Efforts to Stop Return of Video Poker [Free Times, 8/1/12]
• A River (of Sleaze) Runs Through It: Video Poker 2.0 [Free Times, 8/15/12]
• Key Figure In Alleged SC Gambling Ring Responds [FitsNews.com, 8/15/12]
• Audio recordings tie Lexington councilman to video poker business [WIS-TV, Channel 10, 8/15-16/12 ... reporting to be continued]

Meanwhile, a tragic commentary was playing out in the background of this illegal gambling fiasco. A federal court in Columbia sentenced a South Carolina woman to 2.5 years in prison for embezzling money nearly $400,000 from the South Carolina Hospitality Association to support her “decades-long addiction to gambling.”

As a result of the missing funds, according to a suicide note, the hospitality association’s director needlessly took his own life. Yet, one more poignant reminder how gambling addiction can negatively impact more than just the lives of gamblers.

Recent news of South Carolina’s gambling underworld reminds me of the political gambling-corruption debacle which unfolded in Alabama back in 2010.

What did Alabama’s politicians and officials learn?

Don’t touch gambling!

Dig Deeper …

• Don’t Touch that Thing! | CitizenLink
• Alabama Gambling Corruption; Gilley’s Can of Worms | CitizenLink
• Gambling and Crime Gambling and Organized Crime
• Gambling A Bigger Problem Than Alcohol Among U.S. Adults
• Quick Guide to Gambling Articles – CitizenLink

http://www.citizenlink.com/2012/08/16/south-carolinas-gambling-underworld-mixes-politics-corruption/

The danger of video gambling isn’t the gambling

Posted on Wed, Aug. 08, 2012

Scoppe: The danger of video gambling isn’t the gambling

By CINDI ROSS SCOPPE
Associate Editor

LIQUOR IS already legal, and the government gets its take, so why shouldn’t we legalize marijuana? And cocaine? After all, they’re no more subject to abuse; some would argue they’re less dangerous. Besides, you can’t stop people from using them, so we ought to legalize and tax them.

Substitute “lottery” for “liquor” and “video gambling” for “marijuana” and “cocaine,” and you have the favorite argument for looking the other way as so-called “sweepstakes” games sweep across our state. To borrow from one-time Texas gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams, if exploitation is inevitable, relax and enjoy it. Or at least profit from it.

It makes a lot of sense. Until you take, oh, about three seconds to think about it. Then you see that the logic is deeply flawed.

Not the part about the lottery being gambling. Of course it is, and our state has no business running a gambling enterprise. If I had a magic wand, I’d shut down the ironically named “education” lottery, which doesn’t seem to have taught state officials anything as it turned our government into a bookie that profits from the desperation of the mathematically challenged and fueled the defund-education movement by giving people an excuse to pretend that we’re pouring gobs of free money into the public schools.

The logical flaw involves the notion that once we say yes to one vice, we ought to say yes to all of them. Just throw our hands up in despair. When someone mugs you and takes your keys, be sure to give him directions to your house.

Beyond that, though, video gambling isn’t simply more gambling. It’s worse gambling. Not just because its flashing lights and bells and instant-gratification payouts make it far more addictive than scratching off little cards or tuning in to a daily drawing in six hours. Not just because it’s so easy to blow your entire paycheck at a single sitting. Ignore all of the social costs — after all, we in South Carolina don’t believe we are our brothers’ keeper — and you’re left with the most dangerous aspect of video gambling: the way it corrupts our political system.

Don’t think for an instant that our state’s police and prosecutors have come together in opposition to the reemergence of video gambling because they’re morally opposed to gambling. The law enforcement community, which has more than enough to keep it busy with violent crimes, has launched a coordinated assault on video gambling because officials understand how quickly an unregulated, cash-only business can get out of control. They’ve seen it happen.

Video gambling was born of corruption. A powerful state senator, who would escape federal extortion charges only by dying before the indictments could be issued, slipped what he called a “technical” change into state law that legalized one of the most addictive forms of gambling on earth.

Over the next decade, the rogue industry grew into one of the most potent political forces in our state by ignoring what meager laws we had and pumping hundreds of millions of dollars of its ill-gotten gains into political campaigns. At its heyday, it was admitting to revenue equal to half the state budget. It managed to take out a governor and nearly take over the Legislature.



But that was then. Video gambling 1.0. This is, as Charleston’s Post and Courier recently put it, 2.0. Nothing like that would ever happen again, you think.

Think again. It’s already happening.

We already knew about some of the re-emergent industry’s efforts to buy up the political establishment — putting former SLED Chief Reggie Lloyd, former Columbia Mayor Bob Coble and current Richland County Councilman Damon Jeter on the payroll. Those are just the ones we know about. Last week, in an article explaining how the industry’s growing web of political connections will make it difficult to tighten the state’s anti-gambling laws, The Free Times’ Corey Hutchins told us about Lexington Town Councilman Danny Frazier.

The article says that Mr. Frazier “is overseeing a network of sweepstakes cafes and back-room video poker parlors.” Mr. Frazier didn’t return my phone message, but he told Mr. Hutchins that he doesn’t make any money from video gambling, although he said he could help would-be operators get in touch with the right people. Which he appeared to be doing in a series of phone conversations that someone recorded and gave to the newspaper, and law enforcement. Mr. Frazier told Mr. Hutchins he didn’t recall making the most outrageous comments, but he didn’t deny the authenticity of the recordings.

The excerpts provide a fascinating look inside the “sweepstakes” industry, which has hired the likes of Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Coble to insist that it’s operating within the law. In them, Mr. Frazier tells potential business associates they need to get in the business now, before the Legislature acts to shut it down.

He describes how he set up limited-liability corporations to operate the gambling operations, saying “I can’t put it under my name” because of “the way it looks.”

He explains that sweepstakes operators don’t have to worry about law enforcement in Lexington County because he helped get the South Congaree police chief and some magistrates their jobs.

He displays the sort of bare-knuckles bravado that we’ve come to associate with higher-profile Lexington County friends of video gambling, at one point issuing what Mr. Hutchins describes as something of a warning to public officials such as magistrates about trying to get out: “‘Let me tell you something. If you’re going to play the game you got to play the game all the way through,’ he says. ‘You can’t get there and then say, “Well, I’m here now, I want to play Mr. Goody-Goody. It don’t work that way.’”

He advises a would-be operator to put the machines in the back room of a business, behind a sign that says “Employees Only,” and to keep the place clean and provide black lights, beverages and snacks — so the players will feel like they’re in Vegas. But don’t try to put them in upper-class neighborhoods. “You’ll get complaints in the rich neighborhoods,” he says. “The lower and middle? They love it. They’ll spend their whole f#!king paycheck.”

So far, the Lexington Town Council hasn’t waded into the video gambling debate. But if it does, Mr. Frazier has a ready argument for rolling out the red carpet. He told Mr. Hutchins it wasn’t fair for the state to have a monopoly on gambling. “‘People are going to gamble no matter what,’ Frazier says. ‘Why don’t you tax it and take advantage of it?’”

But then, you knew he was going to say that, didn’t you?


http://www.thestate.com/2012/08/08/v-print/2388932/scoppe-the-danger-of-video-gambling.html

Admitted embezzler tells her side

Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012

Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012

EXCLUSIVE

EXCLUSIVE: Admitted embezzler tells her side

Parties agree on restitution; lawyer says Sponseller knew nothing of crimes

By NOELLE PHILLIPS - nophillips@thestate.com

By NOELLE PHILLIPS The State

A former S.C. Hospitality Association accountant who embezzled money to support a gambling addiction was introduced to video poker at Columbia bars and restaurants in the late 1990s.

When video poker was banned in South Carolina stores and gaming halls in 2000, Duncan turned to the Internet.

“Scratch-off games also became a hobby, but nothing fueled her more than the secret life she lived through online video poker gambling,” Columbia attorney Greg Harris wrote.

 

 

- Tim Dominick /tdominick@thestate.com

 

The details of what drove Duncan to steal from her employer come from documents filed in anticipation of her sentencing Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Her attorney told The State newspaper she is expected to agree to repay $367,508 to the restaurant, bar and hotel lobbying group.

Harris filed the documents in an attempt to convince a judge to reduce the sentence for his client, who pleaded guilty in April to wire fraud and tax evasion. The filing includes a descriptive narrative of Duncan’s life and how she became a gambling addict. That addiction led her to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars and to blow every penny on video poker and slots.
 Duncan blames sexual abuse by her father, a painful divorce, a lifetime of financial trouble and a sometimes abusive relationship with her current husband. The State newspaper has reported that James Duncan paid a fine in August 2006 after being charged with simple assault in connection with a domestic violence incident. Duncan was captivated by video poker games she played with friends, and played frequently, Harris wrote. The games were banned in 2000, but “for Mrs. Duncan, the ban came too late.”
Duncan turned to online gambling, the documents said.

Duncan, 42, has been free on a $25,000 bond since her guilty plea.

The Hotel Association conducted an audit that found nearly $500,000 missing from its accounts, but attorneys negotiated the reduced repayment amount of $367,508, Harris said. It’s a debt that Duncan will not escape, and it will hang over her head the rest of her life, he said.

“It’s either pay it off or death,” Harris said about the restitution.

The U.S. Secret Service’s investigation into missing money at the Hospitality Association came to light in February when its former executive director, Tom Sponseller, went missing. He was found dead in a room off the parking garage of his Lady Street office building. He had committed suicide, leaving behind a three-page note that described Duncan’s confession of stealing the money and the investigation.

The two had a close relationship, often eating lunch and taking cigarette breaks together. When Duncan pleaded guilty, Assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Holliday said investigators found sexual pictures of Duncan on Sponseller’s computer, but she denied that they had a sexual relationship.

In the court documents filed this week, Duncan’s attorney twice explains that she has worked to separate Sponseller’s name from the theft.

“Like many people who knew Sponseller, Duncan was horrified to learn of his death,” the motion said. “She has worked hard to clear his good name, and to show that he had no knowledge or involvement in her crimes.”

Duncan, the middle sister of three girls, was born and raised in Auburn, N.Y. In high school, she was an honor roll student, cheerleader and ski team member.

“Despite her facade of normalcy and success, the family hid terrible secrets,” the motion said.

Duncan hid her father’s sexual abuse from her mother, only recently admitting it while receiving counseling for the gambling addiction, the motion said. Her father left the family when she was 12, leaving her mother to struggle alone in raising the three girls, including the oldest, who is mentally disabled.

Duncan dropped out of Niagara University in New York after she became pregnant. She and her husband moved from Buffalo to Columbia in 1995 to start a new life in a more affordable area, the document said. But they divorced a few years later.

Duncan hid her gambling addiction when she married for the second time in 1999.

“Once again, the family facade appeared normal, but Mrs. Duncan’s secrets ran deep,” the motion said. “She played video poker and slot almost every night after she put her children to bed, and while her husband worked the night shift. Sometimes, she played at work when she thought she could hide it from co-workers.”

Duncan became so obsessed that she needed more money to pay for her online bets.

She opened a secret, personal checking account and began funneling money from the Hospitality Association into it. An analysis of Duncan’s bank records found hundreds of diverted Hospitality Association checks and credit card refunds going into her account as well as hundreds of offshore wire transfers going out to gambling payment processors, the motion said.

Those offshore accounts served as various shell companies for an Australian online casino called SilverOakCasino.com, the motion said.

Duncan faces a maximum of 23 years in prison and $350,000 in fines, but under federal sentencing guidelines her sentence will be between two and three years, Harris said.

Judges always demand that people repay stolen money, said Holliday, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Because the amount Duncan will be ordered to repay is so large, it’s unlikely the judge will assess an additional fine, he said.

Duncan’s earning potential once she completes her prison sentence is low, all involved agree. Few employers will want to hire a gambling addict who embezzled money from her former boss. Harris said Duncan has found some manual labor work since she was fired.


The Hospitality Association realizes any payment will trickle in slowly over the course of Duncan’s life.

Last spring, association leaders briefly considered trying to recover money from her but decided it would be a “waste of time” given that she gambled away everything she took, said Rick Erwin, the Hospitality Association’s board chairman.

“If there were resources available, we’d be going in that direction,” he said.

Still, Erwin hopes that Duncan’s sentence includes repayment of a "significant part" of her earnings from any job she obtains after imprisonment.
 “She was a thief,” he said.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/08/11/2395052/duncan-video-poker-led-me-to-steal.html#storylink=cpy

 http://www.thestate.com/2012/08/11/2395052/duncan-video-poker-led-me-to-steal.html

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News - Crime & Courts

Sunday, Jul. 29, 2012

Sunday, Jul. 29, 2012

INSIDE SPORTS GAMBLING

The gambler next door

By JOHN MONK - Jmonk@thestate.com

 

 

Across South Carolina, the kind of illegal sports bookmaking that accused Richland County killer Brett Parker is said to have conducted happens out of sight of the law and the public – and is far more pervasive than many people realize.

 

We’re not talking office pools, sports fantasy leagues, the friendly wager or the weekly poker game in the man cave.

Gambling through a bookie involves far more money. And bookies are far more organized and secretive, knowing that if they get caught, the penalty could be substantial.

Brett Davis Parker, who is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife, Tammy Parker, and a family friend Bryan Capnerhurst, in April, appeared for a bond hearing, Thursday at the Richland County Courthouse. Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin ordered he be remanded without bail.

- Kim Kim Foster-Tobin /kkfoster@thestate.com

 

“They fly underneath the radar,” said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott. “They don’t have big flashing signs outside their business.”

Bookies are akin to other kinds of niche criminals – such as those who make moonshine or hold cockfights – who cater to a clientele whose members have no interest in publicizing the illegal bets, Lott and others say.

These days, various kinds of high-tech gambling are now widely available – using a computer to gamble at online casinos, for example. But old-fashioned bookies who take bets in person or on the phone on college and pro-ports games still ply their trade with a circle of confidential gamblers.

“Even in small towns, there’s usually someone who makes sports book,” said Frank Quinn, a Columbia area psychotherapist who’s spent more than 30 years treating various addictions, including gambling, in South Carolina.

No one knows how many sports bookies work these days across the state, but that’s typical, according to national experts.

“Illegal sports bookmaking continues to be a pretty big business. It’s hard to say how big, because they don’t report their numbers,” said David Schwartz, director of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Center for Gaming Research, a nationally known site for gambling information.

People involved in sports gambling have incentives for keeping it quiet. Those include the fact that it’s illegal, of course. Also, gamblers fear being prosecuted for not reporting their winnings to the Internal Revenue Service and state tax authorities. Few gamblers do, law officers say.

And law officers rarely make an arrest. For one thing, it’s labor-intensive and time-consuming to penetrate and gather evidence against such a secretive operation.

“When you put this (sports bookies) up against murder, rape and those kinds of crimes, you really don’t have a lot of resources left over to devote to it,” said Robert Stewart, who headed the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) for 20 years.

But, Stewart said, sports bookie gambling “is imbedded in our culture.”

Current SLED Chief Mark Keel, asked last week how many bookies his statewide agency has arrested, couldn’t remember any arrests in his more than 30 years with the agency. Neither could two high-ranking SLED agents with him, who each had more than 30 years experience each.

“We couldn’t think of anybody,” Keel said.

At the state Attorney General’s office, veteran prosecutor Deputy Attorney General John McIntosh – whose experience as both a public defender and state and federal prosecutor goes back more than 40 years – could only remember one case.

That was a federal case brought by the IRS in Cayce back in the 1980s, McIntosh said.

Federal authorities in South Carolina have brought few if any bookmaking cases in the state in years.

U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles said, “This office allocates resources on the best assessment of the most efficient use of our resources.”

The largely invisible nature of South Carolina’s sports bookies illustrates just how rare it was for a prosecutor to allude to an alleged sports bookie gambling operation last week in a Richland County courtroom.

“Brett Parker was operating an illegal gambling business,” 5th Judicial Circuit prosecutor Luck Campbell said in court Thursday.

Although Campbell didn’t mention what kind of gambling, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott on July 20 – when announcing Parker’s arrest for the shooting deaths of his wife, Tammy Jo Parker, and business associate, Bryan Capnerhurst, – specifically called Parker a “bookie.”

In May, before Brett Parker was arrested, Dave Fedor, one of attorneys, said Parker and Capnerhurst simply were meeting to settle a sports bet. Parker owed Capnerhurst money, Fedor said.

Lott also said the Secret Service in South Carolina is now actively investigating whether Parker’s alleged gambling operation, which the sheriff said centered on college and professional sports, ran afoul of federal law.

Mike Williams, Secret Service special agent in charge of South Carolina operations, declined to comment on any investigation.

But Williams did say, “We investigate any type of money transactions that are not in line with state or federal laws.”

Under federal law, authorities can only look into bookie gambling operations that involve “five or more persons who conduct, finance, manage, supervise, direct, or own all or part of such business.”
Persons familiar with sports bookies stressed their potential for harm.

“Sports betting is known as a gateway drug in getting young people hooked into gambling,” said John Kindt, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus and a nationally known gambling expert.

Young people often are highly focused on sports, Kindt noted. Betting for or against a team is a way to escalate the thrill of watching a game and seeing their favorite teams make points and exchange leads, he said.

Sports bettors can bet a game in various ways, including betting against a “point spread” or selecting the “over or under” of the total number of points to be scored in a game.

Bookies make their money off the “vigorish,” or fee, that a losing bettor must pay to the bookie in addition to paying the bookie the actual amount he wagered, Kindt said.

Bookies have to be careful not to take too many bets on one side of a sports event, because if they lose, they could wind up with big losses, Kindt said.

Thus, if bookies get an excessive number of bets on one side, they often reach out to other bookies to spread their bets around as a “hedge” against a big loss, Kindt said.

Quinn, who has counseled numerous South Carolina gambling addicts over the years, said sports bookies are particularly active during football and basketball season on college campuses, getting college students to place bets.

“You have college students laying down 50 to 100 dollars on a game, and if you have a couple thousand students doing that every weekend, that’s a lot of money,” Quinn said. Young people who avidly follow their favorite teams are particularly prone to laying down big bets, he said.

Quinn said today’s sports bookmaking has deep social and historical roots, recalling the state’s race tracks and open cockfighting rings where gambling has taken place. And plenty of S.C. youths fancy themselves as having inside knowledge of a sport.

Besides addiction to gambling, Quinn said, the ramifications can be serious.

“Several years ago, I had a young man who owed $17,000 to a bookie and wouldn’t pay,” Quinn said. “He opened the door one day, and someone shot him in the chest and he died.”

Quinn, an adjunct psychology professor at Columbia College, declined to identify the man because of patient confidentiality and because his family is still in the area.

There are good reasons why sports bettors continue to use local bookies, Schwartz said.

“It’s someone they know, and they know they are going to get paid. If you go with someone on the Internet who is headquartered in Antigua, you don’t know if they are going to pay.”

Dennis Bolt, a former 5th Circuit assistant prosecutor, said people who place bets with sports bookies don’t usually think they are committing a crime.

“It could be your neighbor,” said Bolt, a Columbia defense attorney. “As a matter of fact, it probably is your neighbor.”

http://www.thestate.com/2012/07/29/2372988/sports-gambling-hidden-but-widespread.html

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Lobbyist's Suicide

Lobbyist death
Hospitality exec’s letter: Employee's gambling to blame for missing money
In last letter, lobbyist expressed shame and disappointment that thefts happened on his watch
By JOHN MONK and NOELLE PHILLIPS The State

A handwritten letter penned by a prominent hospitality executive before he killed himself blames his organization’s former accountant for transferring the group’s money through her personal checking account to offshore accounts to pay for online gambling.

The three-page letter, obtained by The State newspaper and verified by law enforcement officials, says that Rachel Duncan, the S.C. Hospitality Association’s former director of finance and membership records, confessed to her boss, Tom Sponseller, the association’s chief executive officer, who wrote the letter.

“Rachel has worked here for 11 years and at no time would I have thought that she gambled, let alone would steal money,” Sponseller wrote.

The letter is the last known communication from Sponseller, who was found dead Feb. 28 in a storage room off the underground parking garage of the Lady Street office building where he worked. He had been reported missing 10 days earlier by his family. A handwriting analysis conducted by the State Law Enforcement Division confirmed Sponseller wrote the letter, said Richland County Coroner Gary Watts, who investigated the cause of death.

The letter sheds more light onto a secret federal investigation tied to the association’s missing money, the woman accused of taking it and her relationship with her boss. It is Sponseller’s version of the story, and it accuses Duncan of abusing his trust to spend association money on online casino games that gambling experts say are illegal, addictive and impossible to win.

Duncan’s attorney, Greg Harris, declined to comment. Duncan did not respond to a letter left at her two-story house in Lexington by reporters for The State seeking her side of the story.

The U.S. Secret Service has said Duncan, who has not been charged, is a target of an investigation. But it has not responded to questions as to whether Sponseller was suspected in any online gambling or receiving any Hospitality Association money. Bill Nettles, the U.S. Attorney for South Carolina, also would not comment.

“This is an ongoing investigation,” he said.

The S.C. Hospitality Association, a trade group that represents the state’s hotels and restaurants, has reported that an audit of its financial records found $480,000 missing between 2009 and 2012. Sponseller was the group’s executive director and lobbyist.

It is unclear if the association will ask its auditors to dig into earlier financial records. But the audit is ongoing, said Bob McAlister, a communications consultant hired by the association.

The auditors determined that Duncan was responsible for taking the money, and the Hospitality Association is turning audit findings over to the Secret Service.

Association officials have said there is no “direct evidence” that Sponseller took money, but they said he should have known money had gone missing.

In Sponseller’s letter, he wrote that Duncan confessed to him on Feb. 16 — two days before he shot himself — that she had taken “upwards of $300,000” over the past four or five years. He also wrote that Duncan told him law enforcement officials had visited her two weeks earlier to confront her with their accusations.

“Rachel has told me she is going to cooperate in any way to minimize or avoid jail,” he wrote.

Sponseller’s letter was discovered the morning of Feb. 28 by Hospitality Association employees who opened his locked desk drawer while the search for Sponseller continued. They also found empty packaging for a 9mm handgun. Columbia police, who had launched a manhunt for Sponseller, had failed to look inside his desk. Those items led to a fourth search of the office building, which turned up Sponseller’s body.

The letter, which was not addressed to anyone, never states any intention of committing suicide, but it makes it clear that Sponseller regarded Duncan’s revelations as a crushing disappointment.

“After working so hard to build the association over the past 21½ years, I am ashamed that I let this happen on my watch,” Sponseller wrote.

Duncan had worked at the Hospitality Association for 11 years, and Sponseller wrote that he had grown to trust her. She looked for ways to save money and, after several years of checking bank statements, Sponseller said he never saw anything questionable.

“The only thing I would have to get on her about was paying bills on time, she has a habit of writing checks just twice a month and doing so caused some payments to be late, or so she said,” Sponseller wrote.

But Sponseller’s letter also indicates the relationship went beyond the typical interaction between a boss and an employee.

Sponseller said they became friends, and Duncan “had become like a daughter over the years.” The two ate lunch and took breaks together, and Sponseller said it was Duncan’s time to talk about personal problems. He said he felt sorry for Duncan and listened to her vent about personal problems, saying, “She has no friends ... .”

Both smoked cigarettes, and people who work in the same building at 1122 Lady St. said the two frequently stood outside the front door to smoke and talk.

But in his letter, Sponseller said he never knew about Duncan’s gambling habit, nor did he have any idea she was skimming hundreds of thousands from the association to place bets with online casinos.

Illegal and addictive

Internet gambling is a big business. It’s hard to know just how much revenue online casinos earn each year, but estimates range from $15 billion to $30 billion.

Internet gambling is illegal in the United States. The 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act made it illegal for U.S. banks and other financial institutions to approve known gambling financial transactions.

But experts who follow gambling and offshore casinos said laws against internet gambling rarely stop anyone from participating in it. Typically, U.S. law enforcement doesn’t pursue individuals who bet.

They get caught, however, when federal agencies discover them making large offshore financial transactions, said John Kindt, a nationally recognized gambling expert from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Internet gamblers should know that federal agencies monitor all transfers of money and watch for suspicious ones, Kindt said.

To participate in online gambling, people either open their own offshore accounts or establish one with the casino, said Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council for Problem Gambling, which helps people who are addicted to it. They then transfer money from their personal accounts into that offshore account as if they were making an online bill payment, he said.

But no one ever knows exactly where the online casino is located, Whyte said. For example, the actual company could be based in Costa Rica but have its financial accounts in the Philippines.

“There’re legions of scams,” Whyte said. “They’re located God-knows-where because they’re not concerned with the niceties of U.S. laws.”

Kindt, who has testified numerous times on gambling issues before state legislatures and Congress, said offshore gambling operations he has studied specialize in fleecing their customers.

“They have one business model — cheat, cheat, cheat,” Kindt said.

Kindt and Whyte said the offshore casinos rarely return any winnings to their customers.

“If you win $10,000, they are going to hem and haw,” Kindt said. “These sites never pay off to people who have money in their accounts.”

The casinos know their gambling operations are illegal in the United States, so customers are not going to complain to police when they don’t get their money returned, Whyte said.

“There is absolutely no recourse,” he said.

And the casinos know just how to hook those who are addicted to gambling, Kindt said. “We have a saying, ‘Click your mouse and lose your house.’ There’s no regulation and no way to regulate these days. And there’s no way it’s a fair game. It’s just lose, lose, lose.”

But gambling addicts always think their next big payday is just around the corner, Whyte said.

“You’re always just one bet away from winning everything back,” he said. “The crazy logic with the problem gambler is that to keep on gambling is the solution for losing.”

According to Sponseller’s letter, Duncan thought she could get her money back.

“She also led me to believe (there) might be a chance to recover some of her gambling funds from the online casino where she played,” he wrote.

Sponseller also suggested insurance policies could be found in Duncan’s office that would cover some of the Hospitality Association’s losses. Association officials said those policies would cover about $20,000, less than 5 percent of what has been reported missing.

Asking for forgiveness

Throughout the letter, Sponseller mentions shame, disappointment and embarrassment.

He said he failed to make sure everything was right and had allowed a problem to become so big that police found it first.

He closed the note with an apology.

“I am sorry it ended like this,” he wrote. “I am a huge disappointment to everyone, my family, my friends, my business associates and others. I let everyone down and have embarrassed those who I love the most — my wife, kids and grandkids. I am so sorry I have failed you.

“Please find a way to forgive me in your hearts.”

Casino mogul fills Gingrich's South Carolina war chest

Casino mogul fills Gingrich's South Carolina war chest
By Suzette Parmley, Inquirer Staff Writer

When casino mogul Sheldon Adelson wrote a $5 million check this month to a super PAC backing his close friend Newt Gingrich, it was the largest donation the executive had ever made to a candidate in an election cycle.

Aides close to the 78-year-old billionaire, whose company, Las Vegas Sands Corp., owns the Sands Bethlehem Casino Resort, about an hour's drive from Philadelphia, say the contribution reflects Adelson's penchant for making high-risk bets - with high payoff.

It also showcases the growing influence of super PACs on the presidential campaign. This Saturday the critical South Carolina GOP presidential primary will be held. And it marks the second anniversary of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which allows billionaires, such as Adelson, corporations, unions, and other special-interest groups to spend unlimited amounts on political advertising through super PAC money.

The money seems to be having an effect in South Carolina. Polls show that Gingrich, who had poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, is running second to Mitt Romney in a state that has often played a decisive role in the GOP nominating process.

Placing a substantial bet on Gingrich might be the kind of crapshoot that Adelson's customers take every day in one of his casinos. But high risk suits Adelson's personality, said Michael Leven, chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp., who is Adelson's No. 2.

"In his case, being safe is a prescription for failure, and taking a risk is a prescription for success," he said. "Combined with his entrepreneurial spirit - it is loyalty, friendship, and a belief in some of the same principles that he decided to support Newt."

Leven recalled a conversation the two had in Adelson's Las Vegas office just days before the commitment.

"I said to him, 'Why don't you do $2.5 million in South Carolina, and $2.5 in Florida?' " Leven said. "He said: 'No. Newt's got to win in South Carolina. We have to go all in in South Carolina. If I do $2.5 million, it might not be enough.' So he gives it - the $5 million."

The contribution Jan. 7 went to Winning Our Future, the super PAC behind the TV ads attacking Gingrich's rivals, mostly Romney, during his days at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded.

One ad, "The King of Bain," depicts Romney as a ruthless Wall Street corporate raider who fires people.

Another ad spoofs a "debate" between two cartoonlike figures resembling President Obama and Romney. Obama goes after Romney, and Romney can't get a word in. The Obama figure jokes how he and Romney were "just alike" on the issues - abortion, gun control, health care - until Romney decided to run for president.

Critics say the 2010 Supreme Court ruling reversed decades of campaign-finance reforms and weakened the power of all but the wealthiest individuals to determine the outcome of elections.

"Super PACs offer a new avenue for wealthy individuals to inject unlimited amounts of money into the political system," said Viveca Novak, spokeswoman for the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign contributions. "Adelson's money came along at a time when Gingrich's campaign was low on cash. The newly flush super PAC was able to go on TV attacking Romney, making it a little easier for Gingrich to gain some traction."

John Grimaldi, a spokesman for Winning Our Future, declined comment.

Of course, the super PAC supporting Romney, Restore Our Future, did all it could in Iowa to damage Gingrich, who finished fourth there. Romney won both Iowa and New Hampshire.

Common Cause, the nonpartisan watchdog group, launched a national campaign Tuesday to reverse Citizens United and rein in super PACs.

"The Adelson super PAC is the future of politics," said James Browning, regional director of state operations for Common Cause in Pennsylvania. "The storm of Citizens United is so great that the candidates are drowned, sunk, and forgotten, and it's all about these big donors."

Adelson is among the uber rich. Forbes Magazine listed him as the 16th-richest person in the world last year with a net worth of $21.5 billion.

He derived his wealth from casinos. Las Vegas Sands Corp. is among the biggest gambling companies in the world with properties in Las Vegas; Macau; Bethlehem, Pa.; and Singapore.

Adelson declined to be interviewed, stating through aides that he preferred to keep his political activities private. State and federal campaign finance reports show he has had a history of giving almost exclusively to GOP causes.

In 2006 - the year when casinos started opening in Pennsylvania - he gave $9,504 to the Republican Governors Association's Pennsylvania PAC. He has not given to state Democrats, reports show.

That same year, Adelson donated $1 million to a political committee founded by Gingrich, called American Solutions-Winning the Future. Adelson gave another $1 million to American Solutions and $1 million to the Republican Governors Association in 2010. (American Solutions was replaced with the Winning Our Future super PAC last month.) Adelson was the seventh-largest individual contributor to such groups in 2010, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' website, OpenSecrets.org.

The same website listed Adelson and his physician wife, Miriam Adelson, as seventh among the nation's 100 biggest individual contributors. He had given $224,800 in the 2012 election cycle, with 96 percent to Republicans, 4 percent to "other," and 0 to Democrats.

Adelson first met Gingrich, according to close business associates, in October 1995 when the Adelsons were in Washington to support a bill that would move the Israeli capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

"Their friendship grew from there," said one associate, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid upsetting Adelson. "They enjoy each other's company and have shared views on foreign policy and economic issues."

Sheldon Adelson turned to Gingrich in the late 1990s, when a culinary union tried to organize his employees during the building of the Venetian Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Gingrich, then House speaker, helped Adelson craft his antiunion pitch, say those close to the CEO. Adelson, in return, invited Gingrich to speak and honored him with a fund-raiser.

Gingrich went on to support legislation in Nevada that Adelson backed to curtail the ability of labor unions to automatically deduct money from members' paychecks for political activities.

Associates say Gingrich has used Adelson's private aircraft and the two men talk often by phone.

Both share a belief that Palestinians have no historical claim to their own state, and both are staunch allies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Adelson owns a free daily newspaper in Israel supportive of Netanyahu, and his wife runs drug-treatment centers in Las Vegas and Tel Aviv.

Leven said Adelson has given more than $100 million to Birthright Israel, a group that sends young Jews, ages 18 to 26, on free visits to Israel.

The son of a Boston cabdriver, Adelson - a college dropout - created the computer industry's marquee event, Comdex, in the mid-1980s. He sold it to Japan's Softbank for $862 million in 1995, and used the proceeds to build the $1.5 billion Venetian and the 1.2-million-square-foot Sands Expo and Convention Center in 1997 in Las Vegas. He is credited with bringing conventions there.

Casino, gambling not a good way to invest

Casino, gambling not a good way to invest
By Bob Cuttino blufftontoday.com
Savannah

There is news that a gambling casino employing a lot of people and expected to generate a lot of money is likely to be built in Hardeeville. In other investment news there was an article about the high yield for those who “invest in sin stock.” So I googled “investing in sin stock” and learned much more. Merrill Lynch recently examined the performance of alcohol, tobacco and casino stocks in all recessions since 1970 and found that while the S&P 500 fell 1.5 percent on average, “sin stocks” rose 11 percent. The article went on to say, “History shows that people do not drop their bad habits in hard times.”

“Sin stock” is identified as alcohol, tobacco, gambling (gaming or casinos), pornography and some add firearms. I was first exposed to this serving as a trustee on the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 70s and early 80s. $90 million a year was the income and the bylaws of the SBC required about 40 percent of all institutions be held in savings in case of national emergencies. So $40 million was carefully invested by a financial committee and in their reports to the trustees, they always explained they would not invest in any alcohol, tobacco, gambling or “sin stock.” They Sunday School Board’s investments were listed in the top 1 percent of American stock investments.

Not too many years back, a number of gambling establishments were built on U.S. 17 by the Savannah River. A woman left her infant baby in a hot car until it died while she was inside gambling. Other horror stories came out showing what the addiction of gambling causes. “Addiction” also applies to alcohol and tobacco and pornography. I understand those wanting to build this tremendous casino are Indians from the Midwest and the legislators and community leaders must decide if investing in “sin stock” is worth it. It will draw many people, many new jobs, much money and — I am sure — much sorrow. Selling drugs brings in a lot of money until you’re caught. A lure of sin is quick profits until you’re arrested.

There are many jobs and industries that would reward the investor and make our country stronger without having to rely on “sin stocks.” I’ve counseled too many addicts of alcohol, tobacco, gambling and pornography to ever put this in the class of “helping the economy.” Las Vegas has the highest suicide rate in America. I believe in thoughtful investments whether through stocks and bonds or buildings, but never invest in something that will eventually hurt so many people.

Gambling is coveting and the Ten Commandments tell us not to covet. Let’s encourage our children and friends to invest so that everyone benefits. We should be ashamed that we depend on gambling to pay for education. There are better ways.