Civella Pleads Guilty to
Online Gambling
Something crazy is going on in Missouri. It seems that every day we are
hearing of another person pleading guilty to ties to an online gambling
operation in the state. We have seen several go before the judge
already, and this latest one is the sixth one to plead guilty. The state
maintains that it is all tied to the mafia, but those charged say that
this is completely off base.
The latest plea comes from Vincent F. Civella. Civella is the sixth man
to plead guilty for operating an illegal online gambling company. The
operation was run out of Kansas City, and according to police there are
mob ties to the operation. Those that have already plead guilty have
denied that the mafia is involved, but police say that some of the
biggest names of those that have come across their desks as being linked
to this have definite mob ties.
The online gambling operation was set up so that the people involved
would approach those that they thought were interested in participating.
Then they would give them an 800 number along with a web site that they
would use to place their online gambling bets. The Costa Rican office
handled the back end of the operation, and they would send the money to
the men involved. They would then take that money and pay out the
winners in person, or collect if they needed to.
Civella has admitted to being a part of the
operation for about three years – from March 2006 to March 2009. He
admitted that he made roughly $40,000 off of the online gambling
operation and has agreed to hand that over to the US government. His
sentencing has been scheduled for a later time and depending on the
judge he could get the max of five years without parole. He would also
be facing a fee of $250,000 for breaking the online gambling law.
