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Man pleads guilty to running sports gambling ring in case that led to charges against Casey UrlacherJon Seidelon February 2, 2021 at 8:31 pm

Vincent DelGiudice, right, walks with his attorney, Carolyn Gurland, out of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in March 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times file

Vincent DelGiudice pleaded guilty Tuesday to a gambling conspiracy and money laundering.

The lead defendant in the sports gambling case that led last year to charges against Casey Urlacher pleaded guilty Tuesday to operating a multimillion dollar illegal sports gambling ring around Chicago.

A federal indictment early in 2020 accused Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice, 55, of running the gambling business that allegedly involved as many as 1,000 people. Prosecutors said DelGiudice paid more than $10,000 a month to a company in Costa Rica for the website unclemicksports.com used by gamblers to view odds and place bets.

DelGiudice pleaded guilty Tuesday to a gambling conspiracy and money laundering.

Also charged was Urlacher, mayor of north suburban Mettawa and brother of Chicago Bears great Brian Urlacher. However, Donald Trump pardoned Casey Urlacher in the final hours of his presidency two weeks ago.

After Urlacher’s pardon, DelGiudice said in a statement through his attorney, “I am happy for him and his family. God bless them.”

Prosecutors said DelGiudice, of Orland Park, recruited Urlacher along with several other “agents” who then recruited gamblers. DelGiudice paid his agents and others a commission based on a percentage of the losses incurred by the gamblers they recruited, according to the feds. They also said he used coded language and employed an encrypted telephone application to communicate with people affiliated with the company he paid for the website.

Prosecutors said authorities found more than $1 million in cash at DelGiudice’s home in April 2019, along with $92,623 in gold coins and $347,895 in silver bars and jewelry.

DelGiudice’s father, Eugene “Geno” DelGiudice, pleaded guilty in July to conspiring to conduct an illegal gambling business, becoming the first defendant in the case to be convicted. Ten people were charged in all. In October, a judge gave Eugene DelGiudice three months of home detention.

Last month, the judge ordered another defendant in the case held behind bars after prosecutors said Chicago police officer Nicholas Stella “violently assaulted his girlfriend.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Kinney also told the judge that, when another judge issued a search warrant for Stella’s phone in the gambling investigation, Stella destroyed it “before we were able to execute the search warrant.”