Vincent Del Giudice, a 55-year-old man, who has been under investigation by authorities for running an online gambling operation, has pleaded guilty to charges of gambling conspiracy and money laundering. Del Giudice, who’s known as “Uncle Mick”, used a Costa Rican online gambling platform to conduct sports bets with individuals wanting to gamble.
The indictment claims that Del Giudice’s working relationship with the Costa Rican gambling site violates Illinois statutes. The gambling ring was a multi-million dollar operation that connected as many as 1,000 individuals looking to make wagers on major sporting events such as MLB, NBA, NCAA and other popular sports leagues. “Uncle Mick” even used his pseudonym in the URL of his website which was used to facilitate transactions, record keeping, betting and view odds determinations. The website was a part of the working relationship with the Costa Rica-based gambling platform, which Del Giudice paid more than $10,000 a month for. Del Giudice was able to expand his network of gamblers through various other individuals, nine of which were also listed in the indictment.
Casey Urlacher was among the nine others listed as co-conspirators. Urlacher was an Illinois politician who served as mayor of a small village called Mettawa and was also the younger brother of famed Chicago Bears linebacker, Brian Urlacher. Fortunately for Casey, the fraternal bond helped the former mayor get out of his sticky situation. According to the Chicago Sun Times, the Hall of Fame linebacker met with then-President Trump in March of 2020 who was moved to include Casey Urlacher as one of his 143 presidential pardons.
The Forfeiture Allegation in the indictment has listed a personal money judgment of $8 million to be collected as well as the assets seized by a law enforcement raid in April 2019 which included approximately $1 million in cash, $90,000 worth of gold coins, about $350,000 worth of silver bars and jewelry, a 2017 Lexus SUV, and an Orland Park property estimated to be worth about $600,000.
