Cutbacks lead to demise of sheriff's bookmaking unit.

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department has shut down its illegal bookmaking unit due to budget cuts that required resources to be shifted to terrorism enforcement and locating fugitives from justice.

The Oct. 31 closure puts an end to a decades-old operation that had already seen the number of detectives reduced from 16 in recent years to four. The unit's duties will be handled on a case-within the agency's 23 stations as priorities dictate.

The move is part of an agency-wide restructuring plan to make best use of the agency's 8,744 sworn positions. It comes at a time when illegal gambling has become more sophisticated and elusive, with an increasing number of illegal bookmaking operations based out of the country.

"I don't know what the rationale is," said Sheriffs Detective Joe Herrera, who worked the unit for 10 years before being reassigned to hunt down jail escapees and prisoners erroneously released. "If it's for budget cuts, you're cutting back four bodies. Is that going to make a difference? I don't think so."

The Los Angeles Police Department's gaming section has 10 officers assigned to illegal bookmaking operations and other vice officers who periodically take on cases.

The Sheriff's Department budget has remained stagnant at $1.7 billion the last two years while operating costs such as health care and workers' compensation have soared. The department has eliminated $166 million in personnel, services and equipment costs, and reduced the number of budgeted sworn positions to 8,744 (with 8,500 filled) from 9,488 at the beginning of the 2002-2003 fiscal year.

Department heads drawing up spending plans for the fiscal year that began July 1 were ordered to prioritize only operations that pertained directly to public safety or that provided a revenue stream. "Everything else was fair game," said Sheriff's Chief Paul Tanaka.

In Los Angeles County, some of the most common bookmaking operations are so-called cash rooms located in business fronts or social clubs in low-income areas. Gamblers, often older horse race bettors, make cash wagers at these locations.

There are also "phone spots," where clerks hired by bookmakers are paid $100 for three hour to take wagers over the phone, as well as operations run out of bars, businesses or schools.

"If the cops don't bug them, they will be more aggressive," said Don McGhie, president of McGhie Consulting, a Reno-based gaming consultant. "And you will have more of them, certainly."

Law enforcement officials and industry experts said illegal bookmaking operations are hugely popular in California because there is nothing legal available for football and basketball bets. Gamblers have to go to Las Vegas or Reno for legal wagering.

For legal wagers, there is still horse racing at Hollywood Park Race Track in Inglewood and Santa Anita Park in Arcadia.

There are also 18 off-track betting locations in Southern California. And since Jan. 1, 2002, three state-sanctioned accounting wagering operations have been taking horse racing bets over the phone or on the Internet.

"The method of setting up an account with a legal vendor is so easy, there really isn't any reason to use a bookmaker," said Rick Baedeker, president of Hollywood Park Race Track.

Since the mid 1990s, gamblers have also found it convenient to make offshore bets, placing wagers through local "agents" for offshore gambling operations in places such as Antigua, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

The agents are responsible for locating bettors, collecting and paying out lost and winning bets, and taking fees that they split evenly with the ringleader.

Most of the sheriff's investigations begin with tips from disgruntled gamblers who claim to have been shortchanged, along with wives of self-destructive gamblers or bookies trying to eliminate competition, Herrera said.

Federal laws prohibit wiretapping bookmaking operations, and clerks hired to take bets often don't, or can't, roll over on their bosses.

"The front office doesn't know where the back office is or who is running it," said Carter Gordon, who worked the bookmaking beat for 12 years and has been reassigned to a fugitive task force. "It keeps them hidden from the police or someone coming up and trying to rob them."

One investigation that lasted more than a year culminated in the arrest of six Lomita-based clerks who were taking nationwide and off-shore bets totaling $65 million per year, according to Gordon. But the money was never found and the ringleader was never arrested.

"We got his big agent but we didn't get the bookmaker," said Gordon. "Did we shut the operation down? I don't believe so. None of them would talk."