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GAMBLING CRIMES IN MISSOURI... St. Louis is the 2nd most dangerous city in the U.S (four casinos in the region) Two years after officials noticed that a St. Louis County employee (treasurer) had stolen about $865,445, lawyers are still arguing about exactly whose money was taken. She spent most of the loot gambling, she admitted. She previously pleaded guilty to embezzling that amount from Kemco Machine and Tool Co. Inc. of Fenton, where she was a bookkeeper from 1996 through August 2001. The company claims she really made off with about $2.5 million. Jenkins said his client's gambling habits were extensive. A former Southeast Missouri woman was sentenced to prison for negotiating fraudulent checks and false tax returns in a $1.8 million embezzlement scheme. After creating the fraudulent checks, Buchanan then forged the employee's signature, signed her own name as the second endorsee and cashed the checks at a local bank. Buchanan stole these funds to feed her gambling habit," U.S. Attorney James G. Martin, noted. Detra..., 32, of the 2500 block of Littlefield Drive, was sentenced Thursday to 41 months in prison and ordered to repay $1.2 million she helped take from her employer, SBC Corp. Her husband, Antonio, 32, got a 47-month prison term and was ordered to pay back $426,334. U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber sentenced the Bradys on a conspiracy charge. ...had used money taken...to gamble. A former Stifel Nicolaus securities broker, pleaded guilty of mail fraud for taking more than $400,000 from a retired teacher's account. Similar allegations are in a pending civil suit that contends he gambled away much of Miller's $750,000. Miller was 87 when she died in 1999. A St. Louis-area woman was sentenced Wednesday to two years and nine months in federal prison on a charge that she diverted $631,000 from her employer to pay her online gambling debts. A Cedar Hill woman is facing felony wire fraud charges after she allegedly stole more than $631,000 from her employer to pay on-line (internet)gambling debts. The former chief financial officer of a Crestwood company has been indicted on charges that he embezzled more than $548,000 from his employer. Deborah..., a compulsive gambler, is "scared to death" of a new temptation she'll face when she gets out of prison and returns to her home in Florissant. It is similar to the keno game in casinos that Deborah played - with about $500,000 she embezzled from her employer. ST. LOUIS - A former employee at Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. pleaded guilty Tuesday to embezzling nearly $400,000 through false expense reports... Liszewski embezzled money to pay, among other things, gambling debts... A St. Louis County woman was sentenced to a year and a day in prison Friday for bilking her employer out of $385,735, which she used to fuel her gambling habit. Robert... pleaded guilty Tuesday of fraud in U.S. District Court. He admitted pocketing more than $329,000 owed to about 185 customers. An FBI investigation that began about a year ago concluded that Blackford began withdrawing money from the company's bank account, leaving nothing for clients. Blackford told the Post-Dispatch he dipped into the account in part to pay a gambling addiction. The exact number of Blackford's victims probably won't be known for months. One former co-worker estimates that Blackford siphoned money from at least 50 people. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are gone, probably for good. Today, Blackford said he was desperate, and he admits to gambling an untold sum of the company's money. He said he was trying to win back cash to return to company coffers, but losses led to a financial death spiral."I'm gambling more and gambling more and gambling more, and trying to make it up," he said. EMBEZZLEMENT CHARGE -- An Arnold (Schuler) woman accused of embezzling from a Fenton company allegedly spent thousands of dollars stolen from the firm at St. Louis-area casinos. ...she diverted about $200,000 in company funds between November 2002 and May 31, 2004, while employed as a bookkeeper... The indictment charged that Schuler embezzled more than $200,000 from First Choice, using some of the money to gamble at casinos in East St. Louis and elsewhere. The Monges started First Choice in 1994 as a business that installed and set up modular homes and mobile homes. Now, the couple have laid off some employees, closed the St. Peters office and struggle to keep the doors of the business open while trying to assess the damage. The couple sold their Corvette and Jaguar and poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the business to keep it afloat. "We were people of substantial worth," Lauren ... said. "We are now destitute." A former bank vice president from Waterloo accused of embezzlement lost more than $200,000 on gambling, a federal prosecutor revealed in court Friday. A former Liberty man was sentenced to 57 months in prison Monday for bilking more than $185,000 from Clayco State Bank...(made) trips to casinos.. Vazzi, 22, of Staunton, pleaded guilty in October of stealing more than $129,000 from Julia ..., 88...But Vazzi used the money to gamble at casinos... Robin... was the employee at the juvenile office who embezzled approximately $97,000 that was meant to go to the local schools. She said it was gone, mostly lost at casinos. A Kansas City man who romanced almost two dozen women to defraud them was sentenced to five years in federal prison today. Ryan S. Blevins, 29, also was ordered to pay $90,680 in restitution to the women and financial institutions he had defrauded. Blevins asked for a lower sentence, in part, because he has been diagnosed as a gambling addict. SPRINGFIELD -- A former attorney avoided prison when he was sentenced on Wednesday for defrauding insurance companies by embezzling $68,573 from people who were seeking worker's compensation. ...he is recovering from gambling addiction... The former chief financial officer for a group that serves disabled veterans was arrested Monday on charges that he stole $64,000 and blew it on a new BMW and gambling. St. Louis Circuit Attorney charged him with 21 felonies and two misdemeanors - nine counts of money laundering, six counts of felony theft and six counts of forgery and two counts of misdemeanor theft. Authorities allege that he spent up to $100,000 at Harrah's Player's Island in Maryland Heights and at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis. A former lawyer who admitted he stole more than $57,000 from clients must repay the money but will have no criminal conviction if he completes probation, a judge decided. He has admitted using the much of the stolen money to gamble on casino boats. Former branch bank president embezzled $46,139 cash and money orders and has voluntarily placed himself in a treatment program for compulsive gambling and an alcohol problem. But on Friday the former Olathe (Catholic) church pastor made a personal and public statement of contrition for stealing $44,000 in church funds to feed his gambling habit. A former financial aid officer at Longview Community College pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to embezzling about $30,000 from a student loan program. ...she took the money to feed a gambling addiction, prosecutors said. The former director of a home for the developmentally disabled admitted Monday to stealing more than $20,000 from the home. ...she said a lot of the money went to the casino. "Nettie" saved for 30 years for her dream home. Her life savings are gone, gambled away by the builder, who stole her money. ...Richardson, 47, admitted in July that he burglarized and vandalized churches in Independence and Blue Springs, including the burglary and arson that gutted the Colonial Hills Community of Christ church. He pleaded guilty to five counts of burglary and one count of second-degree arson. ...he did it to support a gambling habit. According to court documents, Richardson is responsible for 27 church burglaries in Blue Springs, Independence and Lee's Summit. ...committed the crimes to support his gambling habit, prosecutors said. Man arrested in St. Charles told police he resorted to bank robbery when he failed to win enough money playing Blackjack. FARMINGTON -- A Park Hills woman was placed on five years of supervised probation for stealing from a federally-subsidized apartment complex. Circuit Court Judge Sandra Martinez placed 62-year-old Judith... on probation and ordered her to pay restitution within four years. She told police she needed the money to offset her gambling problem. Tax-fraud sentence - A 54-year-old Kansas City, Kan., man will go to prison for filing a false income tax return with the Internal Revenue Service. Boyce admitted that thousands of dollars of his gross sales were diverted from his business to pay gambling debts. After deliberating for just over two days, a federal jury agreed and convicted James Nichols, 27, and Robert Gomez, 28, both of California, in the largest car-fraud scheme in Missouri history. He said that Gomez was a professional gambler and that Nichols financially backed his high-stakes poker games. Ferguson - Michael Anders' gambling problem was so severe that he once stole $300 from a muscular-dystrophy fund to bet on horses at the racetrack. Kansas City Municipal Court Judge Deborah A. Neal should step down from the bench. Her acceptance of loans from lawyers, which she has acknowledged, leaves her credibility too damaged for her to continue as a judge. Missouri's code of judicial ethics forbids a judge from accepting a loan from anyone "whose interests have come or are likely to come before that judge." Neal can be commended for acknowledging her personal problems -- depression and a gambling addiction -- and seeking treatment. FBI officials said the (65 years old, St. Louis County) woman was found wearing clothes and two pieces of jewelry. She had been shot in the chest and wrapped in fishing net. Her body had been weighted with a 40-pound concrete block. Although police here had considered the possibility that her body had gotten into the Mississippi River, they now do not believe it had. Given the weighting and location 20 miles out to sea, investigators think her body was dumped directly into the gulf. ...Stegall's purse turned up in a parking lot at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis. A judge sentenced Mark Hammond today (Monday) to four consecutive life sentences for the murder of restaurant owner David Yang after Hammond followed Yang from the Casino Queen to his home in Mehlville. Hammond and an accomplice followed David Yang from the Casino Queen to his home in Mehlville and shot him outside his garage, taking about $4,400 from one pocket but overlooking a wallet with $6,900 more. Authorities have charged a Kansas City man with kidnapping a woman from Harrah's North Kansas City Casino, robbing her at gunpoint and demanding sex. SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A young man who had been expected to withdraw his earlier guilty plea in the Christmas Day killing of a lottery winner decided instead to accept the state's plea bargain. Authorities said Williamson and Claypool broke into Hardwick's Springfield home searching for $10,000 they believed he had there. "Jefferson County Prosecutor Bob Wilkins says he is considering charges against two women who are accused of helping a Hillsboro man rob a St. Louis-area casino winner outside a bar in Festus. "Jared ..., 23, of Hillsboro is charged with first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and first-degree assault in connection with the Nov. 4 robbery. McCarty and another man allegedly hung out at Harrah's casino watching for people who won a large amount of money. The men followed the physician who won about $3,000 at a table from the casino to Ste. Genevieve County where they staged an accident to get him to stop. One of the men hit the doctor, knocking him unconscious, and then stole the winnings. KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A man who won money at Harrah's Casino Tuesday night was beaten and robbed after leaving the establishment, KMBC reported. Four Caruthersville residents were arrested this week in connection with an alleged credit card and identity theft scheme whose victims were patrons of Casino Aztar. A recent onslaught of car break-ins at Crestview Apartments in St. Charles has some residents feeling blue this holiday season. All of the cars were robbed while parked in the complex's lots, located along Riverbluff Drive near the Ameristar Casino. Mahmoud..., 42, of Hazelwood, pleaded guilty Monday in St. Charles County Circuit Court on 29 counts of passing bad checks. Investigators said he wrote bad checks totaling about $60,000 to the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles between January and May last year. Berkeley man is accused in scheme at casino. Maurice..., 50, of Berkeley, was charged this week with receiving stolen property after Maryland Heights police said he was given six Ameristar Casino chips, each worth $500, for "hooking a girl up" with a casino patron. A businessman and a former employee of President Casinos Inc. were indicted Wednesday on charges they participated in a kickback scheme that defrauded the company. A woman from St. Charles was sentenced Tuesday to prison for carrying out a scheme to make more than $7,500 worth of bogus $20 bills. She and Zolotor were arrested in November after they attempted to pass more than $700 of the fake bills at the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles. Two former employees of Station Casino-St. Charles have been sentenced for conspiracy and money laundering charges involving more than $2 million. Law enforcement agents raided a plush house in western Kansas City, Kan., Wednesday afternoon and broke up a high-stakes poker game that allegedly was boosted by professional dealers moonlighting from Missouri casino jobs. Three slot department employees of Harrah's Casino in Maryland Heights have been arrested in a theft investigation. A man with a pistol, wanted for a holdup at a Citgo service station on west Clay Street in St. Charles County about 10 a.m. Friday, became the subject of a disruptive manhunt a little later at the Harrah's Casino in Maryland Heights. Station Casinos agreed to pay $38 million earlier this year to settle a lawsuit alleging it parlayed improper contacts into approval for a Missouri gaming license in 1997. In November 2000, it was fined $1 million by the Missouri Gaming Commission after questions surfaced about a $500,000 bonus to a Station lawyer (Lazaroff) and his contacts with the commission's chairman. Lazaroff was sentenced in October 2000 on federal felony mail fraud charges for defrauding his law partners and clients, including Station Casinos. Las Vegas Review-Journal 11/27/01 ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - Argosy Gaming Co. has agreed to pay a $200,000 fine stemming from its relationship with a company whose investors included convicted criminals with alleged mob ties. Argosy Gaming Co. will fight a $250,000 fine by the Missouri Gaming Commission over a failed Wisconsin tribal casino deal that exposed what Missouri regulators called Argosy's "unsavory" business associations. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A suburban riverboat casino faces a $100,000 fine from the Missouri Gaming Commission for failing to keep track of an estimated $32,000 in slot tokens. The commission, meeting Wednesday in St. Louis, also fined the Isle of Capri Casino in Kansas City $50,000 for failing to catch an alleged bet capper. Sloppy financial housekeeping could cost the Isle of Capri Casino in Kansas City $25,000. The Missouri Gaming Commission recommended that fine Wednesday after hearing an enforcement agent's report that the casino failed four times in recent months to e-mail its daily tax report to the commission by a noon deadline. Casino officials also failed for three months to remove and properly account for cash in three video poker machines, the commission was told. The St. Jo Frontier Casino faces $10,000 in penalties for four alleged violations of state gambling regulations. Last year, Missouri -- which boasts of having the nation's most stringent gambling laws -- imposed fines of $5,000 to $250,000. That included fines against casino owners for making illegal campaign contributions. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Harrah's casino will pay $40,000 in state fines for marketing violations, including mailing promotional materials to problem gamblers who had voluntarily banned themselves from Missouri casinos. The commission also: According to preliminary FBI figures, The city of St. Louis reported double-digit increases in robbery, arson and stolen cars in 2000. Reported robberies were up 15 percent. The former owner of three St. Louis sports radio stations agreed Friday to pay almost $159,000 to settle a federal criminal investigation into the company's receipt of money for advertising from illegal offshore gambling operations. The Missouri State Highway Patrol would like to warn citizens of possible scams involving investment opportunities, internet purchases and alleged lottery winnings. ********************************************************************************** In 1997 There were 2,103 arrests on 11 gambling boats. Nearly half of the St. Louis city treasury's $5.6 million gambling take must go to pay for police protection near the President Casino. A secretary for the University of Missouri Outreach and Extension Council is accused of stealing more than $10,000 from the council by forging checks to herself. She told detectives she was using the funds to gamble at casino boats. According to preliminary FBI figures, The city of St. Louis reported double-digit increases in robbery, arson and stolen cars in 2000. Reported robberies were up 15 percent. A husband, wife and two adult children were found guilty of multiple felonies for taking $600,000 from an elderly Overland Park woman they befriended in 1999. Area casino records show the guilty couple had lost about $40,000 at the casinos. A New York man was arrested at the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles. He was accused of cheating on slot machines by altering tokens. Man is charged with one count of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree robbery and one count of armed criminal action in the shooting death of an Oakville man. St. Louis County police believe the victim was followed home from the casino and robbery was the motive in the killing. The victim had been gambling at the Casino Queen and President casinos. The Missouri Gaming Commission fined the President Casino in St. Louis $107,000 for giving illegal campaign contribution to city officials. Contributions were given to the city mayor, comptroller and two alderman. An independent investigator has been looking into where the officials should be punished for accepting the contributions. All returned the money after being asked about the contributions. Mom lost eleven children in a deadly house fire in 1981. She had left the children home alone (10 months to 11 years old) while she was out gambling with their father in St. Louis. In the two decades since the fire, she has had six more children. Gambling lies near the center of most of the mom's problems. She loses consistently and often uses her children's public assistance money and checks for their various medical disorders to gamble, her children said. Consequently, she and her children have frequently been homeless. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A southwest Missouri woman was sentenced to probation for escorting her 16-year-old daughter to a Kansas City casino and allowing her to gamble. Station Casino and Harrah's have been fined $250,000 by the Missouri Gaming Commission for allegedly not preventing the daughter from gambling. Kan. (AP) -- Gambling debts of more than $100,000 prompted a woman's botched bank robbery attempt that led to an eight-hour hostage situation on New Year's Eve, her attorney said. A 23 year old woman was ordered held without bond on charges of attempting to rob the Bank of America in Olathe, using a firearm in a crime of violence and taking hostages. LIBERTY, Mo. -- An Overland Park, Kan., woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison after she admitted to stabbing her husband 75 times for not giving her more gambling money. Prosecutors said the crime occurred on Aug. 22, 1997, after the Knapps and a friend had left Harrah's casino. The woman allegedly was angry because her husband would not give her any more money. She kicked him out of the car, then stabbed him and drove off. A gambler who was robbed of his winnings from the Casino Queen riverboat while staying at the Marriott Hotel in St. Louis has filed a lawsuit against the casino and the hotel for failing to protect him. He says he incurred large medical bills because of the attack. Hilton executives resign over a $1,000,000 bribe of the Kansas City Port Authority. (The Port Authority official was convicted on bribery in another case, but faces no charges over the Hilton bribery.) Federal investigators had a very "indictable" case against the $11 billion company but Hilton was only fined $655.000 and required to teach their executives "ethics" in exchange for the government closing the investigation. (Belleville), -- A PTA mother and 25-year church member went every day to floating casinos, and embezzled. Husband put the money back from savings, but she embezzled again. This time a family member paid the debt to keep her out of jail. The Circuit Attorney believes that the man charged with stealing $50,620 from the St. Louis Midnight Basketball program for teenagers, lost it gambling on a boat. Four of the eight people who were charged with cheating at the Station Casino St. Charles have agreed to plead guilty. After a 2 1/2-week investigation in January, six casino employees and two patrons were each charged with cheating at gambling. Two men who once had ties to organized crime, were arrested for trying to cheat Players Casino. Gunman robs cash drawer at Kansas City Flamingo Hilton Casino. A 64 year old restaurant owner, was murdered and robbed Nov. 27 in the garage of his home. He had just left K.C. Harrahs after cashing out $3,000. The Missouri Gaming Commission also regularly reports crimes and other incidents at casinos involving action taken by Highway Patrol gaming agents. Between May 1, 1996, and April 30, 1997:
By RICK ALM, Kansas City Star 12/09/97 Kivenas robbed seven St. Louis-area banks and was arrested at Stations Casino in St. Charles. A 53 year old compulsive gambler who lost so much money at Station Casino, St. Charles, that she arranged to be legally barred from casinos and taken off the mailing list. The casino continues to send her solicitations--it is now exhorting her to commit an act of criminal trespass. Insurance agent scammed $500,000 from the elderly, gambled away the money on MO riverboats, then abandoned his wife and three children. His method was to gain the trust of elderly clients and then con them out of their money through phony investments or bad loans. He scammed $130,000 from a couple where the husband suffers from Alzheimer's. The $140,000 he got from a 76-year-old woman 'wiped her out'. A former St. Charles city councilwoman gambled away money she embezzled from her employer at local casinos. She is accused of stealing $367,000. The cash was withdrawn from those accounts and used to gamble at the Station Casino and the Casino Queen . . . . "A former St. Charles city councilwoman gambled away money she embezzled from her employer at three local casinos, according to court documents. A federal grand jury in St. Louis indicted Marianne Yarolimek, 59, Wednesday on charges of embezzlement and bank fraud. Yarolimek is accused of stealing more than $367,000 . . . . According to court documents, Yarolimek withdrew cash from those accounts and used it to gamble at the Station Casino and the Casino Queen . . . . " Man gets 35 years for murdering his wife during an argument after leaving a casino. Station Casino St. Charles got slapped with a $250,000 fine for permitting a 12-year-old to gamble. The man stole $100,000 from the Eagles Club. He acknowledged he had a gambling problem. A Kansas City woman murders her husband for life insurance money to cover her blackjack debt. A $3,000 winner at Harrah's North Kansas City Casino was shot in his garage. The police believe the assailant followed him home. A man whose father has been identified as one of Kansas City's top mob leaders was seen leaving the casino the same time as the victim. The 3rd man leaving later committed suicide. Christian County Treasurer stole $650,000 from the county's building fund. He lost more than $65,000 at casinos in three months. Wilson robbed and murdered a 21-year-old convenience store clerk on his way to Las Vegas. A nationwide network of thieves believed to use a high-tech gadget to fool slot machines into big payoffs are believed to have hit three St. Louis casinos. A Florissant woman and Ferguson man face felony charges in a botched arson scheme they claim was spurred by the woman's gambling. Kansas City's three casinos have each been fined $25,000 for doing business with a convicted felon. A patron at the Casinos Aztar gambling boat was shot in the stomach during an attempted robbery on the parking lot. The president of a sports league for youths ages 5-17 stole $26,000 to bankroll gambling on riverboats and a drinking problem. |
Harrah's experienced 276 incidents. Forty-four of those involved a felony crime, including 18 cases of stealing, eight forgeries and one arrest involving drugs.