WARREN RAID Official: Dice game 'is like therapy'
No arrests have been made as a result of the raid by police and the FBI.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Among the gamblers when police broke up a long-standing dice game earlier this month was Nick Frankos Sr., who is serving his third term on the city school board.
Police and the FBI raided the game, above the Greyhound bus station on East Market Street, about 4 a.m. Dec. 14, seizing dice, betting chips and gambling records going back to 1983. They also found an unloaded sawed-off shotgun.
The 14 people gathered around the Vegas-style table were interviewed by authorities, then released. The investigation continues, Detective Jeff Houlihan said.
Among the players was Frankos, 78, owner of the Buena Vista Cafe.
"I was there," he said. "It is my only vice. It is like therapy to me."
No arrests
There have been no arrests as a result of the raid, which police said was the culmination of a three-month investigation. Police identified the tenant of the apartment where the raid took place as Bill Graham, also known as "Chico."
Frankos, of Foster Drive Northeast, said he has been a regular at the friendly, weekly game for years. He has not been contacted by police since the night of the raid, but others have been, he said.
Frankos said he lost his "Christmas money" when the game was broken up by police.
The Saturday morning game was one of the few barbut games left in the city, said Frankos, who says he has been playing the game for 40 years.
The weekly event had been dying -- sometimes not even attracting enough gamblers to get started -- because few people still know how to play, he said.
People at the game were not criminal types, he said.
"I'm quite sure if they came in and discussed it with us, we would have shut the game down for sure," he said.