Bingo City

Three days later Tony and I went to see Bill Powers at the NY State Republican Headquarters. If Mike Tyson is your typical heavyweight, Bill Powers is your typical party chairman. Tough to a fault, stocky and probably chewing on the same cigar for 3 days. He was strong, loyal, and highly connected, but I don't think I would ever trip across the words gracious or friendly. When the meeting started, Bill was all business. Forewarned by Tony, he immediately took the resume and called down to his son, who worked for him in a downstairs office at party headquarters. Bill's son, Bill Jr. in every way, arrived moments later and disappeared with Darryl's resume in hand. We then filled five empty minutes with small talk. Bill's son then returned with a verdict. He whispered into his father’s ear and left the room. Bill then informed Tony that, although Darryl had claimed to be a Republican, he had actually registered and voted as a Democrat. To this day I have no idea how he knew the latter, but it took all of five minutes to find out. Needless to say, the Republican state chairman was not about to help a Democrat, and with that Darryl's chances for a promotion were gone. Embarrassed by the outcome, we thanked Bill for his time and left. Tony called and informed Darryl as to what had happened. With no regard for how it made Tony look and unfazed by the result, Darryl then had another idea. If Bill couldn’t help him, maybe we could. He asked Tony to get his wife a ‘no show’ job (one in which a person appears on the payroll and collects a paycheck without ever setting foot in the business) at one of the participating charities. It just couldn’t be one that Tony was involved with, that would be too obvious.

Tony then called me and explained what needed to be done. I made a phone call, and Darryl’s wife had a job. Darryl was now in place to expedite and approve the forms and applications necessary for the charities. Not just Tony’s, but all the local charities that were going to play at Bingo City.

With the charity applications in place, I now needed the Commissioner of Racing and Wagering’s help. His job was an appointed position, and coincidentally Mike Hoblock just been appointed with some help from Tony's longtime friend, Joe Bruno. In any event, Joe called Mike, waved his magic wand, and Mike was on board. I needed Mike to get the hall itself licensed and opened. He could fast track my paperwork as well as run interference. He was happy to do both.

While this agency looked fairly formal on the outside, the inside was quite different. Every deed needed a reward. Darryl had the help he needed with his wife’s job. Apparently, Mike didn't need a promotion and his wife didn't need a job, so I thanked him the old fashioned way, twenty five thousand times. Late one afternoon, unannounced I walked into the Racing and Wagering Board office, and with Mike at his desk I knocked on the open door. Closing the door behind me I walked in, then walked over and placed an envelope on his desk. He never said a word. I said, "Thank You", turned around, and walked out. While I knew all these favors were wrong, they didn't bother me at all. I just assumed they were the cost of doing business, especially since they were the ones that asked.

With Mike and Darryl in place, all the applications and bingo licenses flew through. We were approved and all the charity applications were confirmed as well. It was almost too easy.

Then the tables turned again. One night at bingo a young lady approached me and asked if I needed any help with the Attorney General's office. Her name was Tracy. She was a volunteer helping one of the charities that played at Bingo City. She was blond, curvy and gorgeous . Unbelievably during the day Tracy worked as an investigator for the Attorney General's office, the same office investigating me. Of course it was easy to see why they hired her. She was the kind of girl that, when she walks into your office with a resume, you ask her what day she wants to start. Then you read her resume. At night she volunteered for Bingo and was now volunteering to help me. She definitely got my attention. Tracy was now my source of information coming from Vacco’s office. I was skeptical at first, thinking maybe I was being set up, but she turned out to be the real thing. Thanks to her, I always knew what to expect. I knew their visit was to shut me up. I knew they bugged our phones and I knew they were having me followed. I even had the privilege of hearing how pissed off Vacco was when I held my press conference. And most importantly I knew then that they weren’t going to go away.

Vacco’s office did anything and everything they could to find something wrong. They never did. I was helping charities to raise millions of dollars a year to help countless people and their causes. Yet for the whim of one corrupt Attorney General named Vacco, all of our reputations and everything we accomplished along with all the people we helped were expendable. And why? For a few votes and some free publicity.

On November 3, 1998 in a very close election, the bomb Dennis Vacco planned for us blew up in his face, and he was voted out of the office. Begging for a recount and refusing to leave office, he actually tried to engage the State Police to conduct his own recount. Apparently this egomaniacal ass hole could not face the truth, or for that matter, tell it.

As his last official act on December 31st, 1998 his last day in office, Dennis Vacco dismissed an investigation into Waste Management Inc., the country’s largest waste carrier. A company he went to work for as a vice president one month later. It was perfect. Vacco had left office the same way he came in, as a liar and a crook.