Local bingo owners arrested

FORT WALTON BEACH — Larry and Josh Masino, owners of the Racetrack Bingo on Racetrack Road, have been arrested in Tallahassee on charges they pocketed money intended for nonprofit organizations there.

The men are charged with 11 counts of grand theft for their roles in an “organized scheme to defraud,” according to the Leon County Sheriff’s Office. They also are charged with 312 violations of state bingo statutes.

Three others — Leo Donnelly, 68, Christopher Jones, 52, and Michele Young, 45 — also were arrested, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office.

Leon County deputies made the arrests. Okaloosa County lawmen were not involved and the local Racetrack Bingo is not being investigated at this time, according to Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Michele Nicholson.

Wade Maraj, a manager at the Fort Walton Beach Racetrack Bingo, said “to my knowledge” nothing like what the Masinos are accused of doing in Tallahassee is occurring locally.

“I hope not,” he said.

Larry Masino said the charges against him were trumped up by a sheriff who “took it upon himself to investigate this.”

“They do not have sufficient evidence to prosecute us,” he said. “We’re negotiating a plea and this thing is going to disappear next week.”

The news release said the Masinos diverted profits from their Tallahassee bingo operation to themselves.

Under Florida law, all profits from bingo operations must go to nonprofit groups that host bingo events, according to the news release.

The nonprofit must be legitimate, workers cannot be compensated for their time and all volunteers must be members of the nonprofit organization, the news release said.

The Masinos “solicited local nonprofit organizations to sponsor bingo sessions … in name only,” according to the news release.

“Several of the illegitimate nonprofits involved were not eligible for bingo operations here and had full knowledge of this,” the release said.

The victims were 11 registered legitimate nonprofits, the release said. They suffered a collective loss of at least $87,000.

Larry Masino, 50, was arrested in Okaloosa County in 1992, for a violation of gambling/bingo regulations. He was found not guilty.

Larry and Josh Masino, 34, live in Fort Walton Beach. They opened their business in Tallahassee in 2009, according to the news release, and “modeled the organization on other operations they run elsewhere.”