Minnesota Man Avoids Prison After Playing Casino Slots for TikTok Audience
This week, a man received probation for wrongly playing slot machines for gamblers who observed the games on TikTok while they occurred at a casino in Minnesota.
Blake C. Fitzgerald, 41, from Farmington, Minn., pleaded guilty on Monday in Goodhue County District Court to charges related to operating a remote bookmaking operation.
Fitzgerald received a two-year supervised probation sentence and was fined $488.
Initially, Fitzgerald faced three charges for operating an unlawful gambling enterprise, but he negotiated a plea deal with the prosecutors. The initial allegations had a possible sentence of three years behind bars and penalties amounting to thousands, as reported by Bring Me The News.
Wagering Occurred at Two Casinos
The slot machines can be found at the Treasure Island Resort & Casino in Farmington, Minn. A related incident concerning Fitzgerald occurred at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel, as reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune. In that case, he also received probation.
Fitzgerald's sibling, Christopher J.L. Mattison, 35, also entered a guilty plea for a gambling offense. He received a year of probation and a $250 fine. In another instance, Mattison received two years of probation.
81 Participants Placed Wagers
Prosecutors allege the siblings arranged wagers for 81 participants occurring over a span of three weeks. The plan included over $48,000, as stated by the Star Tribune. One of the jackpots had a value exceeding $15K.
Fitzgerald received a subscription fee along with a share of the deposits. In return, he operated slot machines at the two gambling venues as a representative. He inquired of the participants which slot they preferred him to play on their behalf. Fitzgerald subsequently placed wagers for the attendees, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors stated that he received a combined amount of $65,103.50 through Venmo and CashApp payments from October to December 2022. He referred to the payments as “donations” or “deposits.”
“Defendant … collected $5.99 from each of his followers, which made them a ‘subscriber’ and allowed them to be part of the ‘discord’ (a private messaging group using the Discord application) and have Defendant place bets on their behalf until their subscription expired,” according to court documents quoted in the news report.
Overall, the TikTok account involved in the story had 165,000 followers.
Both casinos instructed Fitzgerald to exit the gaming venues after the TikTok plan was revealed.
