Before the federals busted it on account of its being an illegal sports gambling operation, the illegal sports gambling operation known as Legendz Sports looked like a fine place to punch a clock.
It had offices in pleasant locales like Florida and Panama and Costa Rica and California. There were also company representatives in Oklahoma because people in states like Oklahoma also like to place a sports bet now and again, maybe to make a buck on the local Sooners covering a spread in Austin but mainly to forget about what it is to be living in Oklahoma. Those company representatives are now facing a lot of problems because, to quote the federal indictment, they were “bookies,” which is a diminishized term for the bookmakers who engage in an occupation that we all count on now and then but one that the federals like to hassle for providing their services to the good people of Oklahoma and elsewhere.
The federals say in a lengthy and double-spaced document with lots of bold letters and bold caps that the many people who were working with and for Legendz and many other companies that did associate with Legendz were using their business talents for activities of an illegal sort. There in fact were so many of them the federals say they were an “enterprise,” which in many other times and places is considered to be what makes the United States so great, not that the federals stop to think about the big story of America when they arrest people who just want to buy groceries by giving you a line on the Packers plus the four and a half. No, they just call it racketeering, and then you are the one left to explain to the kids why Christmas will later than ever this year.
By now you are surely wondering where you are going to get your action on the Knickerbockers, and that is a concern we do not want to diminishize. But we should also be asking who were these people who are now caught up into our system of justice. As it turns out, they are listed on the document as well, and we will include some of their names here as they are printed there, so you can see what it takes to make an enterprise these days, and also so you may consider the kind of office workplace atmosphere that it must have been when Fat Mikey and Ski and Gooch and Patchmain and Magic and Bingo Bob got together at the every-year lake picnic.
Bartice A. “Luke” “Cool” King
Spiros “The Greek” Athanas
Kassandra “Sandra” Bates
William “Bill” “Billy” “Wild Bill” Bates
Edward “Gooch” “Bubbles” Buonnano
Kory “Ski” Koralewski
Maximillian “Max” Magnus McLaren
Maria “Mary North” Rojas
James Franklin “Frank” “Frank the Bank” Acker III
Terry Lee “Top Cat” “Gato” Campbell
Ralph “Georgie” “Rico” Hernandez
Derek Edward “D” Hewitt
Michael “Fat Mikey” “Big Mike” Lawhorn
Joseph Michael “Joe” “Rolltide” McFadden
Bruce Landen “Jose” “Jose C” Middlebrook
Gregory Wilson “Patchmain” Roberts
Christopher Lee “CT” “Limo” “Tan” “Magic” Tanner
Paul Francis “FPaul” Tucker
Robert C. “Bob” “FBobV” “Bingo Bob” Vanetten
Robert Paul “Big Dog” “Cliff” Wilson
Leon Mark “Makavelli” “Mastiff” Moran II
Neil John “Bono” Myler
Luis “Big Lou” Robles
David Lynn “OB” “Obie” Ross
James Lester “Les” Acker
Robert Anthony “Tony” Lay
David Gordon
We also wonder why a gentleman such as this David Gordon character did not get any very fun “quotation” name in the indictment the federals wrote. It turns out that if the federals are accurate in their understanding of the enterprise, then Mister Gordon was the man who processed payments for Legendz. That is to say that he gave money to winners. A man with such a job as that would find his days very upbeat in any case, and might not have felt that a swell nickname would have made his attitudes any happier.
Feds bust billion-dollar sports betting ring, dozens charged [CNN]