World
<header id="a-headers"> ‘Dangerous Odds’ tells story of woman’s life inside an illegal sports-betting operation worth billions
Marisa Lankester details her involvement in the billion-dollar betting operation led by Rob ‘The Cigar’ Sacco in her new book ‘Dangerous Odds.’ During her time in the operation, Lankester married Sacco’s head of operations, got imprisoned in a ‘medieval hellhole’ in the Dominican Republic, and was repeatedly raped by a general in the secret police.
BY Sherryl Connelly
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, May 18, 2014, 2:30 AM
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Adriano Vigano, CH-Kloten Marisa Lankester tells all in her new book 'Dangerous Odds: My Secret Life Inside an Illegal Billion Dollar Sports Betting Operation.' </figure>
The good little Catholic-school girl from New Rochelle grew up to become a hot blond bookie on the lam from the FBI in the Dominican Republic.
In the new book “Dangerous Odds: My Secret Life Inside an Illegal Billion Dollar Sports Betting Operation,” Marisa Lankester tells about the harrowing journey that saw her play a key role in the creation of the first offshore gambling empire — one steeped in mob ties — before she was imprisoned in a “medieval hellhole” in the Dominican Republic and repeatedly raped by a general in the secret police.
Nothing in Lankester’s proper upbringing in Westchester County foretold her life of criminal chaos. Her father worked for the United Nations and, like any student at the Ursuline School, her young life was a routine of lessons from ballet to piano.
<figure style="display: block; height: 468px;"> <figcaption>Marisa Lankester played a key role in the creation of the first offshore gambling empire.</figcaption> </figure> E
Courtesy of Marisa Lankester
While she was attending Marymount Manhattan College, her parents divorced and the pressure of dealing with her mother’s almost deranged reaction became too much. Lankester transferred to the University of British Columbia — her parents had met in Vancouver — but soon dropped out.
Adrift in life, she took up endurance sports car racing as a passion. Her co-driver brought her to Los Angeles in 1986 and arranged a job for her at a sports-betting operation. He rigged the phone lines for the outfit and thought the lithe 23-year-old could pick up easy money.
She didn’t know that she had stumbled into the employ of Ron (The Cigar) Sacco, America’s No. 1 bookie.
A “60 Minutes” exposé would later identify Sacco as the mastermind behind the biggest and most successful illegal sports-betting operation in history, one the FBI claimed took in $100 million a month. Sacco used what was then cutting-edge technology — toll-free 800 numbers — to serve the nation’s gamblers.
Lankester soon became essential to the operation. She married Sacco’s head of operations, Tony Ballestrasse, and had a daughter with him. She was also swept up in her first police raid. Bail arrived at the jail before she did. Sacco took care of his own, until he didn’t. Much worse was to come in the Dominican Republic.
After the LAPD cracked down, Sacco moved his operation to Las Vegas and Staten Island, where bookmaking was only a misdemeanor. But he was now the target of an FBI investigation. Both operations were shut down. The criminal residue of Ballestrasse’s newly earned convictions left him no choice but to follow Sacco’s orders and relocate to the Dominican Republic, where gambling was legal.
But not, as it turned out, beyond the law.
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</ins> 60 Minutes Ron 'The Cigar' Sacco was interviewed on 60 Minutes, which ran Feb. 13, 1992.
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</ins> 60 Minutes A 60 Minutes interview identified Sacco as the mastermind behind the biggest and most successful illegal sports-betting operation in history.
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Sacco pioneered the first offshore sports-betting operation through his 1-800 network. It was worth billions — and the FBI was hell-bent on bringing him down.
Though Santo Domingo, the country’s capital, was a hellhole of corruption and poverty, and her husband was snorting cocaine and hitting the bottle hard, Lankester was able to cobble a life together. She even found work on the Robert Redford movie “Havana,” where, she says, she came close to having an affair with the actor Richard Portnow. In period costumes, the two flirted heavily for several days, positioned behind Redford at a card table while he portrayed an American in a high-stakes poker game as the revolution loomed.
Lankester was driven to obtain a quickie divorce when her husband’s cocaine-fueled behavior became too erratic to bear.
Robert Rosamilio/New York Daily News John Gotti, at his arraignment with his lawyer, Bruce Cutler.
<header id="a-headers"> ‘Dangerous Odds’ tells story of woman’s life inside an illegal sports-betting operation worth billions
Marisa Lankester details her involvement in the billion-dollar betting operation led by Rob ‘The Cigar’ Sacco in her new book ‘Dangerous Odds.’ During her time in the operation, Lankester married Sacco’s head of operations, got imprisoned in a ‘medieval hellhole’ in the Dominican Republic, and was repeatedly raped by a general in the secret police.
BY Sherryl Connelly
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, May 18, 2014, 2:30 AM
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The good little Catholic-school girl from New Rochelle grew up to become a hot blond bookie on the lam from the FBI in the Dominican Republic.
In the new book “Dangerous Odds: My Secret Life Inside an Illegal Billion Dollar Sports Betting Operation,” Marisa Lankester tells about the harrowing journey that saw her play a key role in the creation of the first offshore gambling empire — one steeped in mob ties — before she was imprisoned in a “medieval hellhole” in the Dominican Republic and repeatedly raped by a general in the secret police.
Nothing in Lankester’s proper upbringing in Westchester County foretold her life of criminal chaos. Her father worked for the United Nations and, like any student at the Ursuline School, her young life was a routine of lessons from ballet to piano.
<figure style="display: block; height: 468px;"> <figcaption>Marisa Lankester played a key role in the creation of the first offshore gambling empire.</figcaption> </figure> E
Courtesy of Marisa Lankester
While she was attending Marymount Manhattan College, her parents divorced and the pressure of dealing with her mother’s almost deranged reaction became too much. Lankester transferred to the University of British Columbia — her parents had met in Vancouver — but soon dropped out.
Adrift in life, she took up endurance sports car racing as a passion. Her co-driver brought her to Los Angeles in 1986 and arranged a job for her at a sports-betting operation. He rigged the phone lines for the outfit and thought the lithe 23-year-old could pick up easy money.
She didn’t know that she had stumbled into the employ of Ron (The Cigar) Sacco, America’s No. 1 bookie.
A “60 Minutes” exposé would later identify Sacco as the mastermind behind the biggest and most successful illegal sports-betting operation in history, one the FBI claimed took in $100 million a month. Sacco used what was then cutting-edge technology — toll-free 800 numbers — to serve the nation’s gamblers.
Lankester soon became essential to the operation. She married Sacco’s head of operations, Tony Ballestrasse, and had a daughter with him. She was also swept up in her first police raid. Bail arrived at the jail before she did. Sacco took care of his own, until he didn’t. Much worse was to come in the Dominican Republic.
After the LAPD cracked down, Sacco moved his operation to Las Vegas and Staten Island, where bookmaking was only a misdemeanor. But he was now the target of an FBI investigation. Both operations were shut down. The criminal residue of Ballestrasse’s newly earned convictions left him no choice but to follow Sacco’s orders and relocate to the Dominican Republic, where gambling was legal.
But not, as it turned out, beyond the law.
<figure class="a-image"> <ins style="height:231px;">
</figure> <figure class="a-image"> <ins style="height:231px;">
Enlarge </figure>
Sacco pioneered the first offshore sports-betting operation through his 1-800 network. It was worth billions — and the FBI was hell-bent on bringing him down.
Though Santo Domingo, the country’s capital, was a hellhole of corruption and poverty, and her husband was snorting cocaine and hitting the bottle hard, Lankester was able to cobble a life together. She even found work on the Robert Redford movie “Havana,” where, she says, she came close to having an affair with the actor Richard Portnow. In period costumes, the two flirted heavily for several days, positioned behind Redford at a card table while he portrayed an American in a high-stakes poker game as the revolution loomed.
Lankester was driven to obtain a quickie divorce when her husband’s cocaine-fueled behavior became too erratic to bear.
