Michael Osborne Running Gambling Intervention Program Out of Southern Boulevard Offices, is Working With Former NBA Ref Who Bet on Games

The owner of a gambling addiction residential treatment company that had been planning to house patients in the Parrot Mill Inn is now running a gambling intervention business out of offices on Southern Boulevard and is working with Tim Donaghy, a former National Basketball Association referee who lost his job and went to jail for his role in a league gambling scandal.

Osborne said today he is running the intervention portion of Firstep Intervention out of the offices on Southern Boulevard. He also said he is working with Donaghy, who was sentenced to 15 months in jail in July 2008 for giving gamblers insider tips on NBA games he refereed in exchange for money. Donaghy also bet on games he refereed.

In an interview with MavsBall.com published June 5, Osborne said he first got in touch with the former referee through his lawyer while he was still in prison.

"I thought he might need a helping hand," Osborne said in the interview. Osborne has faced his fair share of legal trouble in the past for his own gambling addiction misdeeds but later opened Harbour Pointe, a residential treatment facility for gambling addicts, in Baltimore.

He said Donaghy has accompanied him on "multiple interventions," and said he has been successful in persuading people with gambling addiction problems to go and get treatment.

Donaghy has written about his ties to Osborne and to Firstep Intervention in a variety of recent online articles.

Osborne said he is using the Southern Boulevard space for office use only, and said he is not housing any overnight clients there.

He had initially wanted to open a residential treatment facility in the Parrot Mill Inn, and had received approval from borough Zoning Officer Vince DeNave to use the building for those purposes.

But residents reacted angrily and eventually appealed DeNave's decision to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, claiming the property did not represent a continued use. The Zoning Board upheld the appeal at its March 24 meeting, saying the gambling addiction facility was not similar enough to the bed and breakfast to allow it to exist inside the building without a variance.