Feds Move to Seize Sports Bar Over Gambling

Federal authorities filed a forfeiture action today against Patte's Sports Bar on West Hollenback Avenue in Wilkes-Barre in the wake of gambling charges being filed against owner, Pat Patte Jr., and two employees.

In forfeiture documents filed Friday afternoon, the U.S. Attorney's Office claims Patte operated an online sports gambling site and used his bar has a place to pay out and collect bets.

Between June 2009 and Feb. 11, 2010, federal authorities placed controlled bets through the Internet gambling site, the documents say.

Patte's Sports Bar "was used to conduct transactions involving illegal gambling activities, and/or is an asset derived from, traceable to, and constituting proceeds obtained directly and indirectly from these offenses," according to the filing.

The U.S. Attorney's Office asks that the "property be forfeited and condemned to the United States of America."

The business remained open Friday evening.

Patte was charged last Friday with one count of conspiring to use wire communications to transmit gambling information, one day after federal agents conducted a raid at the bar. Two other people, including a bar employee, face conspiracy charges.

Under the terms of his release on his own recognizance, the owner of Patte's Sports Bar was barred from leaving the 33-county jurisdiction of the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania without prior approval from federal authorities.

But five days after his arrest on illegal gambling charges, Patte Jr. won approval from a federal magistrate Wednesday to travel to the Bahamas for a six-day stay at Resorts International on Paradise Island. On Wednesday, his attorney filed a motion asking U.S. Magistrate Malachy Mannion to allow Patte to take the Bahamas trip, which had been booked since August. Federal prosecutors refused to consent to the trip, the motion said.

Patte left Thursday.

Source:  Citizen's Voice