Couple, son charged in Detroit illegal lottery

Oct 13, 2010, 9:22 pm (38 comments)

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They went searching for drugs, but discovered a major gambling operation instead.

A federal judge in Detroit today unsealed a criminal complaint detailing a large-scale, multi-state gambling operation — allegedly run by an elderly Detroit couple — that for decades has operated out of coney island restaurants, storefronts and homes in the Detroit area.

According to the complaint, federal agents stumbled upon the gambling operation in 2007 when they went to execute a search warrant at a Farmington Hills home, expecting to discover evidence of a drug operation. Instead, they found $25,901, which fell out of the hands of Herbert Lee Daniels when they entered the residence, the complaint stated.

"During questioning about the source of the cash, Daniels stated that the money was from his lottery business," the complaint stated.

According to court records, Daniels and his wife, Willie Mae Truvillion, who are in their 70s, ran an illegal lottery based on legitimate lottery numbers.

Items seized from their home included fax machines, fax documents containing lottery gambling information, including suspected code names, or bookie or book holder names, and charts listing Michigan lottery numbers. According to court documents, gamblers could place a nickel bet, and win as much as $250; a 50-cent bet paid out $2,500.

Charged in the alleged gambling operation were Daniels, Truvillion, and the couple's son, Myron Daniels.

The family's lawyer, Richard Helfrick, could not be reached for comment.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 3.

Thanks to truecritic for the tip.

Detroit Free Press

Comments

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Wow, I wonder what the odds were on that nickel bet for $250.

sully16's avatarsully16

Seems to me more people should be charged.

iGlenn

Who bets just a nickel?  If 100 bet $.05 then the bookie (or illegal lottery) would only bring in $5 and it would probably take almost an hour (depending on the accounting system) just to log the bets into the books.  $5 is simply not worth an hours worth of time with an operation like this.  There is more to this story.

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

The Tennessee Lottery will be glad to hear about these crooks being nabbed.

They would be devastated to see anybody cheated out of money by an unscrupulous lottery scam.

It would make the whole industry look bad.

I'm sure they will demand heavy fines and maximum prison sentences.

truecritic's avatartruecritic

Charged?  Crooks?

Sounds like they payout much better than State Lotteries - I bet they don't make you go through the drudgery of filing tax forms either.  Give me that lottery, I'll bet with both hands!  Wink

CutlassBob's avatarCutlassBob

Quote: Originally posted by sully16 on Oct 13, 2010

Seems to me more people should be charged.

I'm glad i did not know these folks. 70 years old, proubly trying to supplement their social security and health care. You would think the elderly would be more wise than this.

I too believe more people will be going down!

Cuff em' and Stuff em' Roscoe P. Coltrane.

Cutla$$Bob

time*treat's avatartime*treat

Quote: Originally posted by truecritic on Oct 13, 2010

Charged?  Crooks?

Sounds like they payout much better than State Lotteries - I bet they don't make you go through the drudgery of filing tax forms either.  Give me that lottery, I'll bet with both hands!  Wink

Well, that's why it's ill-eagle -- the gov't can't filch a piece of the action (in exchange for doing exactly NONE of the work), you get shut down.

tlady4's avatartlady4

Quote: Originally posted by iGlenn on Oct 13, 2010

Who bets just a nickel?  If 100 bet $.05 then the bookie (or illegal lottery) would only bring in $5 and it would probably take almost an hour (depending on the accounting system) just to log the bets into the books.  $5 is simply not worth an hours worth of time with an operation like this.  There is more to this story.

No it is not more to this story we do the same thing everyday! and it only takes a couple of minutes to put your numbers in. Most people play the same numbers everyday so they just copy them and date the slip or you write your own and have them ready when you get there. We bet 10 cents but it only pay 7 to 1

LANTERN's avatarLANTERN

I wonder which game or games they were using.

tlady4's avatartlady4

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Oct 13, 2010

The Tennessee Lottery will be glad to hear about these crooks being nabbed.

They would be devastated to see anybody cheated out of money by an unscrupulous lottery scam.

It would make the whole industry look bad.

I'm sure they will demand heavy fines and maximum prison sentences.

I am sure that SCEL will be nabbing their crooks when everbody open back up for business this week.

They would be upset to learn that someone is actually paying out money beacuse the numbers are falling in the states where they place their bet on the number.

It doea make the SCEL look bad.

SCEL need to be heavily fines and Imprisoned. Not the bookie.

iGlenn

Quote: Originally posted by tlady4 on Oct 13, 2010

No it is not more to this story we do the same thing everyday! and it only takes a couple of minutes to put your numbers in. Most people play the same numbers everyday so they just copy them and date the slip or you write your own and have them ready when you get there. We bet 10 cents but it only pay 7 to 1

I've never heard of a lottery game where you can just bet 10 cents.

Littleoldlady's avatarLittleoldlady

You must be very young..the games in one form or another have been around for years.  I played them also.  almost every state had some kind of "numbers" game.  It was a game that gave the poor man a chance to win.  To me they paid off better than the state lotteries and it didn't cost much to bet.

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Quote: Originally posted by tlady4 on Oct 13, 2010

I am sure that SCEL will be nabbing their crooks when everbody open back up for business this week.

They would be upset to learn that someone is actually paying out money beacuse the numbers are falling in the states where they place their bet on the number.

It doea make the SCEL look bad.

SCEL need to be heavily fines and Imprisoned. Not the bookie.

That's basically what I was saying in a tongue in cheek kinda way.

It was always illegal, not to protect the consumer but because the government wasn't getting a piece of the action.

Now they got the whole ball o' wax and don't want any competition.

What they call crime for everybody else is a lucrative business for the government.

Hermanus104's avatarHermanus104

Quote: Originally posted by rdgrnr on Oct 13, 2010

That's basically what I was saying in a tongue in cheek kinda way.

It was always illegal, not to protect the consumer but because the government wasn't getting a piece of the action.

Now they got the whole ball o' wax and don't want any competition.

What they call crime for everybody else is a lucrative business for the government.

Or, put more simply by my dad, "Don't steal. The Government hates competition."

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