Tool-and-die maker charged with using counterfeit tokens at Connecticut casinos

Wednesday, May 14, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Louis Colavecchio, 55, of North Providence, R.I., was charged Wednesday with larceny, forgery and conspiracy to commit larceny in the use of bogus tokens at the Foxwoods Resort Casino and the Mohegan Sun, state police said.

Losses to Foxwoods totalled nearly $25,000, and at the Mohegan Sun, nearly $11,000, state police said.

Casinos across the country began checking their security measures following the December arrest of Colavecchio in Atlantic City, N.J., in what authorities said was the country's biggest case of gambling chip counterfeiting.

The quality of the bogus tokens was so good that the casinos had to use microscopes to detect them.

After Colavecchio's arrest in Atlantic City, authorities said that locked in a safe at his business, Diamonds in Design Ltd., they found 40 dies for casting slot machine tokens for casinos in Atlantic City, Connecticut and Las Vegas.

Colavecchio and a companion have also been charged by federal authorities with trafficking in counterfeit goods and interstate transportation in aid of racketeering to promote gambling.

The U.S. Secret Service has been helping state police in Connecticut and New Jersey investigate the counterfeiting.

In Connecticut, Colavecchio was freed on $10,000 bond. He is due in New London Superior Court on May 22 and Norwich Superior Court on May 29.