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Two Bethel Park employees charged with running an illegal lottery

By Suzanne Elliott 2 min read

Two Bethel Park municipal employees will have hearings May 24 in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas for running illegal lotteries.

Jeffrey Lorenzato, 61, of Valleyview Drive, Bethel Park, and Thomas Finnegan, 43, of Janet Drive, Bethel Park are each charged one count of maintaining a lottery or numbers game, which is a misdemeanor charge in the first degree, according to Bethel Park Police Chief Timothy O’Connor.

In an appearance April 6 before District Judge John Bova, Lorenzato waived his right to a preliminary hearing.

Finnegan, meanwhile, said he held the lottery for a fund raiser to raise money for a trip to Europe for his daughter, who was suffering from cancer, and for himself. He said his daughter, who has gone into remission, was scheduled to play in softball game in Amsterdam.

According to charges filed with Bova’s office, Bethel Park police learned of Finnegan’s lottery in late January. They also learned of Lorenzato’s lottery in January.

Police said Finnegan admitted to buying strip tickets from a business in the Strip District. The tickets purchased by Finnegan have 10 numbers hidden behind strips of paper that are not reveled until the buyer pulls the strip back after purchasing it. There is a set date in which the winner is determined by Pennsylvania’s daily lottery.

Finnegan, according to documents, admitted to selling 100 tickets at $10 each. He paid $550 to the winner and kept $450 for himself. Overall, he admitted to running the lottery for six months last year and made $2,600.

Charges show Lorenzato also admitted to running a lottery. He said he had been running a $5 monthly lottery alone for four years and prior to that he ran one with two other people.

The $5 lottery ticket is a monthly ticket also based on the daily lottery with three numbers on a certain day of the month. Lorenzato would sell 1,000 tickets at $5 each for a total of $5,000. After the monthly $3,500 payout and a $200 pay out to the ticket seller, there was a $1,300 net profit before expenses, according to the complaint. Lorenzato described expenses as the cost of printing the tickets.

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