[bigboydan]

Man in sports gambling operation pleads guilty

By RICHARD BURGESS
Acadiana bureau
Published: Jan 28, 2006

LAFAYETTE — A man accused of leading a multi\million-dollar sports book-making operation based in Milton pleaded guilty Friday to federal gambling charges.

Philip Mazzella Jr., 59, was one of five people charged in a case dubbed by state police as “Operation Player’s Paradise.”

The investigation also targeted former Vermilion Parish Police Juror Ernal J. Broussard, who was sentenced in December to two years probation on charges of “aiding and abetting” the illegal gambling operation.

Prosecutors said Broussard, who resigned from office before pleading guilty in August, cashed checks for the book-making operation, routing gambling proceeds through his Abbeville store, Package Liquor Exchange, and keeping a small percentage of the money in return for his services.

Mazzella operated the Milton-based booking business under the name of M&M Consultants from 1990 until a state police raid shut it down in October 2003, according to court records filed Friday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley said the “millions of dollars” in bets flowed through the gambling operation each month.

According to court records, the operation received gross bets averaging at least $1 million per week. Finely said that investigators believe that total bets on some months might have risen above $10 million.

“And that’s a conservative estimate,” she said.

Prosecutors did not have a figure for how much of that money that was taken as profit.

The book-making operation, which accepted bets on wide range of sporting events, was busiest during football season and employed more than four people, according to court records.

As part of his plea agreement, Mazzella has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in at least three other pending cases in the gambling investigation.

Mazzella’s defense attorney, Mike Small, declined to comment on the guilty plea, saying it would not be appropriate to do so before a sentence was handed down in the case.

Mazzella faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up $250,000.

No sentencing date has been set.

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we see a story like this once a week now...