Gary Craig and Kevin Oklobzija

(Rochester, N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - When hockey star Jaromir Jagr finally cashed in on a sports wager, his bookie and the bet-takers let out a brief roar of excitement from their gambling hub in Costa Rica.

Jagr was a notoriously bad gambler, likely to lose every wager he placed. His bookie, Steve Budin, had begun to worry that Jagr might fall prey to a bout of good sense and stop gambling altogether, given his propensity to lose.

"When he finally won a bet there was like an eruption in the office," said Budin, one of the first American bookies to establish an offshore operation. "We were concerned because how long could a guy continue to lose and continue to play."

Jagr bet big, sometimes dropping $20,000 on a football game. And he wasn't alone among professional athletes. The litany of sports stars and former stars who like to gamble is well known: Pete Rose, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, John Daly, to name but a few.

"Partly, there's a thrill with gambling," said Timothy Madigan, an associate professor of philosophy at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford who co-wrote a book, The Sociology of Sports, that discusses athletes and wagering. "Athletes, of course, are a driven sort of people. They have more of a love for risk than most people."

Budin was not surprised when he heard this week that former Buffalo Sabres star Thomas Vanek has been linked to a Rochester-based federal investigation into an alleged gambling ring. Vanek is not charged with any crime but has acknowledged that he is a witness in the investigation.

Hockey players, Budin said, were among his top customers from the ranks of professional athletes when he was a bookie.

"Maybe it's because a lot of them are from Europe where gambling on sports is not a taboo," said Budin, who now runs a sports handicapping business, PickNation.com, out of Miami.

In June, the FBI arrested Paul Borrelli, and Mark and Joseph Ruff, accusing them of an illegal offshore gambling operation that took wagers in the United States. They often collected money at a Charlotte, N.Y., restaurant, The Marina Restaurant & Bar, authorities allege.

Authorities claim that the ring handled as much as $76 million in bets. The three men are awaiting trial.

Sources say that gambling records seized during June raids led Rochester-area authorities to Vanek and others who had possibly bet with the alleged gambling ring.

Vanek, who started his pro career with the Rochester Americans in 2004-05, signed a three-year, $19.5 million contract with the Minnesota Wild on July 1. He had just played the final year on a seven-year contract worth $50 million, one that he signed with the Sabres in 2007.

Vanek, an Austrian, moved to the United States when he was 16.

Vanek appeared at the federal building in Rochester on Monday for questioning. National Hockey League officials have not commented on his role as a witness, but they will surely want to speak with Vanek as well to learn about his involvement with the defendants.

"They don't want their players parading in front of cameras at a federal gambling trial," said Irondequoit native Rory Fitzpatrick, who played 287 NHL games during his 15-year professional career.

Under terms of the collective bargaining agreement, the league has the power to fine, suspend or even void a contract based on the severity of off-ice transgressions. The most recent gambling-related suspension in the NHL involved Phoenix Coyotes associate coach Rick Tocchet in 2006. He was banished from the league for two years through a leave of absence and then suspended for his role in a New Jersey-based gambling ring. He pleaded guilty to promoting gambling and was sentenced by the court to probation.

An independent investigator determined no wagering by Tocchet involved the NHL, or he likely would have been given a lifetime ban.

Las Vegas accepts legal wagers on football games, and the recreational wager on an NFL game isn't considered to be a heinous offense by the league, former Sabres and Amerks goalie Martin Biron said.

"But if you've got a guy (bookie) on speed dial, then it's a problem," Biron said.

Athletes and gambling

Are athletes more rabid gamblers than the population at large, or are their wagering exploits just better fodder for the media? St. John Fisher's Madigan said there is not a clear-cut answer.

"We live in a celebrity culture so when it's people we know, such as athletic celebrities, it gets much more attention than the local storeowner," Madigan said.

But there is clearly a concern when athletes wager, because they could, in the worst-case scenario, affect the outcome of games if betting on their own sports. Vanek is not suspected of wagering on hockey, sources say.

"When athletes have a gambling problem ... that might lead them to get involved in wagering on their own sports and their own team," Madigan said. "That's why it's such a taboo."

Professional teams are keenly aware of the inherent risks of gambling by their players.

The NHL Players' Association and the league conduct seminars every season with all 30 teams. Each team also has a security agent; for the Buffalo Sabres, it is retired New York City police detective Frank Henry.

"Guys are plenty educated," said Fitzpatrick, who played with the Amerks and Sabres from 2001-02 through 2005-06, and then played the final two seasons of his career with the Amerks in 2008-09 and '09-10. "We go through hours of lectures and talks from ex-police and FBI and ex-gamblers. They kind of give their story and tell you why not to do it."

The big reason: integrity issues that might arise when associating with bookies.

"There's always somebody (in the general public) looking for an angle to make a quick buck," Biron said.

The league is very concerned about participation in illegal gambling.

"If you're gambling with a friend's bookie, a lot of times that is associated with some bad stuff," Biron said. "You're young, gambling can be very addictive and you have a lot of money."

Large wagers can lead to large debt, and the league paints the scenario very vividly for players.

"Then all of a sudden the guy says, 'Don't worry about paying me, but do me a favor …," Biron said. "If they talk about it (in the seminars), it probably has happened. They make sure the players know what can happen and how slippery of a slope it can be."

Peter Ahearn, who previously headed western New York's FBI office and now is a security consultant, saw firsthand the damages that can be done by the collision of athletes and gambling. While still with the FBI, he investigated the infamous points-shaving scandal with the Boston College basketball team in the late 1970s, when players helped gamblers ensure successful wagers.

"In that case you had organized crime influence, so it became a bigger issue," Ahearn said.

Ahearn worked multiple gambling investigations, and saw how professional sports teams have become more attuned to the hazards of gambling through the years. As an FBI agent, he also advised professional sports operations and players about the risks of gambling.

"The international players don't understand the rules when they get here," he said.

The NHL will surely talk to Vanek and likely approach the FBI about whatever evidence can be disclosed, Ahearn said.

The local case

If Vanek did gamble, he will likely be used as a witness to attest that the accused were taking wagers, Ahearn said. "If (prosecutors) need him, they're going to give him a subpoena to testify before the grand jury," he said.

Matthew Parrinello, the attorney for Joseph Ruff, said he has seen Vanek's name in the records he has received from federal prosecutors, but cannot say whether he was betting. The evidence from prosecutors, known as "discovery," is bountiful, he said.

"It's going to be a while while we wade through 16,000 pages of discovery," Parrinello said. "We have search warrant applications, affidavits, wiretaps, bank records."

Vincent Merante, the attorney for Borrelli, started listening to some of the wiretap discussions this week. "It's a voluminous amount and it's going to take a long time to look at and listen to," he said.

The three defendants are scheduled to return to federal court next month for status conferences.

Budin said there's little risk that Vanek bet on hockey. After all, he said, his experience as a bookmaker and now as a handicapper is that not a lot of people bet on hockey.

"Soccer odds get five times the views as hockey odds do," Budin said about the visitors to his PickNation.com sports handicapping website. "I think the only hits we get on the hockey site is when they click on hockey accidentally."