More than $135,000 and two loaded handguns were seized in the Monday night police raid of an illegal basketball betting game run out of a popular Alpharetta eatery, police said Wednesday.
Twenty-one people were arrested in the bust of the NCAA basketball tournament gambling pool, including eight who were charged with felony commercial gambling and 13 others who were arrested for misdemeanor gambling, police said. The investigation continues, and more charges and arrests are possible.
Police described the game at Pepperoni’s Tavern on Old Milton Parkway as a “Calcutta Auction” style of gambling. Such an auction, they said, “occurs when gamblers bid among themselves to ‘buy’ each of the contestants, with each contestant being assigned to the highest bidder. The contestant will then pay out to the owner a predetermined proportion of the pool depending on how it performs in the tournament.”
Police said that while it’s “common knowledge” that many people bet privately on the basketball tournament, their interest is on major illegal gambling operations.
Charged in the Alpharetta case with commercial gambling and keeping a gambling place: John Joseph Spagnuolo, John Charles Roveto, Phillip Jeffrey Campbell Sr., William Gazdik, Phillip Brown and Robert Forbes Howe. Each was jailed on a $7,000 signature bond. The names of two others charged with commercial gambling were not released.
Charged with gambling: James Christopher Davenport, Jesse Paul Polosky, Robert Joo Park, Lee Harold Lichtenstein, Michael Ledford, David Walter Hoch, Robert Rumsey Eagar, Dennis John Sterk and Terry Anderson David. The remeaining four suspects were not named.
John T. Rausch was charged with disorderly conduct.
Police said, “Some of the attendees had been previously arrested in another city in 2007 while participating in a similar gambling event. Additionally, some attendees have previous criminal records for offenses such as gambling, drug, and weapons charges.”
One of the arrests Monday involved the possession of cocaine, police added.
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