Marisa Lankester

Early Bookmaking Years Marisa Lankester was born in Rome, and raised in Westchester County, NY by an English father who worked at the United Nations and German mother, and attended the all-girls Catholic independent Ursuline School.

Lankester married Sacco's right-hand man, Tony Ballestrasse, in 1987 and gave birth to a daughter before locating with Sacco's operation to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic where gambling was legal; although a top model on the Island, she was jailed twice and endured repeated rapes after the FBI and local police raided Sacco’s headquarters in January 1992 (at the time the operation was taking in $100 million/month in bets and considered the "nerve center of American sports betting.") Dominican police corruption included hiding Lankester from the FBI against her will. As an insider, Lankester was also aware of the role off-shore (shell companies) played in Sacco's operation.

Later years Retiring permanently from bookmaking in 1994, she moved back to New York in 1996 to attend college in Manhattan. She remarried and moved to Switzerland where she had her second daughter (later divorced). She currently resides in Zürich, Switzerland with her family. and active in debates surrounding US gambling laws (refer "Works" below) including input on the recent ban reversal in pro-sports. She published her memoirs, Dangerous Odds, in 2014. In an April 2019 interview, Lankester expanded on her current life and movie development activities.

Works