US police busting illegal gambling ops on both sides of the country

Gambling, in one form or another, is legal in all but two US States. Most Americans live just a few hours away from regulated casinos, no matter which state they reside. All that legal gambling, however, has never been a deterrent to always thriving black market – as a series of recent police raids on both sides of the country recently proved.
According to a report on CalvinAyre.com, authorities have busted major illegal gambling rings in New York and California.
Our journey across America’s illegal gambling landscape starts in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles where police deployed a battering ram to break into the headquarters of an off-the-books gambling operation. Details about what kind of gambling was happening at the house are sparse, and the whole operation only resulted in one arrest. But, because it happened in LA, TV helicopters hovered over the house, dutifully recording the entire operation.
Moving across the country to country to Staten Island, New York, police there were also busy busting a gambling operation that may have ties to organized crime. This particular raid resulted in the arrests of 20 individuals, most of whom were locals.
The origins of the New York investigation began, oddly enough, about three years ago when Joseph Amato placed a GPS device on a public bus in an effort to track the whereabouts of his girlfriend. Amato, who is allegedly linked to the Colombo crime family, attracted the attention of the authorities which eventually led to last week’s semi-related gambling bust.
These raids point out the fact that no matter how much regulated gambling exists, there will always be an audience for black market gambling.