February 8, 2021 – Philadelphia mob associate Anthony (Tony Meatballs) Gifoli pleaded guilty to bookmaking charges last week. Gifoli, 73, was indicted along with reputed Bruno-Scarfo crime family underboss Steven (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone and several other Philly wiseguys back in November in a federal racketeering case.

Dave Schratwieser’s Mob Talk Sitdown blog broke the news of Tony Meatballs’ plea deal on Friday. Tony Meatballs is the first co-defendant in the case to cop a plea. Handsome Stevie Mazzone, 57, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial on home confinement in South Philly.

Gifoli faces a maximum five-year prison sentence, but might get as a little as three months of house arrest and probation. According to the indictment, Tony Meatballs was co-running a sports gambling business from 2017 through 2019 that took in $2,000 per day in wagers. Court files paint him as a right-hand man to Philly mob figure Lou (Louie Sheep) Barretta, a longtime associate of Handsome Stevie Mazzone. Like Mazzone, Barretta, 56, is out on bail and looking to fight the case in court.

The FBI had a cell phone Barretta and Gifoli shared to take sports wagers bugged and intercepted Tony Meatballs booking bets on the 2017 Super Bowl and 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, as well as discussing “settling up” with debtors on their losses. Mazzone was taped at a 2015 mafia induction ceremony and post-ceremony celebratory dinner ordering his new initiates to grab power back in Atlantic City and acknowledging he was a “gangster.”