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Former Captain in the Columbo Crime Family / Founder and Chairman of the Breaking Out Foundation / Author: “Quitting the Mob” and "Blood Covenant” / Michael comes in studio to give his take about the NBA Referee Scandal and says that his immediate reaction is that the NBA needs to go into immediate “Damage Control”…but says that David Stern could have taken more responsibility. Michael talks about just how damaging a crooked referee in the sport can be and that it cuts into the heart of the game. Michael talks about how the NBA can get back the respect of the fans by taking responsibility for what has happened. Michael talks about Tim Donaghy being the first to be caught, but not the first to do it and says that he’s influenced “people” in the past in sports to do this. He says Tim was under pressure by the “no choice” situation to make bad calls or “get your legs broken” or put his family in danger. Michael talked about his surprise that the NBA took so long to figure it out and that Tim actually went to them instead to tell them about the investigation by the FBI. And why did the NBA not pull him out immediately after finding out? Michael says that Tim is the perfect profile of a guy who would get himself in debt and be looked for on the street by the Mob types out there...
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Michael gave his take if it’s ok or not for professionals in sports to “sometimes” gamble…saying that it’s generally a huge negative. Michael mentioned a star athlete that got worked for $350,000 and wanted to hurt or kill the person they owe the money to…saying that the “street guys” work the casino floors around these athletes which gets them caught. He goes onto say that athletes have “gambling” problems and that they don’t want to admit to it, such as an athlete he knew losing $1 million and yet saying they “don’t have a problem”. Michael said that $10,000 is what the "guys" look for in the casinos to mark someone. Michael talks about Mike Vick and the dog fighting charges and is it a gambling problem or not. He says that Vick is not the type of person that should be around in sports saying that if he can shoot a dog in the head he can shoot a person in the head.
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Michael talks about his life in the mob and leaving the mob and his friends...being one of the most difficult things he’s done, but has found a new life and new friends…but he says he is no ‘saint’ and he can still mess up...yet he would never go back to that life. He says that people out there still try to actively recruit him and he went onto say that his dad still lives in that lifestyle in his 90s and was recently sent back to prison on a parole violation. Michael talks about his dad’s reaction in regards to Michael leaving the Mob saying that his dad told him he would have been the next “boss” of the family…but over time accepted his decision. Michael says at one point he was making 6 to 8 million dollars a week, and that he left a lot behind to find his new life. Mike goes onto talk about how he answers all the e-mails he receives personally and tries to help out the best he can. Michael said the gambling lobby is making things worse in the U.S. and that gambling is already legal in 48 states. He says kids in High Schools are already gambling and that their own parents are getting them hooked on Poker games. He says gambling "is" a disease because of its addictive nature. Michael says he did not have the gambling problem, but loved to use people that did. Michael talked about being the one guy to leave “the life” and being able to survive. He says that ‘hits’ were put out on him and that there is a “contract” still on him and that he would never be able to live in that part of New York ever again. He talked about how the FBI still informs of how conversations about him come up in the mob and he says why he chose not to go into witness protection…saying that was not him and he was not out to hurt people, but rather just leave the “life”. Michael talks about how he reconciled for the “bad” things he has done and becoming a “person of faith” to help him…saying that the things he had done had bothered him greatly. He talked about being “locked down” during his prison years to protect him from being killed and being approached by the FBI, NBA and MLB to help speak to the players to put an end to players gambling in sports. At first he did not want to do it but was convinced in the end to do it. Michael then gave his take about athletes and guns and that they are out of their minds saying they are not toys and that guns kill. Michael goes onto to say that legalizing gambling overall in the U.S. would be a very bad idea and bringing pro-sports to Las Vegas would put the athletes in a bad situation to gamble more often and that they would be hanging out in bad places like strip joints where they would be targeted. Michael talks about how a family can help out one of their own with a gambling problem and that nearly every family has a member with a gambling problem…a brother, sister or father. Michael talked about the huge problems in corporate America with employees gambling online and costing companies a huge amount of loss revenue. He also gave insight to the story of Henry Hill who is portrayed in the movie “GoodFellas” and how accurate a film that was. And he talked about bumping into him in prison…saying that Henry thought Michael was going to have him killed. Michael also spoke about the rumor that Michael Jordan left the game because he actually had a gambling problem.
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