The Plot Thickens: 3rd person investigated in Pick Six Scandal...

[turkoman1963]

Third Person in Pick Six Inquiry
By JOE DRAPE and BILL FINLEY


he investigation into the six pick six bets that led to a payoff of $3 million in last month's Breeders' Cup has widened to include a third person who is also a former student at Drexel University in Pennsylvania.

The latest person to be investigated, a 29-year-old man who is believed to live in New York, is connected to the two others named in the case through their membership in the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Drexel in the mid-1990's, said a state investigator and racing officials.

The two men who have been named in the case are Derrick Davis, who used a touch-tone telephone betting system to place the six winning bets in the Breeders' Cup pick six — the only winners in the country — and Chris Harn, an employee at Autotote, a company that processes 65 percent of racing wagers in North America and handled the bets under suspicion.

Neither Harn, 29, nor Davis, 29, has been charged with any wrongdoing. Harn's lawyer, Dan Conti, and Davis's lawyer, Steven A. Allen of Baltimore, have maintained their clients' innocence.

Like Davis, the new person being investigated had a telephone betting account at the Catskill Off-Track Betting hub in upstate New York. Officials are examining several winning tickets with substantial payoffs that he cashed before Breeders' Cup day.

A former fraternity member at Tau Kappa Epsilon, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Davis, Harn and the third person had been members of the fraternity.

The pick six investigation began on Oct. 27 when it was discovered that a single bettor had used an unusual and, by racing standards, illogical configuration to pick the winner of six consecutive Breeders' Cup races, and that he held the only winning tickets in the country.

To win a pick six, a bettor must name the correct winner in all six races. To increase their chances, bettors usually pick more than one horse in each race — and often select three or four or five horses, although that greatly increases the overall cost of the bet.

In the case of the Breeders' Cup, each of the identical six winning tickets had four races in which only one horse was picked to win. The other two races, the final two races, had the entire field as possible winners. On a $2 ticket, those combinations and strategy cost $192. What raised suspicions, according to investigators, was the fact that only one horse was picked to win in the first four races — and two of those horses were long shots — and that the same combination of bets was played six times without any alteration in the betting scheme.

Over all, the tickets cost Davis $1,152. The payoff on each of the six tickets was worth $428,392.

Last Thursday, Lorne Weil, chairman and chief executive of the Scientific Games Corporation of New York, which owns Autotote, said that Harn, a computer software engineer, had exploited a weakness in Autotote's security to alter Davis's six tickets after the winners of the first four races of the pick six were known.

Weil has acknowledged that the lack of updated technology may have contributed to the alleged fraud. Because of space and speed limitations of the computer system, the nearly $4.7 million in pick six Breeders Cup tickets that were logged at various satellite sites like Catskill OTB sat in limbo through the first four pick six races.

They were not transferred to the host site, Arlington Park in Illinois, until after the fifth race of the pick six, when the exact bets were verified. Because of this, Weil said, Harn, who had the password to the Autotote data system, could have altered Davis's tickets after the first four races.

In addition, a recording device used by some off-track wagering outlets to keep an audio record of touch-tone telephone bets is not used by Catskill OTB. The recording device is mandatory in some states but not in New York.

[The Actuary]

I guess this means one of them is talking, it seems a longshot to assume the "investigators" caught this guy.

TA

[niltes]

very cynical, but probably accurate analysis.

[Picksix]

I would start by looking at all picksix winners through this OTB. If any of them played 1x1x1x1xallxall, I think you have a great possibility they are connected. Especially if they were in that same Frat. from Drexel.

[rockingham]

I don't think it would be that easy pick6, they probably were more carefull at first, placing different types of tickets initially including decoys. I think they just got incredibly cocky at the end making a wager like they made. They were figuring that they were just dealing with total morons, and to a certain extent I would agree, this would probably not even have been caught if Medaglia D' Oro takes the classic.

I thought that Derrick initially defending this ridiculous bet showed just how confident his group was. It has probably been going on for years.

[Picksix]

Rock, I would start with something simple like that. When they decide to make a $12 pick six on Breeders Cup Day for his very first bet in that account, when there is so much attention on that wager, who knows how dumb these guys are.

I would love to look at all the wagers for signers at that OTB. I would think it would be pretty easy to detect a real player vs someone connected to the Drexel Boys. I've heard they might have trouble actually proving anything. I'm sure there are at least a few more people involved, I would find the others and start asking questions. I'm sure some of them would rat the others if it would save their azz. I have no doubt they'll get to the bottom of this at some point, I'm just not sure if the public will hear all the details.

Question: Are police allowed to look at Derrick's phone bill for the last month or any other things they might be interested in? Or do they have to have proof before they do something like that?

[timmy]

i'm still a firm believer there are exactly 6 people involved.

one for each ticket.

3 down, 3 to go!!

don't kid yourself, their only mistake was valponi. if valpo doesn't win and trigger those sole winners, they get away scott free.

[rockingham]

I don't think they were that dumb, I think they got overconfident and greedy. When you pull a scam enough times, I believe you start to think that they will never catch you. The more this is investigated, the wider the scope will become. If the FBI are involved, I believe they can subpoena any records relevant to the investigation they want as long as they show cause, including phone and personal records.

[Bostongambler]

Actuary you are prob. right... Someone cut a deal...

[guidoS]

From what I read about this scandal, it doesn't sound like these guys are talking to investigators at all! Davis and Harn both have lawyers, presumably this new guy will too now. No one has been charged with a crime yet, and the investigation has still probably only exposed the tip of the iceberg! If I was an investigator, I'd be trying to talk to Davis's ex-wife!

[Holy Bull]

My call is this 3rd guy will cut a deal and rat out the other 2.