{"id":34201,"date":"2016-03-03T19:33:42","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T03:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=34201"},"modified":"2016-03-03T19:33:42","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T03:33:42","slug":"pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely Denies Membership in Illegal Gambling Racket"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely pleads \u201cnot guilty\u201d to three felony charges relating to an illegal Pittsburgh slot machine operation. (Image: pahouse.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely (D- 35th Dist) appeared in court today, accused of being a member of an illegal Pittsburgh<\/a> slots gambling ring led by a man named \u201cPorky\u201d Melocchi.<\/p>\n

Gergely, one of over a dozen charged in the case, is facing three felony counts, including dealing in the proceeds of illegal activity, plus three misdemeanors. He pled not guilty.<\/p>\n

It is alleged that Ronald \u201cPorky\u201d Melocchi, who was sentenced to 10 years\u2019 probation last year, used his connections in the world of local politics to persuade business owners to install his machines on their premises.<\/p>\n

In one such case, Gergely allegedly told a local restaurateur that he should accept Melocchi\u2019s slot machines because he the legislator had connections to local law enforcement and could protect the business from \u201ctrouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutors also claim Gergely received a $2,000 campaign donation from Melocchi, the source of which the lawmaker attempted to conceal with some creative accounting.<\/p>\n

Bogus Letter Sting<\/b><\/h2>\n

“The allegations show what I would consider the insidious nature of organized crime,” said Mark Serge, who is senior deputy at the Pennsylvania<\/a> Attorney General\u2019s office. “You have relationship and money that tends to infiltrate the political system and individuals get caught up in that.<\/p>\n

“This is an ongoing criminal investigation, we do anticipate more charges in this matter,” Serge added. “It could involve other individuals that are involved in the political system and had any kind of relationships with Mr. Melocchi and his organization.”<\/p>\n

The court heard that in November 2012, having caught wind of Melocchi\u2019s operations and his suspected links to Gergely, prosecutors sent the representative a fake letter, ostensibly from the wife of a gambling addict whose husband had blown their life savings on Melocchi\u2019s machines.<\/p>\n

“Mr. Gergely, I believe you’re the only person I can trust,” the letter said. “I don’t know if I should call the FBI or State Police.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wiretap Evidence<\/b><\/h2>\n

Sufficiently spooked by the correspondence, Gergely called his business partner to tell him that he needed to find out who the gambler was and put an end to his gambling spree, as authorities listened in via a wiretap.<\/p>\n

“I just want to take care of you,” Gergely told Melocchi, according to court documents. “She obviously has no idea that we have a connection. You know what I mean?”<\/p>\n

The seven-term legislator has lost his position as the ranking Democrat on the state House Labor and Industry Committee because of the charges, but he has not resigned from the legislature.<\/p>\n

He claims that Melocchi was a longtime friend of his father and that their relationship extended no further than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely (D- 35th Dist) appeared in court today, accused of being a member of an illegal Pittsburgh slots gambling ring led by a man named \u201cPorky\u201d Melocchi. Gergely, one of over a dozen charged in the case, is facing three felony counts, including dealing in the proceeds of illegal activity, plus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":34204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely Denies Membership in Illegal Gambling Racket<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pennsylvania Representative Marc Gergely pleads not guilty to charges of using political influence to help an illegal slot machine ring.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely Denies Membership in Illegal Gambling Racket\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pennsylvania Representative Marc Gergely pleads not guilty to charges of using political influence to help an illegal slot machine ring.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-04T03:33:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/mqdefault.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"180\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/\",\"name\":\"Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely Denies Membership in Illegal Gambling Racket\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/mqdefault.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-04T03:33:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-04T03:33:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Pennsylvania Representative Marc Gergely pleads not guilty to charges of using political influence to help an illegal slot machine ring.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/mqdefault.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/mqdefault.jpg\",\"width\":320,\"height\":180,\"caption\":\"Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely pleads \u201cnot guilty\u201d to three felony charges relating to an illegal Pittsburgh slot machine operation. (Image: pahouse.com)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Crime & Scandals\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely Denies Membership in Illegal Gambling Racket\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\",\"name\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely Denies Membership in Illegal Gambling Racket","description":"Pennsylvania Representative Marc Gergely pleads not guilty to charges of using political influence to help an illegal slot machine ring.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely Denies Membership in Illegal Gambling Racket","og_description":"Pennsylvania Representative Marc Gergely pleads not guilty to charges of using political influence to help an illegal slot machine ring.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2016-03-04T03:33:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":320,"height":180,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/mqdefault.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Casino.org Staff Writer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Casino.org Staff Writer","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/","name":"Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely Denies Membership in Illegal Gambling Racket","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/mqdefault.jpg","datePublished":"2016-03-04T03:33:42+00:00","dateModified":"2016-03-04T03:33:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77"},"description":"Pennsylvania Representative Marc Gergely pleads not guilty to charges of using political influence to help an illegal slot machine ring.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/mqdefault.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/mqdefault.jpg","width":320,"height":180,"caption":"Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely pleads \u201cnot guilty\u201d to three felony charges relating to an illegal Pittsburgh slot machine operation. (Image: pahouse.com)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/pennsylvania-state-representative-marc-gergely-denies-membership-in-illegal-gambling-racket\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crime & Scandals","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Pennsylvania State Representative Marc Gergely Denies Membership in Illegal Gambling Racket"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77","name":"Casino.org Staff Writer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Casino.org Staff Writer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}