By Allan Lengel

James “Harlem” Washington was helping deliver more than the U.S. mail.

Washington, a supervisor for the U.S. Postal Service, was convicted Thursday in federal court in New York of running a “Lotto” type numbers gambling operation at the Postal Service and other government facilities that collected about $10 million in wagers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Authorities charged that from 2005 to 2009 Washington and others at the Postal service and other local and state government agencies ran a “Lotto”-type gambling business, which relied on numbers selected from the New York State Lotto drawing.

The gambling operation paid out $100,000 or more per month in prizes, authorities said. Thousands of players each month paid a $20 entry fee and picked six numbers, just like the Lotto.

A number of others have already pleaded guilty in the case.