Former video gambling kingpin to pay $5M, shutter companies in deal

By PAULA REED WARD
TribLive

Western Pennsylvania’s onetime video poker kingpin has agreed to forfeit $5 million and dissolve two skill games companies as part of a plea agreement with the state Attorney General’s Office.

It is the largest asset forfeiture in a gaming enforcement case in Pennsylvania history, said Chief Deputy Attorney General Patrick Schulte.

John “Duffy” Conley, 62, of Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes, appeared in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Wednesday to represent his two companies, Buffalo Skill Games Inc., of Bridgeville, and J.J. Amusement Inc., of the South Side.

Both companies entered a plea to a single felony count, operating a corrupt organization.

The plea agreement called for the forfeiture and for both companies to be dissolved within 30 days.

Conley had no comment as he left the hearing before Judge Jaime Hickton.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday underscored the importance of shutting down the two businesses.

“Illegal gambling operations are not victimless crimes,” Sunday said in a statement. “They can fuel criminal enterprises, exploit individuals addicted to gambling, and rip off consumers with games that are not regulated, provide little or no chance of winning, and do not comply with gambling self-exclusion lists intended to protect those struggling with addiction.”

Skill vs. chance

Investigators conducted dozens of raids on March 12, 2024, at businesses across Western Pennsylvania including gas stations, convenience stores, restaurants and stand-alone storefronts operating as mini casinos.

They seized the gaming machines, as well as $538,000.

According to the criminal complaint, Conley’s two companies provided gaming devices to locations in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Cambria, Crawford, Indiana, Somerset, Venango, Erie, Washington, Armstrong and Westmoreland counties.

As part of the investigation, undercover state troopers and AG’s office agents visited 47 locations known to have video gaming machines to determine if they were legal “skill” games or illegal gambling machines.

The determining factor is whether the outcome of the game is determined predominantly by the skill of the player or by chance.

“Officers determined that the vast majority of the machines in question had no ‘skill’ game feature,” the complaint said. “At some locations, only a single machine had such a ‘skill’ feature; at most of the locations, none did.”

Investigators executed search warrants at locations including Carnegie, North Versailles, McKees Rocks, Pittsburgh’s North Side, New Kensington, Monaca, Cranberry, Johnstown, Linesville, Titusville, Blairsville, Somerset, Franklin and Oil City.

In addition, a search warrant served at the companies’ warehouse in Homestead resulted in the seizure of $175,087 in cash, as well as an elaborate video surveillance system — with live audio and video feeds — keeping track of the video gaming machines across Western Pennsylvania, the complaint said.

Gambling kingpin

Conley has a lengthy history of gambling crimes in both state and federal court.

He was sentenced to serve nine years in federal prison for a conviction on conspiracy in 1995 in which authorities said he ran a $15-million-a-year video gambling organization with 4,000 video poker machines.

Within two years of his release, Conley was arrested again for violating the terms of his supervised release by gambling.

In that case, he was accepting and laying off millions of dollars in bets from other bookies.

At his 2006 sentencing hearing where he was ordered to serve four more years of incarceration, Conley said he had a gambling addiction.

Then, in 2009, Conley pleaded guilty to one count of conducting an illegal gambling business. At that time, even the U.S. attorney’s office suggested he should not receive prison time, noting that Conley had likely spent more time behind bars for gambling-related offenses than any other person in the history of the district.

He was given three years supervised release.

Conley was charged in 2024 in Cumberland County with a misdemeanor count of gambling devices. He pleaded guilty and received no further penalty.