Denver-area sports-betting operation took high-end clients and bets, indictment says

Strong-arm and bookies I’m familiar with. Armstrong and bookies, not so much.

A sports-betting operation described as one of the largest in Colorado catered to well-known Denver-area sports, business and entertainment figures, some of whom had weekly betting limits as high as $50,000, according to a grand jury indictment and recently released search warrants.

Among those identified in court documents as placing bets “on a continual basis for several years” are Steve Sander, Denver’s director of strategic marketing and a member of the Metro Denver Sports Commission’s board of directors; former Denver Post sports reporter and columnist Jim Armstrong; and managers of the Blake Street Tavern and Sports Column bars in Lower Downtown.

...Armstrong, who had an online account with the password “cheese,” sometimes combined his wagers with those of Chris Fuselier, the managing partner of Blake Street Tavern, according to the indictment. The document does not list a weekly limit for either man. Fuselier did not return a call seeking comment. Armstrong, who worked for The Post for 27 years and had most recently been covering the Colorado Rockies?, declined to comment. He left the paper Friday.

“Readers have to believe and trust that all of us at The Denver Post cover events impartially and without a stake in the outcome,” said Gregory L. Moore, editor of The Post. “We take this very seriously.”