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Leaders of local gambling ring sentenced to home detention

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Leaders of local gambling ring sentenced to home detention

A local wagering investigation that involved multiple police agencies and stretched out over a year culminated Wednesday with two of the gambling ring’s leaders sentenced to home detention.

Federal prosecutors said in court papers that “this was not the crime of the century” but contended that illicit gambling should not be ignored by police because it can be accompanied by violence and it traffics in winnings and losses that go untaxed.

“In illegal businesses, as in legal businesses, conflicts arise, territories are threatened, relationships break down, promises are broken, and debts are unpaid,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan McGuire, the lead prosecutor in the case, wrote in court papers. “Legal businesses turn to law enforcement and the courts to resolve these disputes.

“Illegal businesses cannot. So, instead, they resort to intimidation, threats, and violence to resolve their disputes and collect their debts.”

At separate sentencings Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford sentenced Louis Ferrari Jr., the leader of the gambling ring, and Dominic Sprague, considered the number two man, to 10 months of home detention.

Four others who were arrested have pleaded guilty and were sentenced earlier to probation. Federal sentencing guidelines, which are advisory for judges, recommended sentences in those ranges for each of the defendants who pleaded guilty.

At sentencing, Wolford highlighted the violent side of the gambling ring and the possibility that there could well have been bloodshed with more dire consequences for the gamblers and those who oversaw the illegal operation.

Ferrari, thinking there was a snitch in the mix, allegedly beat up the former manager of the gambling operation. And undercover officers who managed to get into the in-house gambling parlors saw armed men, including one who flashed his handgun during a dispute.

In-person sports wagering at licensed casinos has been legal in New York since 2019, and in 2022, mobile sports wagering through certain licensed platforms became legal in the state. However, unlicensed bookmaking, whether in person or online, has been and remains illegal in the State of New York.

Ferrari and Sprague co-owned an illegal gambling operation at 565 Blossom Rd. in the city that hosted poker games. Ferrari also operated an illegal sports betting book through a website called sport700.com. Ferrari managed individual bettors and also oversaw others who had their own books of individual bettors, prosecutors said.

The investigation relied on undercover police as well as wiretaps and subpoenas of financial records. At sentencing, Wolford was not sympathetic to claims that the often profane nature of conversations in the wiretaps, as well as the talks of violence, could be dismissed as “locker room” talk as was maintained by some. The diatribe was “right out of the movies,” she said.

At his sentencing, Ferrari, who owns an excavation company, said he has been devastated by the impact of his actions on his family, especially his two young daughters. “I risked my family and I feel terrible about it,” he said.

His employees and family stood by him, with some sending letters to the court urging leniency. He has paid $150,000 as part of his plea, money that he said he made in two years from the gambling.

“No one forced me to do what I did,” Ferrari said in court. “It was probably out of greed and poor decision-making.”

Wolford said greed was clearly a driving force, and noted that Ferrari once was alerted to the investigation but did not stop the operations then. “That didn’t cause you to stop being involved in criminal activity,” she said.

Ferrari was also tipped off to the investigation by a friend, State Police Sgt. Thomas Loewke.

Loewke has retired from the state police and last year pleaded guilty to obstruction of the investigation. He was sentenced to probation and 100 hours of community service.

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