Another Guilty Plea In Kansas Gambling Case

2/26/10 – The Kansas City Star reports that another suspect in the Kansas City online sports betting probe being conducted by a Grand Jury  has pleaded guilty in a federal court.
 
William D. Cammisano Jr. (60), who is alleged to be associated with a local organised crime family, entered a guilty plea this week, admitting that he had operated an illegal online sports betting business between March 1, 2006, and March 31, 2009.
 
Cammisano is alleged to have collected about $1.14 million in wagers that bettors placed through a toll-free telephone number or a web site, both of which routed to a wire room in Costa Rica.
 
Cammisano was the fifth person to plead guilty in recent weeks to roles in the gambling operation.
 
The Kansas City Star reports that in 1988, the FBI identified Cammisano as a lieutenant in an organised crime outfit. At the time, the bureau also identified his father, known as “Willie the Rat,” as the city’s top mob leader at the time.
 
In 1989, a federal jury convicted Cammisano of obstruction of justice, and he was sentenced to five years in prison. A judge later reduced the sentence by two years after an appeals court ruled that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence of his alleged organised crime activities to justify the heavier sentence.
 
In September 1994, his federal conviction prompted the Missouri Gaming Commission to ban Cammisano from the state’s casinos. Fighting that exclusion, Cammisano denied any connection to organised crime and praised his father as “a great man.”
 
After hearing the guilty plea, a federal magistrate released Cammisano on his own recognizance.