4 Plead Guilty to Running Illegal Reservation Casino

Four former executives of a casino on an Indian reservation near Palm Springs pleaded guilty Wednesday to running an illegal gambling business and bringing slot machines onto Indian land.

The four men each pleaded guilty to one felony charge instead of going to trial on 24 charges in connection with their involvement with the casino on the Morongo Indian Reservation in the early 1990s.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Jonathan S. Shapiro described the four as “sophisticated businessmen well-versed in the gaming industry” who knew it was illegal to bring video poker, keno and other games into California.

The men were part of the largest gambling-management company doing business in Southern California, and Shapiro said the guilty pleas were the “end of the beginning” in the federal effort to combat illegal gambling.

Three of the men--William C. Armstrong, 45, of Pompano Beach, Fla.; Roger Keesee, 58, of Atlanta, and Gyorgy Hargitai, 48, a Hungarian investor from Budapest--pleaded guilty to one count of running an illegal gambling business. Formerly employed by the Morongo Indians to run gaming operations at the casino, they face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The casino manager, Ira Englander, 66, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to one count of bringing illegal slot machines onto Indian land. The president of an investment company, Englander faces up to two years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

In 1994, the four men were indicted on 24 counts each of illegally operating slot machines and skimming millions of dollars from the Morongo tribe in the process. But a federal judge in Los Angeles, Richard A. Gadbois Jr., threw out all but one charge against each of them.

The U.S. attorney’s office withdrew the remaining charge and appealed the judge’s decision to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge appeals panel in July reinstated the dismissed charge.

The issue of slot machines on Indian land has been argued in the courts, with some tribes seeking to force state authorities to grant “compacts” to allow fast-paced video wagering machines, much like the technology used in California’s lottery games. When the lottery’s Keno game was ruled illegal, tribes maintained that their machines were outside the jurisdiction of state authorities.

Shapiro argued that because such machines are illegal in California, federal authorities will fight them. But he refused comment when asked if further indictments concerning video gaming on Indian land near Los Angeles were imminent.

Sentencing in Los Angeles federal court was set for Jan. 28.