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Former Colombo Family Crime Boss Warns Students about Problem GamblingThe former head of the Colombo crime family, Michael Franzese, spoke to a crowd of National College Association of Athletes (NCAA) student members at Northern Illinois University (NIU) on Wednesday night. His speech touched on everything from his own turn away from the mob to drugs and alcohol, but his main purpose was to warn students against the dangers of gambling addictions.Franzese began his speech by talking about his life. The moss boss decided to reform because of his religious conviction, he told the crowd. "I'm going to be honest with you guys, for awhile I was pulling in $3 million a week for myself," Franzese said. "I had the money; I had that life. And I gave it up because it was no good." He renounced his life as a mobster even though his family disapproved of his choice. His father, he said, did not speak to him for 10 years after he reformed. His family life has not been easy, by any account. Drugs have been a recurring problem for many of his family members. His sister died from a drug overdose around 15 years ago, and his brother has been a drug addict for the past 23 years. "I hate drugs," said Franzese. "I hate everything to do with them." Although many crime families are involved in drug trafficking, Franzese said that this was not the case in his family. "In my [crime] family we could get killed for getting involved in drug trafficking." However, as much as Franzese hates drugs, he hates gambling more. "I've known more people who get addicted to gambling than to drugs and alcohol combined," he said. "People in gambling are desperate and people who run gambling operations just want to make money," Franzese said. "They don't care about you. Gambling has been the No. 1 money maker for the mob since the days of prohibition." A large number of street gambling operations, Franzese told the students, are illegal because they are in fact run by the Mafia or other organized crime groups. Attendance at the speech by Franzese was mandatory for many of the NCAA members present, the students nonetheless appreciated his insight and were pleased that they had heard him. "Even though I'm not involved in gambling myself, I thought his message was very relevant," said 19 year- old sophomore Jennifer W. "I think a lot of students really took his message about gambling to heart," she added. Another student, 21 year- old Michael P., said that, while he did not totally agree with the former crime boss' message about gambling, he nevertheless appreciated his insight. "Gambling has been around forever, and I think it can be a healthy activity if people don't take it too far. But he seemed like a really cool guy."
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