Tocchet Deal

[BDAClub]

Maybe I missed it but I thought someone would of started a thread on this already......I know these people got tons of $$ already so they must be doing it for the thrill of betting, but what a mess for them now personaly the only reason it's a big deal in my mind is because Uncle Sam isn't getting his end if he could figure out how to tax it he'd of legalized it a long time ago.

If they never bet on hockey and apparently they didn't to me it's harmless and is going to get blown out of proportion. (I know it's illegal....whatever)

I'll bet this put's an end to the slots casino stadiumn deal in Pittsburgh for Mario though. The NHL and that sawed off shithead will be putting the brakes on that one!!

If Janet G is really in on it too.....that brings new meaning to "bored housewife",now the media ghouls will be salivatating to get a little dirt on Gretzky when he's been nuthin but Gold for hockey and everything else he's touched........that will be a shame!!

 

[DJLAW]

too bad. he was one hell of a player. this is all people are going to remember about him.

what jumps out in peoples minds when they hear the name Pete Rose?

tough. had a scoring touch. played his heart out. he was one of Don Cherry's favorites. mine too.

 

[noneasgood]

I pretty agree with the sentiments expressed. The only issue is the tax revenue not being collected and if you think about it 1.7 million or whatever the alleged betting amount was isn't all that much money as far as betting goes. The mafia being tied into it is a concern however, and on that basis I guess they do have to crack down on this sort of thing. I'm not sure what the ramifications are if you placed a bet through them, as Janet Gretzky is alleged to have done..guess we'll see.

 

[BDAClub]

The mafia being tied into it is a concern however, and on that basis I guess they do have to crack down on this sort of thing.

True enough the maafia thing is probably at least in my mind the only disturbing part at all!!

 

[schizo_man]

ya know, I don't think this will really tarnish wayne's reputation at all really, unless it is proven that he bet on hockey himself. He's been linked to people with shady people in the past, Bruce Mcnall comes to mind, along with Pocklington. Mind you, he wasn't married to any of these people, so who knows. If Janet bet on Wayne's games, it may hurt him. If hockey is left out of it, he'll be unscathed.

EDIT: spoke too soon, FOX sports is now reporting that Gretzky had knowledge of the ring, even though he had said he new nothing about it in a news conference.http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/5318424

 

[luckydog71]

Gretsky

The news we are getting here is not looking good for Wayne. I am hearing his wife bet 500,000 in a 40 day period. Wayne is on tape with Tocket trying to figure out how to keep his wife out of the investigation.

Wayne is a great guy and I hope he is not involved, but the NHL will come down on him hard if he was aware Tocket was involved with this sports book operation and he did not do anything about it.

Wayne's continued involvement in the Coyotes will be decided by what he knew, when he knew it, and what he did about it.

If all his wife did was actually place bets in her name, then she will likely be slapped on the wrist and will be forced to testify.

Another interesting fact I heard today. This sports book operated in New Jersey. New Jersey is the only state where a husband can be forced to testify against his wife. What a horrible spot to be in if Janet turns out to be deeper into this than she seems to be now.

 

[noneasgood]

I have a different view of this. As long as no one bet on hockey I don't think Wayne has any concerns. Who cares if he knew about it before it got busted so did a lot of people. They said there are at least 6 active player who placed bets in addition to Janet Gretzky and Mike Barnett. Placing the bets isn't illegal, unless it was on hockey games than it may be. But for sure just knowing about it isn't a crime of any kind.
The biggest problem he faces is that he might be required to testify against his friends, but then again he may have enough clout to avoid even that.

 

[luckydog71]

noneasgood - I hope you are right.

A couple of points

- placing a bet is a crime in many states. New jersey is one of those states. However if all Janet did was place bets she can likely plea barging her way out of prosecution in exchange for her testimony against the organizers.

- the leaked (and therefore suspicious) information on Tocket is that he was involved in the organization that set up the sports book and that is a crime.

Where Wayne has some jeopardy is if he knew Tocket was involved and did not suspend him from coaching. Or even worse if Wayne was involved in any effort to cover up a crime. There is a news report that he was wired tapped trying to keep his wife out of trouble.

I hope Wayne is not involved in any of this, but many people have been charged with the cover up or lying to investigators when the underlying crime was never proven.

We have a goofy legal system here. If I am suspected of a crime let's say robbing a bank and I lying to the investigators about my where I was at the time. They can charge me with lying about where I was even if they can never prove I actually robbed the bank. A recent example is Scooter Libby. he is in trouble for lying. No one has proven any underlying crime has been committed.

How did we get so fucked up?

 

[noneasgood]

Most cover-up crimes you're referring to involve those who were before congress or an investigative body and lied under oath and for the most part they were politicians.

I was told that the act of placing a bet isn't a crime, but the act of receiving the bet, if you are not legally allowed to, is a crime. Perhaps these issues will be clarified over time. What I suspect will happen is that those who have placed bets will be forced to testify against those who took the bets.

But unless anyone bet on hockey this is almost a non story.

The money involved is basically small change as far as gambling goes. I mean gambling is a multi-billion dollar business and we're talking about a total of 1.7M in bets over a couple of months, which if the reports are to believed about 500K were placed by Janet. And some legal beagle raised the point as to why a mafia connected man would need funds from an ex hockey player to fund such an operation. These are practically self funding as the losers basically pay off the winners with the house skimming off a % for their involvement.

 

[metoo113]

wayne's a hero man.
didn't he win everything there is to win in hockey.
and didn't he marry a hottie wife?
c'mon, leave the guy alone

I've got to wonder. Janet and Wayne have to have a few bucks in the bank. Why would Janet get involved in betting in a illegal operation. Does she have a gambling addiction?

 

[insync2you]

Laundry Money big problem

BDA club, that is the big issue. Organized Crime will pay big time to have someone role their money over.(Laundry it) Illegal gambling can take Janice G cheque, money order etc. deposit it into a legitment bank account cause this money is clean, (draw it out later or transfer to other accounts off shore as any buisness owner can do) yet should she win send her CASH that came from illegal sources drug, prositution, loan shark etc. Now I am no expert on gambling, same number of bets on both sides of the spread, but I am in the financial services sector and last year alone had three seperate occassions where considerable sums of cash apeared on our door step.

So the tragedy with Wayne, his wife, NHL Hockey, will come to life once the
New Jersey Police lay charges as that is a public domain so we will then know all. Till then we have media speculation, public hype, and a hole lot of gossip, so till then I am going to enjoy the Olympics and watch Canada defend their gold medals in both men's and women's hockey.

 

[noneasgood]

We'll see but..

Beyond a doubt the biggest issue is the optics and how it affects the sport, but if the GO didn't gamble which he has claimed repeatedly in public then this is hardly a Pete Rose type of situation. Others who are currently playing the game and placed bets might have something more to worry about. But Wayne himself certainly doesn't as long as what he says publicly turns out to be true, and given his history I have no reason to doubt this. He'd hardly tell everyone he's going to the olympics and continuing coaching if he felt there was ANY chance that this could come back on him at anytime.

 

[noneasgood]

the one thing you guys are missing is that Janet is guilty of tax evasion by not betting through legitimate betting houses. That would be a Fed beef.
Next if organized crinme is involved with money laundrying Tochet and the group could face RICO charges.
Also if you were the mob and you had all these people who won't keep their mouth's shut to prosecutors what would be the normal way to take care of this........

She'd only be guilty of tax evasion if her gains exceeded her losses and she never reported it, which isn't even close to being proven at this point. As mentioned someone on TV mentioned that placing bets iisn't illegal, you seem to think it is, any reference to this being a "Fed beef"?

 

[LittleAsianGuy]

They sure timed this crap perfectly. A few days before the olypmics.

 

[rickoshadows]

How did we get so fucked up?

Voting in conservative governments?

 

[Kev]

This bullshit conspiracy story was manufactured by USA hockey sometime ago.

They know they can't beat Canada on the ice so they concocted this gambling story to throw Canada of their game. It won't work they don't know the character of Wayne Gretzky. He'll bring the gold back for Canada know matter what becomes of this fabricated story.

 

[The Lizard King]

Conspiracy theory? Yeah...that's it...concocted by that evil Paul Tagliabue, who happens to be from New Jersey, and who happens to need a "shiny object" deflection of attention away from the recently fixed Super Bowl! That's it!!!

 

[noneasgood]

you don't get to write off your loses in gambling. Any winnings over 10K have to have taxes paid on the spot. That is how it is done in Vegas. They don't get you tyo report your plus/misses on the year end tax form. She was betting $100 000 on the Superbowl. If she won and didn't pay the tax that is a Fed offence.

You don't get to write off your losses but you DO get to net them against your winnings when you file a tax return.

Secondly if she did win, who's to say if she paid tax on these funds or not since she's not required to file her activities for 2006 until April 15, 2007. The Superbowl was only a week ago.

Think about it, the whole gambling system is set up so that the chances of loosing are greater than the chances of winning. Not too many compulsive gamblers have tax evasion problems, most loose everything they own.

 

[luckydog71]

Voting in conservative governments?

Rickoshadows - until recently the majority of our judges were liberal. Now we are seeing a swing back to a more traditional (read conservative) court maybe we can get some of these fucked up legal problems fixed.

There is a good possibility that W will get to appoint one more judge to the supreme court before the end of his term.

 

[dick slap]

I think it will go like this...

Wayne is a great guy - he's The Greatest! His wife has a gambling problem - she's not the greatest. They'll seperate over this thing and he'll seperate himself from her.

As for the rest of the players in this game I think Wayne is too much of a nice guy and may be guilty by association but not intent.

Wayne - I love ya man!