A former Metropolitan Water Reclamation District worker pleaded guilty Thursday for his role in an illegal gambling operation, which allegedly also involved the brother of legendary Chicago Bear Brian Urlacher.
Eugene “Geno” DelGiudice, 85, admitted to a single count of conspiring to conduct an illegal gambling business during a video conference with U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Kendall.
DelGiudice admitted he’d taken part in an operation run by his son from 2016 to 2019 and generated millions of dollars from gamblers.
Prosecutors say DelGiudice’s son, Vincent DelGiudice, ran the online operation and recruited others to help him, including his father and Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher, Brian Urlacher’s brother. The operation allegedly took bets from more than 1,000 gamblers, prosecutors say.
According to the indictment, DelGiudice helped his son collect from gamblers and paid out winnings. On Feb. 7, 2019, the indictment says, Vincent DelGiudice called his father about gambling debts owed by people his father had recruited.
Authorities say Vincent DelGiudice sometimes directed gamblers to write cashier’s checks to cover the monthly fees, and other times he had gamblers write checks to cover college tuition for his daughters.
After prosecutors outlined the case against DelGiudice Thursday, Kendall asked him if disagreed in any way with what he’d heard.
“No, your honor. There is nothing I disagree with,” he said.
The elder DelGiudice faces a maximum term of five years prison, with federal guidelines suggesting a range between six and 12 months behind bars. Sentencing was set for Oct. 19.
Ten years before retiring from the MWRD, where he worked for 44 years, DelGiudice was arrested by the Cook County sheriff’s office on gambling charges. He pleaded guilty and got two months of court supervision.
