Chicago-land Cop Please Guilty to Obstruction of Justice
One of the main concerns of legislators and opponents of online gambling’s legalization was a rise in crime. Many opponents said that inevitably gambling brings in money laundering, corruption, gangs, theft, and addiction. Without the proper programs to manage the surge in problems, states would be hard-pressed to fix the repercussions. It could mean potential disaster for all involved and cause a greater cost to fix the problems. For example, a rise in crime would necessitate an increase in police protection and possibly even the development of a task force solely focused on gambling watches. One incident recently proved that opponents of legalizing gaming have point.
In the Chicago-land area a police officer, Dino Vitalo, plead guilty to conspiring to obstruct justice when he was found to be feeding information to various mobsters in the area. He told them about surveillance camera positioning throughout the city and also helped them by running various license plates for them. The goal was to help them to avoid various undercover police officers and tell mobsters if they were in danger of being caught for their illegal activities. Vitalo is now facing charges but is maintaining that his motivation was friendship. He claims that his actions, though he knows they were wrong, were namely done to help out his friends who have been loyal to him over the years.
There very well may be a surge in illegal activities since the question of gambling is being debated. There will be an added financial aspect to the communities up for debate and that means added temptation for various residents—even municipal workers. It’s an age old problem- people who work for the state or city government are asked to help the “wrong” side of the picture. They are tempted and fall. So what can be done? Possibly all cities that legalize gambling will have to shore up their own police forces and create task forces to monitor and police gambling. It may take the move to truly protect people from the possible temptations of illegal activities. If people know there are task forces specifically working to uncover their actions, they may think twice prior to committing crimes.
