Joseph Vito Mastronardo, Jr., Racketeering, Pennsylvania 2005

A multi-million dollar sports betting operation with bettors throughout the U.S. has been dismantled, with one of its leaders, Joseph Vito Mastronardo, Jr., 63, of Meadowbrook, PA, pleading guilty to racketeering charges.

Mastronardo, Jr., pleaded guilty on [no specific date mentioned] to conspiring to participate in a racketeering enterprise (RICO), conducting an illegal gambling business, four counts of conspiring to launder money, eight counts of interstate travel in aid of racketeering, transmitting wagering information, and aggravated structuring of cash deposits.

The guilty pleas stem from his leadership of the Mastronardo Bookmaking Organization, a multi-million dollar sports betting operation with bettors throughout the U.S. No sentencing date has been scheduled.

Mastronardo, Jr., is one of 19 defendants charged in the case; three defendants were charged by information and sixteen defendants were charged by indictment. In the indictment, fifteen of the sixteen defendants were charged with conspiring to participate in a racketeering enterprise (RICO) and conducting an illegal gambling business. With today’s guilty plea, 11 of the 16 defendants charged in the indictment have pleaded guilty.

At its peak, the organization had more than 1,000 bettors and was generating millions of dollars a year. According to the indictment, between January 1, 2005 and January 1, 2011, the organization utilized internet websites (www.betroma.com and www.betrose.com) and telephone numbers that allowed bettors to place sports bets on football, baseball, basketball, golf, horse racing, and other sporting events. Residents of Costa Rica staffed the internet websites and answered the telephones.

In 2006 and 2010, law enforcement seized over $2,100,000 of cash that Mastronardo hid in and around his home, including in specially-built secret compartments and in PVC pipes that were buried in his backyard.

The Mastronardo Bookmaking Organization laundered the gambling proceeds by using a check cashing agency, two private bank accounts, and numerous international bank accounts. On occasion, Mastronardo, Jr., also provided instructions so that a losing bettor could pay a gambling debt through a charitable donation.

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