Police tapes tells of gambling kingpin’s woes

His gambling associates in New Jersey were keeping lousy records, and their business was failing.

In Chicago, a $51,000 debt had to be collected.

And in Florida, a pile of money needed to be transported north. The question was whether to put it in a car or take it on a plane.

So, according to detectives, went the day-to-day travails of Joseph Mastronardo Jr., the gentleman gambler caught in the cross hairs of a bookmaking and money-laundering investigation. Local and federal authorities say they intercepted his phone calls and taped his words.

The tapes, made public earlier this month in a sworn affidavit, capture Mastronardo in unguarded moments, complaining and cajoling, whining and philosophizing, about the state of his business -- and of the economy.

Things were not so good, he said again and again.

But the gambling kingpin, who authorities believe has made millions taking sports bets over the last 30 years, kept it all in perspective.

“Times like this, I’m happy I’m still a bookmaker,” he said in a conversation recorded last month.

On another tape, however, Mastronardo griped to an associate about deadbeat customers.

“You know, for me, to have my expenses and people are taking advantage of me is really very upsetting,” he said in one of dozens of pointed but typically disjointed comments sprinkled throughout the affidavit filed in court.

In another conversation, he counseled an associate against going into the landscaping business because, he said, nobody can afford that kind of work these days.

“Let me tell you something,” said Mastronardo, 60. “I have never seen it this bad financially.”

The charges in the pending case, however, suggest that Mastronardo had a thriving business.

Mastronardo, known as Joe Vito, and his brother John, 54, were arrested March 31 on gambling and money-laundering charges.

The brothers were being held on $1-million bail each. They are also charged with violating the terms of their parole after pleading guilty in 2006 to bookmaking charges.

In fact, according to the affidavit of probable cause made public April 1, the brothers walked out of court in 2006 after admitting their guilt and went right back into business.

The tapes were part of a two-year investigation that also relied on information gleaned from at least two confidential informants, according to authorities.

Joseph Mastronardo, son-in-law of Frank L. Rizzo, the late Philadelphia mayor and police commissioner, has long been identified as a high-end gambler and bookmaker with a well-heeled clientele. The current investigation underscores those points.

Authorities reportedly seized nearly $1 million in cash during a search of the house that Mastronardo shares with his wife, Joanna, in Abington Township, Pa.

Approximately $1 million more was seized in a series of raids at 45 other sites in the Philadelphia area and in Florida, authorities said.

The detectives described the bookmaking operation as “substantial, extremely profitable, and involving bets placed . . . in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Florida.”

Both Mastronardo brothers were convicted of federal gambling charges in 1987 and served short jail terms.

Joseph Mastronardo was quoted as telling an associate that he had been helping his brother financially for decades. “Think about that. Supporting him,” he said. “Sixteen years old, I bought him his first car.”

Mastronardo then allegedly made a reference to the 2006 gambling case in which he and his brother agreed to give up any claim to $2.7 million that Montgomery County authorities seized, in exchange for pleading guilty to a lesser gambling charge.

“He was so embarrassed to admit he was in the gambling business, he was in a hurry to give up my money with the . . . bust,” Mastronardo was quoted as saying. “It’s all about his ego.”

Anastasia and Nunnally write for the Philadelphia Inquirer.