'Bookie Butcher' Charged With Illegal Sports Gambling Operation

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Prosecutors said a Highland Park man operated an international gambling operation and lied on at least one federal tax return to hide his income.

Dominic Poeta, 63, of the 1100 block of Linden Avenue, was engaged in the "business of betting and wagering" from at least November 2014 to April 2018, according to federal charges filed Thursday.

During that period, he falsely reported less than $82,000 in total income, when he knew his total income "substantially exceeded that amount," prosecutors allege.

Poeta faces a maximum of three years in prison for the tax charge and up to two years on the charge of illegal bookmaking, if convicted.

The latest charges are not the first time Poeta, owner of Poeta's Italian Food Market in Highwood, has been accused of involvement in an underground sportsbook.

In his 2007 memoir "Bust: How I Gambled and Lost a Fortune, Brought Down a Bank — and Lived to Pay for It," author Adam Resnick describes a character that federal courts determined was Poeta. He would take bets while working at his deli, according to Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass, who dubbed him the "bookie butcher"

In July 2008, a federal judge ordered Poeta to pay back nearly $650,000 and ruled he needed to make restitution. Poeta exercised his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination in the case when called to testify.

But when he was not under oath, Poeta told Kass he was "just a go-between."

Poeta appealed unsuccessfully, with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against him in 2010.

The criminal investigative division of the IRS and the inspector general of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation assisted with the latest investigation, according to prosecutors.

A date has yet to be set for Poeta's arraignment, when he will have an opportunity to enter a plea.

Poeta and his listed attorney, Thomas Breen, have not responded to messages seeking comment on the latest allegations.