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We’re not sure exactly what if any impact being born into an alleged Mafia family might have but this is the latest headliner coming out of the Arizona gubernatorial race involving Republican Doug Ducey.
His connections may be more interesting to long time diehard readers of Gambling911.com than the actual voters in Arizona.
The story was first reported by the Phoenix New Times, revealing that four of Ducey’s maternal family members had ties to organized crime in Ohio, specifically an illegal gambling enterprise.
That being said, the New Times also reports that Ducey was found not to have profited from the family’s criminal activities.
Family members ran after-hours gambling clubs and participated in bookmaking, numbers-running, extortion, loan-sharking, and other lucrative illicit activities from the 1920s through the 1980s, according to the New Times.
An uncle, Bill Scott (Americanized from the Italian “Scotti”), founded what was one of the first offshore sportsbooks, World Wide Tele Sports (WWTS). That company would eventually be acquired by a publicly traded Australian firm, which was later absorbed by Bodog. Scott was a beloved figure in the world of offshore sports betting as was WWTS (prominently features on the Gambling911.com for the better part of the last decade), but he also faced three separate complaints filed by US authorities (two in a 30-day period back in 1998) during his tenure in Antigua. He is currently serving a 27-month probationary sentence due to expire in early 2015.
The odds may go against Ducey if recent history is any indicator.
In an ironic twist, this is not the first time a high profile US politician’s family has had ties to Antigua-based sportsbooks.
Massachusetts Democratic U.S. Rep. John Tierney's wife, Patrice, plead guilty two years ago for helping run her brother's Antigua-based betting shop Sports Off Shore.
The long time incumbent Tierney was just routed in the Massachusetts primaries by Democrat Seth Moulton, thanks in no small part to the scandal involving his wife and questions surrounding the state Rep’s own knowledge of the gambling business.
Then there is the late former Oregon Governor Vic Atiyeh. His extended Syrian Christian family included Dennis Atiyeh, another pioneer of offshore sports betting who started English Sports Betting in Montego Bay, Jamaica. He, too, had his own run-ins with law enforcement back in 2000 (acquitted of any wrongdoing we should point out) and is now an aspiring preacher.
Vic Atiyeh’s time as Governor predated English Sports Betting.
It is interesting to note that Bill Scott's long time business partner, Jessica Davis, was the granddaughter of a North Dakota Governor.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
