FBI New York Assistant Director Christopher Raia (at podium) speaks alongside US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella (2L) and FBI Director Kash Patel (R) during a news conference to announce arrests tied to illegal sports betting and poker game schemes last month. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
Thomas “Juice” Gelardo is alleged to have run the “Texas hold ’em” operation at 147 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan on behalf of the Bonanno crime family. Investigators claim that he rigged the table with X-ray cameras and chip tray analysers, ensuring his own players wore bespoke contact lens or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards. Then, they say, he used celebrity associates to lure superstar athletes to the swanky address for high-stakes, highly illegal poker games. The only catch was the “whales” lured by the promise of potentially huge winnings entered a setting where eve
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