BATON ROUGE — An LSU student was arrested in connection with an illegal gambling operation, according to a report by The Advocate.

According to the outlet, authorities with the Louisiana State Police Gaming Enforcement Division responded to a complaint regarding illegal gambling on Jan. 16.

The man who filed the complaint allegedly told troopers that he allegedly placed multiple bets with 23-year-old Joseph Contente before he began receiving harassing calls and messages when he could not pay.

Troopers said that when the man lost a bet in December 2025, Contente allegedly agreed to delay the man's payment before he and his family and friends began receiving harassing calls and messages from someone using an alias. 

Investigators later found that Contente had received over $167,000 of debit transactions and over $147,000 in credit transactions between Feb. 25, 2025 and April 15, 2026. 

On Tuesday, Contente was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on charges of gambling, cyberstalking, extortion, unlawful wagering and unlawful telephone communications and harassment