Lucchese Soldier recruited son and his friends for gambling ring in latest NJ bust
A mafia member ran a multimillion sports betting ring by recruiting a network of Gen Z bookmakers through his son’s circle of friends, which included college athletes, New Jersey law enforcement officials said on Thursday.
Authorities said that Joseph M. "Little Joe" Perna of Fairfield, N.J., who they said was part of the Lucchese crime family, financed the operation with his son, Joseph R. Perna, 25, who handled day-to-day business.
In all, law enforcement authorities arrested and charged 14 people, including Mr. Perna’s wife, ex-wife, another son and a stepson. The names of two people charged match those of former Rutgers wrestlers.
The defendants are charged with racketeering, conspiracy, gambling offenses and money laundering.
It was unclear who was representing Joseph M. Perna, 55. Anthony Iacullo, a lawyer for the younger Mr. Perna, who pleaded not guilty in a virtual court appearance Thursday, said that his client would fight the charges.
“Joseph looks forward to confronting the false allegations against him in a court of law,” Mr. Iacullo said in an email.
The charges came after recent indictments by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn brought new scrutiny to the ways gambling has affected sports in the United States. Two of those cases involved insiders who placed bets using nonpublic information about N.B.A. and M.L.B. games, according to federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York.
It remains unclear to what degree, if any, college sports are involved in the charges announced on Thursday.
The New Jersey attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, said the operation included a “number of” college athletes, without saying how many or which schools. Some of the defendants appeared to have loose connections to one another from high school, and were not college athletes.
Gambling is a chief concern of many involved in collegiate athletics, which in recent years has been supercharged by payments to players. Last week, the N.C.A.A. announced that six former men’s basketball players, at Mississippi Valley State, the University of New Orleans and Arizona State, had engaged in “betting-related game manipulation.”
The N.C.A.A. recently approved a rule that would allow student athletes to bet on professional sports, but has delayed its implementation in the face of criticism. Three members of Congress wrote a letter to the N.C.A.A. last month asking the body why it was permitting student athletes to gamble on sports. In their letter, the lawmakers cited the federal indictments in Brooklyn. The rule could now be rescinded.
On Thursday, Mr. Platkin said at a news conference that the betting operation had taken place even though sports gambling is legal in the state.
“Organized crime families seem to have a hard time breaking this old habit, so we’re going to break it for them,” he said.
He said that the operation used offshore websites, enticing people to place bets that represented about $2 million in illegal transactions over two years. It relied, he said, on younger gamblers recruited from among the junior Mr. Perna’s high school and college friends.
The biographies of two of those charged, Michael Cetta, who is a cousin of the younger Mr. Perna, and Nicholas Raimo, match those of former wrestlers for Rutgers University. Mr. Cetta, 23, and Mr. Raimo, 25, are accused of being “agents” of the enterprise.
A lawyer for Mr. Cetta declined to comment, and it was not clear who was representing Mr. Raimo. Kevin Lorincz, a spokesman for Rutgers, said the school “does not comment on law enforcement matters.”
In New Jersey, the charges are particularly resonant. A state law led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2018 that paved the way for the widespread legalization of sports betting across America.
Gambling companies have argued that legalization brought betting out of the underworld and allowed for its regulation. But critics have countered that legal wagers often lead to illegal ones, and that a surfeit of opportunities for betting has expanded the possibilities for corruption.
Younger men like those charged Thursday remain particularly at risk for becoming problem gamblers, experts say. Sports bettors tend to be men under 35, according to studies, and the risk of gambling addiction is disproportionately high for young adults.
Four years after the Supreme Court’s decision, the American Gambling Association wrote to the Justice Department saying that illegal gambling was still pervasive throughout America.
“A vast illegal sports betting market continues to exist through offshore websites, which have established well-known brands,” the letter said, adding that they “enjoy many competitive advantages that allow them to offer better odds and promotions and ignore any commitment to responsible gaming.”
Mr. Platkin asked that any college student listening take note of the fact that, while they could gamble on their phones if they were of age, “You should not be gambling in a mob-backed operation. That’s free parental advice.”
Brian J. Neary, a lawyer for Tyler Schnorrbusch, a recent college graduate charged in the scheme, described his client as a “promising young man.” Mr. Schnorrbusch, 23, has pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Neary said he was skeptical of the government’s claims. “College kids,” he said, “can’t compete with FanDuel.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/nyregion/new-jersey-sports-gambling-mob.html
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