[clevfan]

Thu, Jun. 01, 2006



Brothers charged in $2.7 million betting ring

By Keith Herbert
Philly Inquirer Staff Writer

The $20 and $100 bills formed a $2.7 million green-paper pyramid, large enough to cover a 24-square-foot table.

"It's the most I've seen in my career," said Montgomery County Detective Chief Oscar Vance, a law enforcement officer for more than 40 years.

District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. displayed the seized cash yesterday while announcing the arrest of Joseph Vito Mastronardo, known as a "gentleman gambler" and as "Vito the Line."

Mastronardo, 56, of Huntingdon Valley, is the son-in-law of the late Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo.

He and his brother, John V. Mastronardo, 50, of Blue Bell, an Eagles draft pick in the late 1970s, were charged yesterday with bookmaking and criminal conspiracy. They surrendered to authorities and were released after posting 10 percent of $100,000 bail - about one stack of seized $100 bills.

"No one is really shocked that sports gambling is going on here," said Dennis Cogan, Joseph Mastronardo's attorney, outside Magisterial District Justice Walter F. Gadzicki Jr.'s office.

Cogan said his client only takes bets from people "who can afford to lose." And he said the only consequence suffered by someone who doesn't pay Joseph Mastronardo is that they can no longer bet with him.

"There's never been any mob connection here," Cogan said.

A 1990 report by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency estimated then that Joseph Mastronardo's gambling operation took in $50 million annually.

The brothers admitted in court yesterday that they were convicted in a federal gambling prosecution in 1987. Joseph Mastronardo served 18 months in prison, and his brother served three months.

When the judge asked the men to state their profession, both answered, "professional gambler."

The Montgomery County investigation began in February when Telford police arrested Sam Ho for assaulting another man over a gambling debt, police said.

Telford and Souderton police identified Ho as a street-level member of a Vietnamese sports-betting ring in northern Montgomery County, court records state.

Through surveillance and wiretaps of ring members, police were eventually led to a Web site, betroma.com, and later to the Mastronardo brothers, court records state.

On April 24, detectives had Joseph Mastronardo under surveillance and stopped him as he returned from a Florida trip. Police seized $500,000 cash from the car and another $2 million from his home and other locations, where secret compartments had been built by a cabinetmaker to hide money, court records state.

Authorities have identified 16 others who may be charged in the gambling ring.

"There's every indication that this is a multimillion-dollar operation that has been going on for some time," Castor said.

The charges against the brothers are misdemeanors. Prosecutors and defense attorneys said they expect the case to be resolved by guilty pleas.

Castor said his office will seek jail sentences for the defendants. Cogan said he believes the state's sentencing guidelines call for probation or a few months in prison.

The seized cash will be spent to "help enforce the criminal laws of Montgomery County," Castor said.