Gambling Los Angeles

A high-ranking officer of a California stock brokerage has been arrested in connection with a bookmaking operation that allegedly handled hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bets on horse racing and sporting events from brokers and others nationwide. Tom Juda, 42, executive vice president and head of institutional trading in Los Angeles for Sutro & Co.

Nine people have been arrested in a Westside operation that allegedly took sports bets and told gamblers they were using a legal offshore system, police said. "You'd pick up the phone and you're under the understanding that you're calling somewhere" such as Jamaica or the Bahamas that offers licensed bookmaking, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Mark Arneson of Pacific Division's vice unit.

Four days after his death, millionaire contractor Sam Gilbert, a controversial sports figure once known as the "godfather" of UCLA's basketball program, was charged in a federal indictment Wednesday with racketeering and money laundering in connection with a Florida marijuana smuggling ring. The indictment of Gilbert and one of his three children, Michael, 46, charged with conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, was announced by federal officials in Miami.

Los Angeles police and other local authorities raided the offices of an Internet gambling company Thursday as part of an investigation of one of the most high-profile operators in a legally dubious industry. The raid targeted Youbet.com Inc., a West Los Angeles company that claims to be the nation's "first interactive online horse-racing service." The company says it allows its 12,000 paying subscribers to place wagers and view races at more than 30 racetracks across the country.

A former political consultant for the U.S.-controlled Bicycle Club casino has been indicted on charges of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the card club's political campaigns. Authorities said Charles G. "Jerry" Westlund Jr. embezzled $380,000 from the casino and its campaign committees, and used the money to buy low-rent apartment houses in Long Beach and Compton, among other purchases.

Grinning under a dapper fedora, 70-year-old Joel (Derby) Brown blamed the whole bookmaking bust on a dame. "I had an old flame," he said Tuesday, referring to the 34-year-old woman, on parole for robbery, who lived with him briefly last year--until he had the police throw her out. Now, Brown stands accused of masterminding a $30,000-a-week bookie operation run by a band of mostly senior citizens in South Los Angeles. "I believe somebody dropped a dime," Brown said of his arrest four days ago.

A jury has awarded $500,000 to an unemployed Carlsbad man who won a million-dollar jackpot at Hollywood Park five years ago, only to be disqualified. The jury agreed last week with a lawyer for Rudolfo Sahagun that Hollywood Park officials had made a fool of Sahagun when they disqualified him after earlier bringing him and his family to the racetrack winner's circle in front of 45,000 race fans and presenting them a with a ceremonial check. The money was to have been paid out over 20 years.

It was checkmate Friday in the match between chess players and police in the Mid-Wilshire area. Los Angeles Police Department vice officers who raided a nightly chess tournament that draws dozens of players to Dad's Donuts were ordered to retrieve and tear up gambling citations issued earlier this week in an undercover operation. Three men were cited for gambling Tuesday night after officers infiltrated a match and found $1.50 on the table next to rows of white and black knights and queens.

Los Angeles gaming officers raided 16 residences in recent days to break up three bookmaking rings that raked in about $700,000 a week, much of it from at least 200 bettors who work in the downtown garment district, police said Thursday. Nine people were arrested in the raids and an unidentified 10th person has agreed to surrender today, said Capt. Jim Docherty of the Police Department's Administrative Vice Division.

Nine people have been arrested in a Westside operation that allegedly took sports bets and told gamblers they were using a legal offshore system, police said. "You'd pick up the phone and you're under the understanding that you're calling somewhere" such as Jamaica or the Bahamas that offers licensed bookmaking, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Mark Arneson of Pacific Division's vice unit.

A former political consultant for the U.S.-controlled Bicycle Club casino has been indicted on charges of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the card club's political campaigns. Authorities said Charles G. "Jerry" Westlund Jr. embezzled $380,000 from the casino and its campaign committees, and used the money to buy low-rent apartment houses in Long Beach and Compton, among other purchases.

A three-week undercover investigation into illegal gambling at bars in the northeast San Fernando Valley led to five arrests and the confiscation of three illegal video slot machines, Los Angeles police said Thursday. The machines were distributed at bars in Sylmar and Arleta by an unknown man who told owners he would split proceeds from the devices, LAPD Officer Tim Blake said. The distributor provided owners with stickers for the games that read: "For Amusement Purposes Only."

An election to decide whether to allow poker clubs in Hawaiian Gardens may take place Nov. 21 after all. The Court of Appeal on Wednesday ordered a Superior Court judge to reverse his Oct. 20 ruling that blocked the election, citing petition irregularities. Both sides are to appear in court Oct. 30 for a hearing. Hawaiian Gardens is facing a $1.5-million budget deficit.

Moose Lodges do it. Churches do it. Even little old ladies do it. Bingo does have its supporters. But some South Gate residents are adamantly fighting the city's plans to build a bingo emporium to raise money for the city and a nonprofit service organization. The residents object to the bingo parlor because the city voted against a card club in 1991. Whether it's bingo or cards, they say, it's still gambling and they want none of it.

Supporters and opponents of a proposed casino in Pico Rivera have laid their cards on the table, and it's clear who is holding the aces. An organization that supports the casino has spent about $88,000, while those against the club have spent less than $2,000, according to statements filed recently with the city clerk's office.

The City Council will vote Tuesday on establishing a Gaming Commission that would cost the city $18,000 a year and be composed of the five members of the council. The ordinance was placed on the council agenda as an urgency item, which allows the council to skip an introduction of the ordinance to the public and take an immediate vote. Usually, residents have a chance to review an item twice before the council votes on it. The Gaming Commission would oversee future high-stakes bingo games.

It is 6:45 a.m. when Dave Simon clocks in at the Commerce Casino and readies the tools of his trade--$100 bills. Simon begins his shift slowly, calling and raising $5 and $10 bets at a poker table where the all-nighters wear fatigue on their faces and dollar signs in their eyes. The stakes go up as Simon moves to a different area of the card room, where the pots hold $500, $1,000 and sometimes more. Simon has lost about $400, but his workday is not over yet.

Michael Kilby and two friends were preparing to leave the Royal Oak bar in North Hollywood after a few rounds of dollar-a-game darts when two shabbily dressed men approached. One flashed a badge and said: "I'm sorry, gentlemen, but you're not going anywhere right now."

Whatever the pop philosophers may tell us, there has always been a substantial number of Angelenos who thought that speed, sex and a cold beer were better for you than just stopping to smell the roses. Before the turn of the century, such crowds gathered south of Downtown at Agricultural Park, which filled the site now occupied by Exposition Park's celebrated rose garden.

Weeks after a Los Angeles judge threw out 23 of the 24 counts against the managers of the Morongo tribal casino, federal prosecutors have agreed to dismissal of the final charge--while they appeal the earlier ruling.