More guilty please from Kansas City Sportsbetting

2/19/10 – The Grand Jury probe into online gambling in Kansas City (see previous InfoPowa reports) has generated another guilty plea from a suspect.
 
The Kansas City Star blog reports that Charles J. Simone (24) pleaded guilty this week in federal court for his part in an online gambling operation with a website operated out of Costa Rica.
 
Simone gave his clients a 1-800 number and the Web site where they could place bets, and would then act as a runner, paying out or collecting money in person from the punters, presumably to obviate the need for online financial transactions.
 
The court was told that the online sports betting operation started up in 2006, although Simone claimed he did not become involved until late 2008, running through to the spring of 2009.
 
Simone is the second suspect identified by the probe to plead guilty; earlier Michael V. Badalucco (26) entered a similar plea.
 
The federal probe has been running for several months, and last year jailed several witnesses/suspects for refusing to testify.