Tocchet, Gretzkys Wife Involved In Gambling Ring?

[swerb]

http://www.sportsline.com/nhl/story/9214307

Wow. This is a potentially huge story. Hard to believe The Great One himself is involved or be implicated, but this story sounds pretty serious.

[Guest]

They must have never heard of Sportsbook.com

[OmegaMan]

The reason it isn't a bigger story is because it's the NHL.

Anyway, if it turns out the gambling involved players league wide, it's probably all over.

They apparently have Gretzky on tape talking about the ring before it was busted up, so he at least knew about it. In any case, the focus shouldn't be on him, it should be on whether hockey games were fixed or influenced in some way.

This should be fun to watch.

Brett

[Lebowski]

Is there any doubt 99 wasn't putting bets in through his wife?

[BruceK]

My question -- does anybody really bet on hockey?

What's next, betting on figure skating?

[jdrake10]

It appears to me that Gretzky's name was used by the Investigators in order to blow this story up bigger than it is. And it worked, the media jumped all over it. But the public doesn't seem to care. There is no evidence that Gretzky is involved. But as this story begins to surface, he is interviewed and says he knows nothing about it. The authorities seize this moment to release information about The Great One being recorded discussing this situation with his friend and gambling ringleader, Tocchet. The media again jumped all over this saying Gretzky lied and he needs to come clean. So he did know about it, big freaking deal! Would anyone really expect him (or anyone) to volunteer information like this without it coming out first? C’mon be serious. From my limited knowledge of the law, he is not obligated to implicate his wife (or himself if he does end up being involved which I don’t believe). Anyway, the authorities did not release that Gretzky was involved, just that he knew about it. They certainly would have leaked it if they were certain he was involved so I believe that Wayne will skate on this. His wife may not be able to, but they have nothing on the Great One or they would have already leaked this.

[Lebowski]

I disagree.

The story was already big considering it was a coach of an NHL team, the ring was an estimated $1.5mill, and the mob was involved.

99's wife's involvement made it a bigger story because (a) Gretzky is the greatest hockey player ever and (b) there was the possibility that, if his wife was involved, so was Wayne.

Wifey apparently bet over $500,000. That's a lot of caysh. I assume her Police Academy 5 money has been exhausted for some time.

At this point I think it is absolutely fair to speculate whether Wayne was involved or not.

[jdrake10]

If it was another NHL coach, sorry I can’t name one, this would not be a big deal at all. Per NHL rules it is not even a violation if a coach or player bets on another sport “legally”. I understand that these were “illegal” bets. But most people do not consider gambling any big deal. On the list of crimes it is near the bottom. In my hierarchy I put it between jaywalking and parking in a handicap space, with parking in a handicap space being worse. I still think if it were not for the name Gretzky, this is on ESPN page 3, if it is even in the news yet. If you want to speculate on if Wayne is involved then that is your right. I just don’t believe that America cares even if it ends up being true.