More Bookie Names Sought in Records : Gambling: Deputies who broke up alleged betting ring say further arrests are possible. Seized computer information is being examined.

Sheriff’s deputies who broke up what they called the largest sports betting ring in Southern California in recent years began searching seized computer records Tuesday for the hidden identities of the ring’s bettors, looking for help in finding more bookies.

“The arrests we made (Monday) are not the end of the arrests we will make,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. David Kading, who is on the vice detail of the Special Investigations Bureau. “As we obtain more information, we will attempt to arrest more people in the Kalustian ring, or what is left of it, and who comes in to take their place.”

The sports bookmaking operation was crippled Monday, authorities said, when sheriff’s deputies swept through five counties and arrested 17 people, including Kale Kalustian, who deputies allege was the leader of a criminal enterprise that netted $5 million a month.

Authorities said Kalustian, 65, of Granada Hills, earned the lion’s share of the illicit profits. Two men identified as Kalustian’s top aides, both from the San Fernando Valley, were among those arrested.

Deputies said they seized $82,408 in cash from five locations, including $34,099 from Kalustian and $29,791 from an alleged lieutenant, Walter Miller. They also seized computers, financial ledgers, cellular and regular phones and tape recorders they said were used to record bets and transactions.

The names of the bettors, often in code, are believed to be listed in those records, Kading said.

Authorities said illegal bookmaking is so widespread that they hold out little hope that the operation will remain dormant for long. But the information in the seized records “may take us to other organizations,” Kading said.

“The NBA (National Basketball Assn.) finals start (tonight) and the bettors will be looking for a place to make their bets,” he said. “They have an addiction, an inner compulsion to drive them to bet, and they will be looking. Because of human frailty, people want to bet. So they will find a bookmaker or a bookmaker will find them. It just goes on and on and on.”

Deputies said Tuesday that they suspect Kalustian has been involved in sports betting operations for at least 10 years, taking over at least partial control of a bookmaking operation allegedly run previously by Ron Sacco, a San Francisco-based bookie who authorities say ran the largest sports betting operation in the world until his indictment last year.

Sacco is in federal custody awaiting trial on charges of operating a $1-billion-a-year international bookmaking operation. He was indicted last year along with 25 alleged associates.

Kalustian and at least one of his alleged associates, Ron LaForgia, 42, were charged along with 11 others in 1986 with running a smaller ring.

All 17 people arrested Monday were booked for investigation of conspiracy to commit bookmaking and were being held in lieu of $200,000 bail each.

The investigation into the current ring began nine months ago and there had been more than a dozen arrests before Monday. Kading said the ring specialized in taking bets on horse races and professional and college basketball and football.