Illegal gambling business took in $250,000
By Kate Northrop
A man from Ocean County, New Jersey pleaded guilty to operating an illegal lottery on Tuesday after having drawn in $250,000 in cash proceeds from the scheme.
Edward O'Neill, 54, of Beachwood appeared before U.S. District Judge Brian R. Martinotti via videoconference and pleaded guilty to charges against him, including one count of managing an illegal gambling business and one count of subscribing to a false tax return.
According to the District of New Jersey, O'Neill evaded more than $65,000 in federal taxes on his earnings.
Case documents and statements made in court detail the scheme that operated between 2014 and 2019, during which O'Neill managed an illegal lottery fashioned after the New Jersey Lottery's Pick 6 draw game.
"Players" participated by paying a $20 entry fee and selected six numbers from a pool of 1 to 49. Participants who matched their numbers to the numbers drawn in the New Jersey Lottery's official Pick 6 game would win a cash prize. O'Neill documented identifying information for each player along with their numbers into ledgers and monitored the Lottery's official Pick 6 results.
The ledgers O'Neill kept recorded up to 8,000 participants in one single drawing of his illegal lottery, with the cash prizes for each drawing often exceeding $100,000.
O'Neill gave himself a 10 percent cut of the winnings for each drawing in exchange for operating and managing the illegal lottery, a press release by the District of New Jersey said. After generating $250,000 in profits and failing to report his earnings on tax returns he filed with the IRS between 2014 and 2018, he skirted his federal income taxes by $65,674.
The maximum penalty for managing an illegal gambling business is five years in prison, while subscribing to a false tax return carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. For both charges, O'Neill may also be subjected to a $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain or loss from the offenses, whichever is greater.
O'Neill's sentencing is set to take place on Aug. 25, 2021.
Dang! This has to be one of the most interesting stories I have read on here!
Thanks Todd.
Can't trust no one from New Jersey!
nothing would surprise me about the state of new jersey 😏
First thing I thought when I saw the headline was it was about Todd.......
JUST KIDDING!!!!
Though lotteries (official) weren't around in the 40's this story makes me think of that era, and even before.
Too many checks and balances to try to pull off an old crime like this.
Dumpster diving today yielded $10! Then read an email from KLC that I have a free MM ticket for being a KY Fun Club Member for over a year! Life is good.
Wouldn't that be a nice surprise if that free MM ticket wins the jackpot.
With Covid-19 it is easier, for the time being to remain anonymous.
If I were to get surprised as you say, I'd have Chip Polston, KLC contact Todd to do an anonymous story on me!
Haven't been to Fun Club yet, but I'm sure it won't have a Megaplier...but beggars can't be choosers. Second place is fine with me!
Many years ago I participated in a similar game which was legal according to the County Prosecutor. We paid $5 ($2.50 per draw) a week to pick six Ohio Lotto numbers and the first to get all six won the prize pool.
The ledgers O'Neill kept recorded up to 8,000 participants in one single drawing
We had 30 at tops and maybe why ours was legal.
Illegally obtained evidence- fruit of the poisonous tree- is prohibited from admittance but illegally obtained revenue is subject to taxation and even represents a separate crime. Another reminder that all the money is viewed as the governments and we should consider ourselves fortunate that we are allowed to keep any.
Keyword.....LEGAL in your case!
he skirted his federal income taxes by $65,674.
It says O'Neill collected up to $160,000 per drawing for five years and at 10% should have made around 6 million. Nice of the IRS charging less than 2% for taxes.
Why would a person put in 20 dollars on a illegal lottery based on the Jersey Pick 6 when you could play it legally for a $1.00? Makes no sense to me. Plus the payout is higher if you hit!
I was asking myself that also. And he had a list of 8000 players?
Only thing I can think of is that if they win they wont be filling out a tax form when they collect?
haha
I'm confused. So he took what 10% of each game. Each game made $100,000? And in 5 years time or whatever he generated $250,000? A little confused. So, trying to figure this out, $10,000 x 25? I don't know.
Illegal or not, the guy was running a business. When you run a business, you make sure your mouth is fed. Ain't right what he was doing, but a man has to eat..
" Have a great weekend people."
There are several of these illegal so-called Pick 6 lotteries operating in New Jersey. The lure is that the rules for winning are different. For their $20 the Player picks 6 numbers and registers them. The actual N.J. Lottery daily Pick 6 drawing is used like the drawing of Bingo balls, so over the course of several drawings whichever players gets all of their registered six numbers first wins the pot, which usually ranges from about $25,000 to $100,000. I never played it because there is no guarantee that an illegal operation will pay up or it could go out of business at any time as evidenced by the above article.
I was wondering the exact same thing. The only thing I could think of was it could have been a bunch of people in the rural areas of New Jersey who did not want to go to the nearest store, so they would call this guy and he would make "house calls." Otherwise it would be silly to drive somewhere to play with this guy while you are passing 3 or 4 stores or gas stations on the way to his place.
ohhhhh
Thank you so much for that - makes much more sense now.
Was that an intentional faux pas?
Todd is from New Jersey.
Bookies don't take taxes out.
I didn't know Todd was from New Jersey, but it was a reference to the characters in the Sopranos TV show - wouldn't trust them to run a lotto.
Plus a 1/2 of my family is from there in Trenton.
It was just a joke I didn't mean to offend anyone.
Unlucky-Kenny
I was home on leave in the Army when NJ said they'd OK a state lottery........So we get a phone call and I'm a junior so the guy the he had my father on the phone and says, If you want to play with the state go ahead but don't forget us, we pay in cash and don't tax you."
It's kind of hard to believe this guy in Jersey fessed up because bookies, while illegal have to get a stamp and register, used to be$50 for the stamp, not sure now.
When I was a kid in Jersey it was very common to see young kids go into a candy store, buy the NY Daily News, look at the next to the last page with the results from the designated racetrack of the week, look for the last three dollar digits of the total mutual handle, say Oh 3267! and throw the paper away.
One time my father went to a play a number at a newsstand, there was also a priest and a cop in the store, so the cop and the priest all three start looking at magazines........the cop and the priest left and the guy who ran the store cracked up, he told my father "They were both her to play a number too"
Thanks, but I take zero offense to any stated here about NJ. Obviously I don't speak for everyone from NJ, but I find it amusing, not offensive at all. I guess I don't subscribe to the current trend of getting offended by everything. People need to be able to laugh at themselves.
No problem, it's just that Jersey gets picked on so much. especially by NY.
There was a West New York cop on COPS one night and looking at the NYC skyline je said, Millions of people from all over the world go to visit that city......see that river? As long as it's between that city and me I can handle ot (God Bless him!)
I guess it's a little different in Hudson, Union and Bergen counties.......being from Bayonne I'm still p.o'd at Stallone and what he did to Chuck Wepner, the Bayonne Bleeder, the 'Real Rocky'.
Very "inventive" of him.