8 Dayton-Area Bingo Operators Indicted
By Jim DeBrosse, Dayton Daily News, Ohio
Sep. 30–DAYTON — Eight Dayton-area bingo operators and their affiliated corporations have been indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury for allegedly diverting millions of dollars from charity into their pockets, dating back to October 1999.
“Ohio law is clear — any and all profits made from games of chance must go to legitimate charities,” Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro said Thursday in a press release.
The Moraine Police Division and the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission, part of the attorney general’s office, collaborated in the two-year investigation.
Petro’s press release said the suspects had allegedly diverted “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of charity bingo money for their use. However, Moraine police Chief Tom Schenk said last week that $15 million had been diverted by the suspects.
The indictments were handed down more than 20 months after an organized crime task force coordinated by the Ohio attorney general’s office raided 19 office and residential locations in Montgomery and Greene counties on Jan. 6, 2004.
“This has been the most difficult and frustrating case I’ve ever been involved with,” said Lt. Tracy Harpster, the Moraine police officer who directed the task force.
“There is literally a mountain of documents we had to go through numerous times, with the help of a forensic accountant” in order to trace the diverted bingo funds.
Members of the task force put in thousands of hours of surveillance, interviews and records analysis over a 2 1/2-year period, and at one time filled eight self-storage warehouse units with evidence in the case, Harpster said.
Some critics have argued that bingo is a victimless crime, but Harpster said: “You wouldn’t call it a victimless crime if you got the phone calls from the people who lost their Social Security checks playing at the bingo hall. People go there thinking the charity is getting the money. Instead, it’s going to the operators.”
The former owner of “Mr. Bingo” bingo supplies in Moraine, Lawrence Parr of Miamisburg, sold his store to the Lancaster Bingo Company in July 2003 and became an employee of the company. Lancaster Bingo fired Parr in April 2004, alleging he had engaged in illegal activities, and sued him in Fairfield County Common Pleas Court for breach of contract. Parr later counter-sued Lancaster Bingo. Both cases still are open.
Michael S. York is the former president of the now-defunct South Dayton School and Moraine Lyceum, whose popular 600-seat bingo hall on Kettering Boulevard generated more than $2 million in net profits between 2001 and 2004, state records show. Bingo licenses for both private schools were revoked by the state in 2004 and an appeal by the owners was later denied. The two schools closed their doors in 2003, then launched a tutoring service for students at other schools that also ended last summer.
The players aren’t the only victims, Harpster said. The 200 or so students at South Dayton School and Moraine Lyceum “could have gotten scholarships to Harvard out of the money that was made,” he said. “Instead, they got one book a year.”
THE OPERATORS: The 268-count indictment centers on bingo operators at the following locations:
–Shopkeepers Bingo, 3994 Salem Ave., Trotwood
–South Kettering Bingo, 3454 S. Kettering Blvd., Moraine
–Northstar Bingo, 4201-4203 N. Main St.
–Dayton Gym, 430 Wayne St.
–St. Joseph Missionary, 3990 Salem Ave.
–Traffic Circle Bingo, 3720 Keats Drive
–Skateworld, 1601 E. David Road, Kettering
–Westtown, 4257 W. Third St.
THE ACCUSED: Charged with violating racketeering law, a first-degree felony, and money laundering and tampering with records, third-degree felonies:
–Steve Ezratty of Dayton
–Ken Kramer of Centerville
–Eric Petticrew of Miamisburg
–William ‘Buddy’ Todd of West Carrollton
–Charles Wilz of Dayton
–Sean Wilz of Miamisburg
–Michael S. York of Xenia
Also, Lawrence Parr faces multiple counts relating to violations of bingo laws.
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