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Joseph Lanni, also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino,” 55, was one of 30 defendants charged across 11 states in a federal indictment tied to a poker rigging scheme.
Federal investigators allege that game organizers and cheat teams used rigged card shufflers, X-ray poker tables, and hidden card analyzers to cheat players during high-stakes games.
Portland Trailblazers head coach Chauncy Billups and former Miami Heat star Terry Rozier were also named in the related indictment.
An alleged Staten Island Gambino Crime Family capo has requested a change of plea hearing after pleading not guilty last year to accusations he ran unlicensed poker games in Manhattan.
Joseph Lanni, also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino,” 55, was one of 30 defendants charged across 11 states in a federal indictment.
Federal prosecutors alleged Lanni used his role as a Gambino capo to help oversee and profit from underground poker spots in Manhattan where rigged games were taking place.
Lanni was indicted in October of last year. Federal investigators allege that game organizers and cheat teams used rigged card shufflers, X-ray poker tables, and hidden card analyzers to cheat players during high-stakes games. Members of the Gambino and Bonanno crime families provided protection for the games and used threats of physical violence, according to claims in court filings.
Court papers also allege the group used famous athletes dubbed “face cards” to lure “whales” with large bankrolls to rigged Texas Hold ‘Em games, while off-site operators transmitted hand data to “cheat teams” at the table.
Chauncey Billups, head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA); and Damon Jones, also known as “Dee,” a former NBA player with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat, were among those implicated in the scheme. Former Heat star Terry Rozier was also named in the complaint. Billups and Rozier continue to deny any wrongdoing. Jones has since pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
“As alleged, members and associates of organized crime families fixed illegal poker games as part of a highly sophisticated and lucrative fraud scheme to cheat victims out of millions of dollars and conspired with others to perpetrate their frauds,” stated United States Attorney Nocella at the time of the indictment. “Well-known former NBA players and former professional athletes, acted as ‘Face Cards’ to lure unsuspecting victims to high-stakes poker games, where they were then at the mercy of concealed technology, including rigged shuffling machines and specially designed contacts lenses and sunglasses to read the backs of playing cards, which ensured that the victims would lose big. Today’s indictment and arrests sounds the final buzzer for these cheaters.”
According to a July 22 filing by the U.S. Attorney Eastern District of New York, seven defendants had already pleaded guilty, and the court had scheduled change of plea hearings for 12 additional defendants which are all expected to occur before the end of this month.
Lanni also has an open 2023 case in a Brooklyn federal case. He was among ten defendants charged with racketeering conspiracy, extortion, witness retaliation, and union-related crimes committed in an attempt to dominate the New York carting and demolition industries.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
