Mother, Son Charged With $400K Illinois Gambling Theft – Play Illinois

Police arrested four people in connection with the theft of $400,000 from gaming machines across dozens of Illinois counties. Arrestees include a mother and son.

According to Illinois attorney general Kwame Raoul, authorities arrested and charged Giulia Wuttke, 52, and her son, Gino Wuttke, 33, with multiple felonies. The charges stem from crimes the pair allegedly enacted across northern Illinois. Its Gino Wuttkes second arrest this year.

Two others charged include Alyssa Slouka, 31, and Brian Morgan, 42. Police arrested Slouka, but Morgan was already in prison for unrelated charges.

Two more warrants are outstanding for Syed Zaidi, 41, and Lucas Bailey, 40, for their alleged involvement in the thefts.

Of note? The group wasnt targeting gaming machines at casinos in Illinois. Rather, they sought machines in bars, restaurants, social clubs and other small businesses.

Allegedly, the offenses took place across Illinois. Namely Bureau, Carroll, Champaign, Cook, DeKalb, Grundy, Iroquois, Kankakee, Jo Daviess, and Kendall counties. Also targeted were Lee, LaSalle, Kane, Mason, McHenry, McLean, Ogle, Stephenson, Vermillion and Will counties.

According to Raouls press release, this is how the group carried out its crimes:

This burglary ring allegedly targeted bars, restaurants, social clubs and other small businesses that have video poker and video gaming machines. They broke into dozens of these establishments in multiple counties and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash out of the machines. These arrests are the result of countless hours of cooperation between my office and several law enforcement agencies. I would like to thank the many agencies that collaborated with my office on this investigation and helped us break up this burglary operation.

All four will appear in court in early to mid-September.

This is the latest alleged criminal activity involving Illinois gambling. The spouse of a recent stabbing victim just received the go-ahead to proceed with a lawsuit against Caesars.

Local police departments receive aid from Illinois gaming regulation groups for gambling-related crimes. The Illinois Gaming Boardinvestigates gaming-related crimes.

In this case, the Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation assisted IGB, said ISP director Brendan F. Kelly.

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Mother, Son Charged With $400K Illinois Gambling Theft - Play Illinois