Posted by Sean Patrick Griffin, Ph.D.
Since I last posted about the current probe into sports betting legend Billy Walters, there has been considerable speculation regarding the government’s motives in the case involving Walters. In short, the leading “theory” is that the government was embarrassed by the 60 Minutes episode which featured Walters openly demonstrating his significance in the betting world. As such, the logic goes, the feds decided to go after Walters. This theory has been discussed widely on the net, perhaps best exemplified by a Covers.com piece, “Why is the IRS going after sports bettor Billy Walters,” which states among other things:
Walters had embarrassed the government by beating prosecutors on four gambling-related indictments and had twisted the knife even more in that famed “60 Minutes” interview in which he talked about using computers and rogue’s gallery of beards to beat the big-time Vegas sportsbooks. With Walters showing absolutely no intention of back off of or even retreating into the shadows, the government began plotting to do what it does best when it comes to gambling cases – get revenge.
I suppose it is possible the feds were so ticked by the 60 Minutes piece that they were compelled into action against Walters. I would respectfully offer another explanation for the government’s interest in Billy Walters, one I first discovered during the course of research for Gaming the Game. As noted in GTG (p.258, emphasis added):
On September 18, 2008, Jimmy Battista began serving his fifteen-month sentence at the federal detention center in Brooklyn. The detention center was a far cry from the white-collar prison environment to which Battista assumed he would be sentenced. Battista believes he may have been sent to a general population prison because he didn’t cooperate with authorities, who may also have been holding out hope the incarceration with violent criminals would compel Battista to revisit his decision not to speak with the FBI. The feds, of course, began their investigation with him, not with Tim Donaghy, and knew the spokes emanating out from Battista went far beyond the NBA betting scandal to the highest reaches of the global sports betting underworld.
While the FBI agents knew Battista could detail the NBA scandal for them, they especially knew the pro gambler was among a few individuals in the world who could detail for them the mechanics of big-time sports gambling. That is, if they could garner Jimmy Battista’s cooperation, he could describe for them the massive offshore gambling underworld – the major players and their operations (in the U.S. and elsewhere), the logistics of moving millions of dollars around the globe each day, etc. Certainly, it was widely known at the time (2007) that Billy Walters sat atop that mountain of gamblers, and the feds assumed Battista wither worked directly with Walters or, at a minimum, was intimately familiar with the Walters operation.
As is well known by now, Battista never cooperated with authorities, and thus the lesser probe into the BNA scandal was quickly conducted and successfully competed in short order. Lost amid the focus on Tim Donaghy and his myriad bogus (though gripping!) claims was that the federal probe into offshore sports gambling marched on under the radar (in fact, few ever took notice that the NBA betting scandal wasn’t the primary investigation in the first place).
In sum, it is quite possible – if not likely – that the current and ongoing probe into the Billy Walters operation has been a long time in coming. I would also add that the federal probe into former Battista partner Joseph “Joe Vito” Mastronardo should not be viewed as a wholly separate and distinct investigation from what is going on in Las Vegas. When the FBI dug up $1 million in Joe Vito’s front lawn in 2010 (and confiscated an additional $1 million), it mostly received attention locally throughout the Philadelphia region. Sophisticated observers, however, know Joe Vito’s influence and significance, much like Battista’s, went well beyond Philadelphia and it suburbs.
