The brother of Chicago Bears great Brian Urlacher faces criminal gambling charges along with nine others — including a Chicago cop and a general manager at Gibson’s — in a federal indictment made public Thursday.
Casey Urlacher, 40, who is also the mayor of north suburban Mettawa, has been charged with one count of participating in a gambling conspiracy and one count of running an illegal gambling business.
The indictment revolves around the website unclemicksports.com and the activities of Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice, 54, who allegedly ran an illegal operation that accepted wagers from as many as 1,000 gamblers on the outcome of professional and amateur sporting events.
DelGiudice allegedly paid a service fee to a foreign sports book for the use of its platform and recruited gamblers to place bets on unclemicksports.com, according to the indictment. He allegedly communicated with representatives of the sports book through an anonymous, end-to-end encrypted messaging application to keep the messages secret.
The feds say DelGiudice recruited several people to help him with the gambling operation. Those people allegedly enlisted new gamblers and worked with DelGiudice to collect or pay out cash, depending on the outcome of a wager. DelGiudice allegedly paid his agents a commission based on a percentage of the losses incurred by the gamblers they recruited.
Among his agents was Casey Urlacher, according to the feds.
Urlacher denied any knowledge about the gambling investigation when contacted Thursday morning by the Sun-Times, and said he didn’t know any bookie named DelGiudice. “I don’t know nothing about it,” Urlacher said. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
During a search of DelGiudice’s Orland Park home in April 2019, agents allegedly found more than $1.06 million in cash, $347,895 in silver bars and jewelry, and $92,623 in gold coins. Prosecutors are seeking an $8 million judgment against DelGiudice.
DelGiudice is charged with one count of conspiracy to conduct an illegal gambling business, one count of conducting an illegal gambling business, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and six counts of money laundering.
Also charged with one count of participating in the conspiracy and one count of running an illegal gambling business are Eugene “Gino” DelGiudice, 84, of Orland Park; Matthew “Sweaters” Knight, 46, of Mokena; Justin Hines, 40, of Algonquin; Keith D. Benson, 49, of Lemont; Todd Blanken, 43, of Cary; Nicholas Stella, 42, of Chicago; Matthew Namoff, 23, of Midlothian, and Vasilios Prassas, 37, of Chicago.
Eugene DelGiudice is Vincent DelGiudice’s father, and he allegedly helped collect cash from gamblers. Stella has worked as a Chicago police officer.
Prassas is the general manager of the Gibson’s in Oak Brook. In a brief interview Thursday, he said he has been questioned in the investigation but has nothing to do with gambling. He said he knows some of the individuals charged and it’s guilt by association.
Prassas is the son of the late Christos Prassas, who owned Horwath’s Restaurant in Elmwood Park, a notorious mob hangout that closed in 2004.
Arraignments in the case have not been scheduled.
