1992 publicity photo
Mel Cabang in happier times.

---

Cabang gets
51 months in prison
for gambling

The comedian gets the
minimum sentence for running
a big illegal sports
betting operation

By Susan Kreifels

Star-Bulletin

For Mel Cabang, it finally sank in yesterday when he heard he would spend more than four years in prison: Illegal gambling is not just good times with your buddies.

"We were just having some fun, a bunch of guys," said the 56-year-old island comedian. "Do you know one person who doesn't gamble?

"You know you're doing something illegal but it's not like going through a stop sign . . . You don't think it will get to this point."

Cabang, who pleaded guilty to crimes related to an illegal sports betting operation he ran from 1991 to 1995, was sentenced to 51 months in prison for each of three counts -- conspiracy to commit illegal gambling, money laundering and interstate transportation of betting paraphernalia.

The 51 months was the minimum sentence he could receive, and 63 months the maximum.

Prosecutors said Cabang ran one of the largest betting operations in the state, in which gross profits could exceed $2,000 a day during football and basketball seasons.

U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor also sentenced Cabang to 36 months in prison for filing false tax returns and 24 months for wire transport of betting information to the mainland.

All sentences are to run concurrently. Persons convicted of federal crimes are not eligible for parole.

Cabang also got three years supervised release.

Gillmor fined Cabang $2,000 to be paid immediately, saying he couldn't afford the recommended $10,000 to $500,000 in fines.

Gillmor also granted Cabang's request to recommend he serve his sentence at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas, where Cabang's wife lives. But she refused to let Cabang stay with his wife until he surrenders to authorities Nov. 2. Gillmor said first she must find out what monitoring resources are located in Nevada.

Gillmor said Cabang cannot gamble, even in legal gambling houses, until his supervised release is finished. The judge said she didn't want Cabang to be tempted to gamble in Las Vegas as that would go "against the spirit of the law."

The government asked only for the minimum sentence. Cabang has forfeited his Kalama Valley home, a Honda he bought in 1994 with illegal proceeds, and $65,000 in cash seized from his home.

Cabang's attorney, Michael Green, called his client a "treasure in Hawaii" and said federal sentences for Cabang's crimes were heavy. Criminals who "profited millions of dollars in drugs cooperated with the government and got sentences substantially below what my client faces . . . He's lost everything, every dime, his home, vehicle."

Cabang spoke at his sentencing, crying the entire time. "If I had a chance to do this again, I would never do this again," he told Gillmor. "I never thought it would come to this."

U.S. Assistant Attorney Leslie Osborne told Gillmor that Cabang's gambling operation was "more than a group of friends having fun." He said the operation had been computerized with a kill button to destroy records if the operation was raided.

Osborne also said the business had covered four years, that Cabang had understated his income by $500,000 and failed to pay $164,000 in taxes.