Ex-mobster warns of athletes’ gambling ways
December 2nd, 2005
From the Des Moines Register
Michael Franzese, former heir apparent to New York’s Colombo crime family, is coming to Iowa with a warning: Your athletes have a gambling problem.
He’s pointing a finger squarely at the Hawkeyes. The Cyclones. The Panthers. The Bulldogs.
“I can’t tell you how many athletes gamble, and gamble hard,” Franzese said. “It’s prevalent. You’d be surprised.”
Twenty years ago, while the college sports world was sinking too far into denial to grasp that it was being corrupted by gambling, Franzese, the former Long Island Don, got filthy rich by raking in the tainted profits.
At one time, Franzese, the son of a Colombo kingpin who became a made, sworn member of the mob at age 24, earned millions a week through his operations in gambling, loan sharking and corporate crime.
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