Kansas City Mafia boss grandkids continue gambling empire

Kansas City has long had mob ties to illegal gambling operations and this week two brothers pleaded guilty to keeping that tradition alive. Michael C. Sansone and Anthony V. Sansone both pleaded guilty to running an illegal gambling operation that the Fed’s have been investigating for over a year now. The Sansone brothers ran the gambling operation using the internet and a toll free number to take wagers.

The Sansone brother were simply keeping a long time family business working into the 21st century. The Sansone brothers grandfather was Anthony “Tony Ripe” Civella who led the Kansas City Mafia outfit for years taking over for his uncle Nick Civella and his father Carl Civella. The Fed’s for years payed close attention to Tony Civella because he was a major player in illegal bookmaking. Civella was thought to be involved in mob linked bookmaking since the early 1950′s and ended up spending time in jail for it on two seperate occasions in the 1970′s and 1980′s.

Looks like the younger Sansone’s simply inherited the nack for the family business and took it into modern times. They routed telephone and internet wagers through a room in Costa Rica for processing. The mob links to offshore gambling operations seems to be a growing theme as old school bookmakers make the switch to more modern technology. Earlier this month two men had also pleaded guilty to running a similar illegal offshore operation, Kansas City doesn’t get many headlines these days as far as Mafia activity goes hasn’t forgotten its gambling roots.