A retired New York State Police sergeant is facing federal charges after prosecutors say he tipped off the owners of an illegal online sports betting ring based in Rochester that it was under investigation.

Sgt. Thomas J. Loewke tipped off co-conspirators who “conducted, financed, managed, supervised, directed and owned an illegal gambling business” that brought in illegal profits of more than $10 million during a five-year period ending in 2021, prosecutors said in a criminal complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Buffalo.

In the last 10 years in WNY, state police troopers have been accused of myriad wrongdoing. None of the troopers lost their jobs, even those who abused their authority.

While in-person sports betting at licensed casinos has been legal in New York State since 2019, and state lawmakers legalized mobile sports betting in 2022, unlicensed bookmaking of the type Loewke is accused of in court papers remains illegal.

Loewke, who is scheduled to appear in federal court in Rochester on Tuesday, is no longer a member of the State Police, spokesperson William Duffy said. He said Loewke retired from Troop E in October 2021. He declined to comment on the charges. 

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A woman who answered the phone at Loewke’s residence had no immediate comment and said she would pass along a message to Loewke.

Buffalo News investigative reporters Matthew Spina and Charlie Specht have obtained disciplinary records from the New York State Police. They discuss how they obtained the records and what the records show about how the state’s main police agency disciplines its own troopers. Read their story in Sunday’s Buffalo News and on buffalonews.com.

Charlie Specht
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Matthew Spina

U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross declined to comment on the criminal complaint.

A federal Homeland Security Investigations officer assigned to the HSI Buffalo Nickel City Financial Task Force stated in an affidavit filed in court that a federal grand jury, in cooperation with the State Police and local police agencies, has been probing an “illegal bookmaking operation” through the website sport700.com.

A photo of New York State Police Trooper Thomas Loewke that was published on the State Police Facebook page in 2015, when he was honored by the Monroe County Stop-DWI program for making more arrests than any other trooper in Troop E. 

New York State Police

Two unnamed “targets” of the probe who own businesses in the Rochester suburb of Chili accepted bets and paid winnings to an undercover police officer in late 2020, court papers state. A State Supreme Court judge in 2020 approved wiretaps for one of the target’s cell phones.

In 2021, the judge signed warrants authorizing police to log into the two men’s accounts on sport700.com. One of the men made $1.2 million in gambling profits from 221 bettors, court papers stated, while the other made $8.9 million from more than 1,700 bettors.

Prosecutors say in court papers that evidence found on Loewke’s cell phone showed he “engaged in illegal sports betting by placing numerous bets with another individual.”

Here are disciplinary records for New York troopers assigned to Troop A, which is headquartered in Batavia and patrols Western New York.

But after another member of the State Police saw one of the bookie’s names on the desk of a senior State Police investigator in Rochester in December 2020, they say that trooper – who is not named in court papers – called Loewke because he “knew Loewke had a gambling problem and was warning him against gambling” with the bookie who was under investigation.

Loewke “intentionally and unlawfully shared information about the investigation” with the bookmaker “in order to obstruct the investigation and facilitate” the man’s “continued operation of his illegal gambling businesses,” prosecutors stated in court papers.

The two men who prosecutors say made millions from the betting ring were tipped off about the probe by “a member of the State Police named ‘T.J.’ ” and began discussing on a wiretapped phone how they would avoid the police.

“Yeah, I gotta lay extra low, and I’m gonna be deliberate on the real phone talking about how legitimate I am … ” one of the men said, according to court papers. 

Loewke faces charges of gambling and obstruction, court records state. A spokesperson for the union representing state troopers had no immediate comment.   

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