Texas woman gets 18 months for $21M illegal gambling scheme using dead man’s ID

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Texas woman gets 18 months for $21M illegal gambling scheme using dead man's ID. Row of brightly lit slot machines in a Texas game room with Texas flag overlay.

A Texas businesswoman has been sentenced to 18 months in federal jail for her position in an enormous unlawful playing operation involving “8-liner” slot machines that raked in additional than $21 million.

On Tuesday (July 15), District Choose Drew B. Tipton handed down the sentence after Dominga “Penny” Ledesma pleaded responsible to prices associated to operating illegal gambling establishments throughout South Texas, alongside sport room proprietor Rene Gamez.

The girl stated she was pressured to plead responsible. https://t.co/u10QkOjVD8

— MySA (@mySA) July 20, 2025

Texas lady used ‘identities of deceased people’ in unlawful playing scheme

According to court docket paperwork, the 53-year-old from Raymondville was a central determine within the scheme, which used entrance firms to hide income from dozens of 8-liner institutions.

The federal prison criticism filed in 2019 revealed investigators had tied her to the El Toro Recreation Room close to Lyford, Texas, the place “clients would journey… to particularly play the eight liner machines.”

When gamers gained, staff “would then present small items of ‘silver’ equaling the quantity of the winnings to the client,” in line with court docket paperwork. These “silver” items had been exchanged for money at Brittany’s Boutique, which Ledesma owned and operated.

The criticism detailed that “between Could 31, 2017, and October 30, 2018, roughly twenty-one million ($21,000,000) USD in money transactions tied to the El Toro Recreation Room had been filed by Ledesma.”

Federal brokers from Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) started monitoring the scheme in mid-2018 after state and native authorities flagged suspicious exercise. Surveillance operations documented clients leaving the El Toro Recreation Room with baggage of “silver” and touring a brief distance to Brittany’s Boutique to alternate the items for US foreign money.

Investigators later uncovered that Ledesma filed false federal experiences, utilizing the identities of deceased people and others with out their consent.

“Your affiant is aware of that it’s a violation of Title 18 U.S.C. §1028A to knowingly possess or use with out lawful authority, a method of identification, specifically the social safety variety of one other particular person, throughout and in relation to a felony violation,” the criticism acknowledged.

One confidential informant instructed brokers, “silver exchanged for United States foreign money at Brittany’s Boutique by clients of the El Toro Recreation Room was then offered again to the workers of the El Toro Recreation Room by staff of Brittany’s Boutique.”

Prosecutors accused Ledesma of structuring money deposits and filings to keep away from detection. The criticism alleges she triggered or tried to trigger “a nonfinancial commerce or enterprise to file a report… that incorporates a cloth omission or misstatement of reality” in violation of federal legislation.

In February 2023, Ledesma pleaded responsible, however the choose let her keep out on bond for just a few extra months. She now has till August 15 to show herself in to the US Marshals and begin serving her sentence.

Featured picture: Canva

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