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He's called the kingpin of the Allegheny County video poker scene.
John “Duffy” Conley spent years battling local and federal authorities on charges related to his video poker empire built in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He even spent a decade in prison.
Conley, now 63, has agreed to forfeit $5 million in assets and dissolve companies.
Some 400 machines were seized from multiple locations throughout Western Pennsylvania two years ago.
From The Post-Gazette:
Conley was never charged in connection with the 400 illegal gambling machines state attorney general’s agents seized across the region last year — only his companies were named in criminal complaints, which charged each with one count of corrupt businesses.
The companies entered guilty pleas to the felony charges in front of Common Pleas Judge Jaime Hickton. As part of the plea agreement, according to Attorney General Dave Sunday, the companies forfeit $5 million in assets and must dissolve within 30 days.
“Illegal gambling operations are not victimless crimes,” Mr. Sunday said in a statement. “They can fuel criminal enterprises, exploit individuals addicted to gambling, and rip off consumers with games that are not regulated, provide little or no chance of winning, and do not comply with gambling self-exclusion lists intended to protect those struggling with addiction.”
Conley was first indicted in 1991 on nearly two dozen charges, including dealing in illegal gambling and money laundering.
February 2005, he went back to prison for violating the terms of his supervised release, accused of running a large-scale sports-betting operation through which thousands of dollars passed each day.
After being released in 2009, Conley appeared to go quiet. Then in 2020, state records show he formed and registered Buffalo Skill Games, which authorities claim to be illegal skill games.
- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com
