“Tonda stated … he put his name down as the seller and Bedtke as the winner even though that had not occurred,” the complaint states. Tonda … would then settle up with him by deducting the cost of the losing tickets from the winnings.”īedtke told the investigator Tonda had given him $20 for the use of his driver’s license to claim the prize money, according to charges. The complaint states: “Yowsa indicated that Tonda had allowed him to have stacks of pull-tabs in front of him, and he didn’t have to pay for the tickets until he was done playing at the end of the game. That’s because the men apparently paid for the losing tabs after they’d identified the winning game pieces.

Paul Hockey Association, which uses pull-tab proceeds from Nick’s Place to buy ice time at the Wakota Arena, said they are not short money from the alleged fraud. In addition to Tonda and Bedtke, the defendants are James Matuke, 45, of Woodbury Lawrence Yowsa, 50, of Hastings and Darold Olson, 59, of Inver Grove Heights. Paul, now face multiple counts of gambling fraud, a felony punishable by up to three years in prison.Īfter determining they played lesser roles, the Dakota County attorney’s office charged the three other men with the same crime filed as a gross misdemeanor. Special Agent Doug Forsman from the Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety used hidden cameras to investigate, and bartender Eugene Tonda, 55, of Inver Grove Heights and janitor Robert Bedtke, 71, of South St. Criminal complaints state the bartender pocketed much of the winnings himself, paying the other men $20 or $100 at a time, if anything, so they would claim the prizes for him using their driver’s licenses.īartenders who sell pull-tabs are not allowed to play them because they have access to the cash drawers, giving them inside knowledge as to which games are ripe to yield winnings and which games have already paid out. The illicit operation allegedly won them more than $15,000 on games like “Lady Bug Picnic” and “Goin’ Nutty” before drawing the ire of the Minnesota Gambling Control Board. Paul bar, cherry-picking the games most likely to win based upon the bartender’s inside knowledge. They tried their hand at “Living the Dream,” but their “Lucky Green” wasn’t so lucky.Ī bartender, a janitor and three other men face criminal charges accusing them of playing pull-tabs after hours at Nick’s Place, a South St.

Tab gamble