Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Casino Boss Explains How To Beat The System...
Sat, 07 Dec 2024
Paul Schiffbauer Explains how Illegal gambling works. Pauls's Links https://linktr.ee/themachineman Get 50% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout. Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7 Send me an email here: [email protected] Do you extra clips and behind the scenes content? Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime 📧Sign up to my newsletter to learn about Real Estate, Credit, and Growing a Youtube Channel: https://mattcoxcourses.com/news 🏦Raising & Building Credit Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/credit 📸Growing a YouTube Channel Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/yt 🏠Make money with Real Estate Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/re Follow me on all socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrime Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8 Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438 The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402 Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1 Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel! Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69 Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: What are the secrets of illegal gambling?
When we got the machines, there was control switches inside. 60% payout, 50%, 40%. You had to hide that. They were splitting like $60,000 a week. I never got hit by the cops because I would money laundered too. Me and my boss, we started the date, and she feels comfortable enough to take me to her family functions. And a lot of these functions were at her brother-in-law's house.
Now, he was 20 years older than me. They started asking me a lot of questions, like right off the bat, oh, but how was the military? What did you do? What are your future plans? I said, you know, hopefully FBI, this and that. And so they felt like I felt like it was like Sonny was like interviewing me. And then he started talking about, you know, what he does. He goes, I own a vending business.
You know, I'm thinking, OK, pool tables, jukeboxes. things like that. He goes, well, you know, I have poker machines too. And, but we'll, you know, we can talk later about that. So initially he wasn't telling me a lot about that. So this one particular night, it was probably four months after I first met him and started going to these functions. He came to check in at a hotel, it was 11 o'clock.
It was, he checked in, he goes, what time to get off, kiddo? And I said, 11 o'clock. He goes, come on up. So I go up there and he starts telling me about the business and Now, this guy was like – he was like very, very smart, but he used it for crime. He had this briefcase sitting by his bed, and he knew I'd be like looking at it.
And he's telling me about the business, the poker machines and this and that and this gray area. And he says, I'll start you at $35,000 a year. I'm like, to start at $35,000? I'm like, $35,000. He goes, yeah, what do you think? I said, I don't know. Then he opened this briefcase that I had been staring at. He did this, you know, he's very tactical. And he opened it up.
He said, this was my half this week. It was 30 grand in there. It was six bundles of money band up, 5,000 each. And he threw a bundle to me. So I grab it. I'm holding this bundle. I said, man, he goes, what do you think about that? I said, that's more money I made the first year in the army. Five grand. It was. And I said, I never had that much money in my possession ever.
He goes, well, you come work for me. You run the, you know, move equipment around. You'll learn how to fix things. You'll learn the whole trade. And eventually maybe you'll be a route man. And so he's like saying, would you consider working for me? And I'm like, I don't know. This thing may, you're talking about poker machines. He goes, well. We're kind of like bankers, you know?
But in a way it's true because what was going on, if you work for Joe's Bar and he's selling, he wants to get out. So you're the bartender and he wants 300 grand. 300 grand is not a lot of money, but it didn't come with the property. It was just liquor license, a little corner bar. You go to a bank, they're not going to loan you money. You're nobody.
So they will come to guys like these operators and say, hey, I'm looking at Joe's bar. He wants like $25,000 down. And they would go check it out. If they thought they could make the $25,000, they'd loan them back in a year, get them to sign a five-year contract. They'd do the deal. But in the process, if they loan them the money, they tie up their liquor license.
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Chapter 2: How do poker machines operate in the underground scene?
He goes, I lost 30 grand last night. I said, no shit. I gave you 25. I was holding it for you. He goes, no, no. I borrowed 30 from the house. I said, what? Yeah. I said, you got to pay him, man. He goes, ah, fuck them. I don't believe in Italians. Fuck them guys. I said, dude, it was Roland's game. I said, but these Italians are fun at it. We don't know anything about these guys. Ah, fuck them.
I ain't paying them shit.
He's a badass sitting at a booth at Denny's.
Yeah, I'm like, okay. So he goes, tomorrow you ride with me.
Why? Why am I riding with you?
Well, because I had a .38 and a shotgun, a .28 shotgun. I'm thinking, I'm riding with you. Yeah. So I go riding with him the next day, and we do our things. We get back to the shop. He opens the garage. He pulls his car in the garage. He never parks his car in the garage, never. He's hiding it. We go in the shop. As soon as we get in the shop – now, mind you, the shop is very secure.
It's an undescript building. The only way you know it's there, you got to know it's there. It's a metal door. There's a window you can see through with bars. And there's a buzzer. And you don't get in unless you get buzzed in. That's the only way you get in, I think. And when you go in that door, that door, ba-boom, it slams behind you. It's very secure. And there's another door inside.
Not as secure, but there's a second door to get through, just in case. So we get to the shop, and Janice is like, Sonny, these guys are gone. They have Italian accents. They said they're coming here. So his partner, Ira, is sitting in the office saying, What the hell's going on? What's going on? Ah, it's nothing. He's telling his partner, ah, it's nothing. Don't worry about it.
He's like, what the fuck do you mean don't worry about it? He goes, these guys are calling saying they know the money and they're coming over. He goes, we don't need this shit here. Because you know, you don't want any attention to what they're doing. So he goes, ah, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Don't answer the phone. Don't answer the door. That was his excuse.
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Chapter 3: What happens during a police raid on illegal gambling?
So he goes and has a meet with Phil and tells Phil, I need you to hold this license up. He's done it in the past. So I can get some money out of this guy, either sign a contract or try to get some money out of him. Phil goes, there's a problem. His lawyer was a guy that Phil grew up with. They're friends. He goes, I got a problem. I knew this guy since I was like 10 years old.
I can't, you know, I can't. He goes, you got to do something, Phil. You got to help me out. And Phil goes, I don't know. So the day of the hearing, Phil never gave him an answer. So Phil... The day of the hearing, there's a lot of people, like 45 people in the hearing room. Sonny calls me in the morning.
He goes, take your ass to that hearing and stand up in the back and make sure Phil sees you and stare at him. And here, Phil walked my wife down the aisle when we got married. To the day he died, my kids called him Uncle Phil. He was like family. He wasn't blood, but he was like family. He was kind of a mentor in a way. I mean, he was less evil than Sonny. He was bad, but Sonny was evil.
That's kind of how I look at it. And I go and I walk in there before the hearing is over. And I'm standing up and this guy says, you need to sit down. I said, I ain't sitting down. I stand up and Phil sees me. He's like talking, they're asking questions about people, about should they get the license, should it transfer. He looks up and sees me. And I'm just kind of looking at him.
Not that I ever would threaten Phil, but Phil knew that I was doing some work for Sonny, straightening people out and shit like that. And I would never do, but he- It was implied. It was implied. So he looks at me and they call for a recess. This was on Thursday. And then he come back and he says, we're not going to decide this till Monday. We're going to reconvene Monday.
And there's like an upward, like what? It's supposed to be a simple transfer. Right. No one's contesting it. So he tells me – I see him later. He gets somebody to tell me I go back in his office at the liquor board. He says, tell Sonny he's got the money to do whatever he's got to do. That's the best I can do.
Yeah, and the bar owner now is questioning whether he's going to get his license or not. So –
That wasn't good enough leverage for Sonny. Sonny's like signed a five-year contract. You're not going to get your license. I already held it up. He ended up getting like 10 grand of the guy. All right. Okay, 10 grand. I mean, he wanted a five-year contract, which could be worth 50, 60, 70, 80 grand every time. He was happy to get something, but still he wasn't happy enough.
Right after that, Phil was a piece of shit. He didn't talk to Phil anymore. So I'm thinking at that point. Phil just got you 10 grand.
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Chapter 4: How do operators manage illegal gambling businesses?
Well, 10 grand made a guy out of that deal, maybe, I don't know how bad it was. He goes, give me 10 grand, and it's gone. So he gave the politician 10 grand. He went down to the DMV, gets on the computer. Nothing. Didn't exist. Gone. That's how connected these guys were. If you paid the right guy, he said, you have no more, you're not even in the system. There's nothing there.
Thanks to a local senator who was in charge of the DMV at the time.
Yeah, there's a, yeah, there's, it's funny how corrupt, you know, especially at the lower levels, they can be super corrupt.
They can be super corrupt. And people like, when you tell stories like people on the outside, like, no way, it's not like, yeah, it's not always like that, but. It is like that sometimes.
I mean, I bribed a politician, you know.
Yeah, I mean, sometimes it's like when I had the bar, I mean, I threw a party for somebody or come something, and they may look the other way for something or do you a favor. I had this guy locked up one night. He came in. He was drunk. He put his fist through my jukebox, and I'm glad my son stopped me.
I was drinking at home, and my bartender said, this motherfucker put his fist through the jukebox. I was like – And he had a shop like a half mile from where my place was. So I grabbed my shotgun. I tell my son, I'm fucked up. I said, we're going out. I'm going to blow his storefront windows out. We're driving down there. You remember that? You remember this? I'm fucked up. I'm driving down there.
I'm like, we're going to drive by. I'm going to, and we're going to, so he's, we're going down. We get halfway there. He's, dad, you know, think about it. Then finally I'm like, Yeah, it's firing a weapon at city limits. I said, it's probably a bad idea. So I drove back home. And so then a buddy of mine who was a cop, I told him what happened.
So he came in, he got pictures of these people and had a picture of him. He goes to the bartender, he goes, which one did it?
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Chapter 5: What was the role of the 'Crazy Steve' in the operations?
Just take the car.
And what else we got?
I got some questions.
No.
Maybe not. So with these machines, do you guys control the payouts? Are you able to determine?
That's a good answer. That was a problem with me and Sonny we had because a lot of these machines... There's control switches inside. So I knew you throw certain toggle switches, you know, 60% payout, 50%, 40%. Sonny would like, he went to rape you as quick as he could, 50% or 40%.
And my argument with Sonny was, I said, look, you know, if we're making $2,000 a week, $2,000 a week, $1,500, eventually these guys stop playing it.
Yeah.
Then again, I'm stupid. I'm young. I don't know. And then we're making 300 bucks a week and used to be 2000 because you're getting greedy. I said, let them, let them win 60. My machines were set at like 60, 40, 60, 40, 65. I let them win a lot. You know why? They're going to put the money back in. Yeah. They get excited. They put it back in. So you're going to get it all.
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