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Eye Team Investigates Illegal Gaming ActivitiesA former state investigator is now facing multiple felony charges for illegal gaming at his Lucky Times Lotto and Pull Tab business.ANCHORAGE—He went from a state investigator with the Alaska Department of Revenue to the operator of a half-million dollar lottery, and now, an accused felon. The state is adding to the charges against Abraham Spicola, the owner of Lucky Times Lotto and Pull Tabs. Non-profits trusted him to raise money for their cause, but the state says Spicola is a criminal who demanded bribes, defrauded the state and illegally pocketed money from his business. The cracks started showing last year, when Lucky Times pushed back the drawing date for its second half-million dollar drawing multiple times. In an interview, Spicola told the Eye Team at the time all he wanted to do was raise money for Standing Together Against Rape, or STAR. “We didn’t sell enough tickets to meet the jackpot pay out, plus we also want to raise $50,000 for star this year so they could hire one sexual abuse educator,” Spicola said in March 2010. But the state says Spicola was actually breaking multiple laws, including demanding bribes from the non-profits for which he was raising money, lying on state gaming records and defrauding the state out of unemployment benefits. On Fri., Aug. 26, a grand jury returned additional charges, including theft, schemes to defraud, falsifying business records and illegally taking money from his business. In all, Spicola is facing 13 criminal charges, including 12 felonies and five non-criminal violations. Spicola is no stranger to Alaska gaming laws. In fact, he worked for the state department in charge of monitoring and investigating the gaming industry for three years. Now, the investigation into his gaming business continues. The only evidence left of Lucky Times Lotto is an empty storefront on Spenard and mounting charges against its owner. Spicola will be arraigned on the new charges on Tues., Aug. 30. Neither his public defender nor state prosecutors returned calls for comment.
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Shame on you. said on Wednesday, Aug 31 at 9:50 AM
The last comment writer is an idiot, and it is people like him/her that make this world a horrible place to live! You have no idea what you are talking about and you have nothing but hate in your heart. Hoping someone gets raped is only something a monster would say. on . you
73188526allan said on Wednesday, Aug 31 at 4:11 AM
Legalis it & control it with a light tax. Other wise shout-up. No bluffs, it's going to happen with or with out any controles. Hell look at the stock marke. Not much diffrence. Come on wake-up & smell the coffee.
7316971124char said on Tuesday, Aug 30 at 5:35 AM
I remember when this story broke, back when he kept pushing the draw date for the lottery back, back, back. I also remember, and saved a lot of the replies about how "What a GOOD Man, friend, all around person this guy was. So, were all you avid supporters on his pay roll also? I have your outraged replies in case the cops want to check your guys bank accts. so we can see how much you all were pocketing under the table. Maybe he will get raped in prison, there would be some justice for you, Mr. Good Guy, yeah, right.
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