7 more arrests in sports-betting ring

Philadelphia Daily News, June, 2008 by KITTY CAPARELLA caparek@phillynews.com 215-854-5880

A $2.5 million illegal sports-betting operation in Philadelphia and the suburbs was even bigger than investigators thought last month when they closed it down.

Yesterday, seven more men, including a Port Richmond man, turned themselves in to the police citywide vice unit, bringing the total arrested in the five-month probe to 16 defendants.

Last month, cops expected to arrest only "two or three more."

Because of the size of the operation, Lt. Charles Green, head of the vice unit, suspected it might be mob-connected and asked the FBI-Philadelphia Police organized-crime squad to look into it.

But yesterday, Green said: "There is no evidence of organized crime activity" in the operation.

The seven additional men were charged with two misdemeanors,...