Two Indicted in Sports Gambling Ring

Two south suburban men face up to 25 years in prison after being snared in an offshore sports betting ring that was centered in New York but stretched to Nevada, Florida, Illinois and Panama.

Robert J. Rassmussen, 42, of 7432 W. 161st St. in Tinley Park, and John Bowling, 60, of 9425 Boardwalk Lane in Orland Park, were taken into custody this week.

They and 28 others are charged with enterprise corruption -- a violation of New York state's Organized Crime Control Act -- as well as money laundering, promoting gambling and conspiracy.

Internal Revenue Service agents executed a search warrant at Rasmussen's home Wednesday morning and took him into custody. Bowling was taken into custody Wednesday at a condominium he owns in Nevada, authorities said Thursday.

The investigation was led by the New York City Police Department's Organized Crime Investigation Division and the District Attorney's Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said the operation took in more than $567 million in a 28-month period for an average of about $20 million a month in wagers on a variety of sporting events.

Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for the Queens district attorney's office, said Thursday that Bowling became part of the betting network by being a friend of one of its leaders, Joseph J. Fafone.

Bowling and Rassmussen are described in the district attorney's 131-count indictment as agents/runners for the operation.

In their roles they would use word of mouth to recruit potential bettors.

Agent/runners would have to give a bettor the OK to place a wager, then would handle all the financial transactions, Ryan said. Bets on various events ranged from as little as $5 to as much as $20,000 on a single game.

The operation would use several different Web sites and toll-free telephone numbers to accept wagers, which would be routed to computer servers in Panama. New York authorities said the servers would store information in bettors' accounts and bounce the data through a series of server nodes to avoid being traced.

New York authorities began their investigation in 2006; it was dubbed Operation Betting It All.

In addition to the criminal charges, 20 of the defendants are being sued in civil court in a $125 million forfeiture action filed by the district attorney's special proceedings bureau.