Sure, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal secretly ran the Stardust, Fremont, Marina, and Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago branch of the mafia from 1974 to 1978. That’s without even possessing a gaming license, ensuring the syndicate a “skim” of at least $1.6 million, and probably much more.

Sure, in the ’50s, he bought contracts to fix sporting events, earning multiple sports bribery indictments. And sure, he was a suspect in multiple business and car bombings in Miami in the ’60s, which is allegedly why he fled to Las Vegas in 1968 in the first place.

But Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal was also the very first operator of a Las Vegas Strip resort to hire female dealers for table games, which makes him a champion for women’s rights.

And that makes up for at least some of the bad stuff in his legacy, right?

No, Because it’s a Myth

Women dealt cards in downtown Las Vegas from at least 1943 — the date of the first known job ad seeking them — through 1958. That’s the year their growing presence made male dealers fear for their job security. The men organized, met with the all-male Las Vegas city government, and succeeded in getting an ordinance passed banning all women from card-dealing positions. That ban lasted 12 years.

“The hotel-casino industry, like the majority of US businesses at the time, divided job opportunities by sex and race,” ?Joanne Goodwin, a UNLV professor emerita of history and founding director of the Women’s Research Institute of Nevada, told Casino.org. “Despite the ban, some women continued to deal outside city limits.”

Brady, 47, was hired by casino manager Jack Piper to deal blackjack at the Silver Slipper, which was never a property controlled by Frank Rosenthal.

“I’m not fighting for any rights for women,” Brady told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a story published on Aug. 13, 1970. “I’m just trying to take the best job opportunity available to me.”

The Strip wasn’t a very progressive place back then. Only a month before Brady’s hire, State Labor Commissioner Stanley Jones had to order the Desert Inn to stop discriminating against female dealers who were applying for jobs there.

It was this ruling that prompted the Slipper to promote Brady, who had been working as a slot machine cashier.

One Thing Lefty Did Right

Rosenthal was the first to bring sports betting to a Las Vegas Strip casino, the Stardust, in 1976. For this, he deserves some recognition — though casino owner Jackie Gaughan opened the first sportsbook inside a casino in Las Vegas proper a year earlier — at his Union Plaza downtown.

As far as his being a key figure in the struggle for equal opportunity in employment, Rosenthal most certainly hired female dealers in his casinos. But he was following a trend, not setting or bucking one.

The sole barrier he broke was hiring the Strip’s first female baccarat dealer, Shirley Brancucci, about five years after Brady’s hire, and even that accomplishment isn’t so ironclad.

Al Sachs, who was then running the Stardust prior to its purchase by Argent, appears to have had more to do with her hiring than Rosenthal did,” Michael Green, a history professor at UNLV, told Casino.org.

“I am not aware of any rights barriers broken by Frank Rosenthal,” Goodwin added.

So How Did this Myth Get Started?

Crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi’s 1995 book, “Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas,” states that Rosenthal was “the first to allow women blackjack dealers on the Strip.” This “fact” was also repeated on Rosenthal’s official website, frankleftyrosenthal.com, for which Pileggi wrote the bio.

Since nearly every other subject of Pileggi’s book was dead, Rosenthal served as its main source of information. This book was also the basis for Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award-nominated movie, “Casino,” whose screenplay was co-written by Pileggi and Scorsese.

In the 1995 film, Robert De Niro stars as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a reasonable, likable, and highly fictional version of Rosenthal.

“As one of the last ones left standing, Lefty was able to influence media portrayals of him,” Green said, “so it was understandable that Ace Rothstein would look a bit better on the screen than Lefty Rosenthal did in real life.”

Rosenthal enjoyed a longer and happier life than most other people in his line of work. Despite a 1982 attempt to hasten the eventuality with a car bomb in the parking lot of a Las Vegas Tony Roma’s, he didn’t die until 2008 — of a heart attack at age 79 in Miami.

It wasn’t until after his death that Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Jane Ann Morrison disclosed a bombshell secret about Rosenthal that he had been hiding since at least his departure from Las Vegas 26 years earlier …

Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal was an FBI informant.

Had this secret gotten out earlier, Rosenthal would probably have ended up just another silenced footnote in Las Vegas history.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday at Casino.org.?Click here?to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email?[email protected].

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Co-owners Frank Pellegrino Jr. and Ron Straci said this week the Rao’s at Caesars Palace on the Strip is closing for good on Nov. 28, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The restaurant was opened at that location in December 2006. The owners did not give a reason for the closure.

In a prepared statement, the owners said they are “filled with a variety of emotions and will always look back and cherish the memories made within these walls.”

The owners left the door open for a potential next step in Southern Nevada.

While our future in Las Vegas is not yet decided, we are very excited about the possibilities of what lies ahead,” the statement reads.

Carla Pellegrino, the chef who opened the Las Vegas Rao’s 15 years ago, also opened Bratalian in Henderson in 2011, the newspaper reported. In addition, she was a partner in another Las Vegas restaurant, The Meatball Spot, and plans to open one called the Dough House Restaurant & Bar in the Las Vegas Valley.

New York Favorite

Rao’s reputation in the culinary world dates back to its opening in a large East Harlem Italian neighborhood in 1896, according to Vanity Fair magazine.

The Rao’s in East Harlem has only a handful of tables and booths. Since Mimi Sheraton awarded it three stars in the New York Times in 1977, the New York Rao’s has had “among the toughest restaurant reservations in the country,” Vanity Fair reported.?

Among those who have dined there are actors, US presidents, and even now-deceased Gambino crime boss John Gotti.

Goodfellas Cameo

When film director Martin Scorsese was shooting 1990’s New York Mafia movie Goodfellas, he cast Rao’s owner, Frank Pellegrino, in the movie. He appears most notably in the prison scene, where several wiseguys are cooking a large meal.

New York journalist and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi recalled having to order ahead on days the restaurant made its red sauce, also known as “gravy.” The movie Goodfellas was based on Pileggi’s 1985 book Wiseguy. Pileggi co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese.

The Sunday gravy is fabulous,” Pileggi told Vanity Fair in 2016. “They only make 20 servings, so I order in advance.”

Pileggi and Scorsese also co-wrote the 1995 Las Vegas Mob movie Casino, based on Pileggi’s true crime book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas.

Cajun Restaurant Opening at Harrah’s

As the Las Vegas branch of Rao’s is preparing to close, a popular Louisiana restaurant plans to open at a different location on the resort corridor.

Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux, a Baton Rouge-based restaurant, is opening its first Nevada location at Harrah’s Hotel and Casino on the Strip, according to a news release. Walk-On’s plans to be in operation at Harrah’s by early 2022.?

In addition to such items as burgers and salads, Walk-On’s features Louisiana-inspired dishes, such as crawfish etouffee, duck and andouille gumbo, and Krispy Kreme doughnut bread pudding.?

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On March 19, 1931, Gov. Fred Balzar signed Assembly Bill 98, legalizing gambling in Nevada. A few months later, on Aug. 1, the Railroad Pass opened. It received the fourth gambling license in Nevada. The state never issued the first two licenses. The third license recipient later closed, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Joe DeSimone, a Henderson real estate developer, bought the historic property from MGM Resorts in 2015.?

In addition, DeSimone recently bought the former Eldorado Casino in Henderson’s historic Water Street District, and spent $7 million renovating and rebranding it. The Water Street property is called The Pass.

Railroad Pass Improvements

At the Railroad Pass, DeSimone has spent millions on improvements over the years, including adding a Chevron gas station and travel center to attract truckers, the newspaper reported.?

The resort is 2,367 feet above sea level on the Union Pacific route to nearby Boulder City and Hoover Dam, according to a Nevada Handbook entry by Deke Castleman. The hotel-casino is on the main route for visitors driving up from Arizona. Gambling isn’t legal in Boulder City, but the Railroad Pass is only four miles from the town.

DeSimone is upgrading the Railroad Pass with the construction of a $15 million hotel tower. The tower will add 127 guest rooms to the current 120 rooms at the resort, the newspaper reported. The tower will be a Holiday Inn Express, allowing guests to use Holiday Inn rewards points. Construction began this month.

The historic property also contains an original safe used for employee payroll. The safe has apparently not been opened since 1975, according to the newspaper. DeSimone doesn’t have the passcode to open the safe, and doesn’t know what’s in it.

Las Vegas Makeover

While the Railroad Pass builds upon its historic past, other well-known Southern Nevada casinos have been demolished and replaced by resorts with thousands of rooms.

On the Las Vegas Strip, longtime hotel-casinos such as the Desert Inn, Dunes, and Sands were imploded during a megaresort era that gained traction with the 1989 opening of the Mirage Hotel and Casino. Developer Steve Wynn built the Mirage on the west side of the Strip where the Castaways once stood.

Last month, the $4.3 billion Resorts World Las Vegas opened on the west side of the Strip, where the Mob-connected Stardust was located.

The Stardust was the center of New York journalist Nicholas Pileggi 1990s true crime book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. Pileggi and director Martin Scorsese wrote the screenplay for the 1995 movie Casino, based on the book. In the movie, the Stardust was called the Tangiers for legal reasons. ?

“It’s Disneyland,” Pileggi said. “The climate is good. These hotel-casinos are spectacular. It’s just unbelievable.”

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The Resorts World attendance is smaller than the 80,000 that visited the Bellagio Las Vegas within 18 hours of its opening on the Strip in 1998, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Even so, Resorts World Las Vegas President Scott Sibella said the crowd last Thursday was “truly incredible.”?

Opening the first resort development on the Strip in over a decade has been a monumental achievement, and the night exceeded our expectations,” he said.

On the night of the grand opening, the public was allowed inside Resorts World beginning at 11 pm, though 5,500 people attended an earlier private event, spokesperson Joslyn Garcia told the newspaper.?

The $4.3 billion Resorts World is the first hotel-casino to open on the Strip since the Cosmopolitan debuted in December 2010. The Cosmopolitan is on the west side of the Strip, towering over the older Jockey Club just south of the Bellagio. The Bellagio was built under the direction of casino developer Steve Wynn and is located where the Dunes hotel-casino once stood.?

North Strip Revival

Resorts World is at the northwest end of the Strip, near 1960s era Circus Circus and the small Slots-A-Fun casino. The Malaysia-based Genting Group built Resort World where the now-demolished Stardust Casino was located.?

Tourism officials are hopeful Resorts World can lead to a recovery for that slow-to-revive section of the Strip. In an earlier era, the Riviera was a main attraction at the northeast end of the resort corridor. The Riviera was closed in 2015 and later demolished.

Resorts World has a red exterior and includes nine swimming pools, 40 dining and drinking establishments, and numerous luxury shops. The resort’s executives have said the company already is planning to expand onto vacant spaces at the 88-acre site.

Stardust Reminders

One Las Vegas resident who visited Resorts World the day after the grand opening told Casino.org some things throughout the property reminded him of the previous hotel-casino at that location.

Las Vegas-based podcaster Tommy Canale said as he walked around Resorts World, he “kept seeing small little hints of the old Stardust.” Canale, a long-time Las Vegas resident, hosts two podcasts, Before the Lights and The Golf Zone.

Canale said artwork displayed inside the resort, including a drawing of Frank Sinatra, had a throwback appeal, as did blue velour chairs on the property.?

That era is portrayed in Nicholas Pileggi’s 1995 book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. The book became the basis for the movie Casino, which Pileggi co-wrote with director Martin Scorsese.

Canale said he saw reminders of the Stardust throughout Resorts World.?

“The color scheme was similar, along with a small lounge near one of the check-in areas that had two steps up, which reminded me of the Stardust,” Canale said. “If you look closely things will pop out.”

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At $4.3 billion, the red-tinted Resorts World Las Vegas is the most expensive hotel-casino in Nevada history, surpassing the $4.1 billion Cosmopolitan. The Cosmopolitan opened in December 2010, the last new resort on the Strip prior to Thursday’s event.?

Resorts World is at the northwest end of the Strip, just south of Circus Circus and the smaller Slots-A-Fun casinos. The Cosmopolitan also is on the west side of the Strip, towering over the older Jockey Club near the Bellagio.

The 3,506-room Resorts World is owned by the Malaysian-based Genting Group. It features three Hilton-branded hotels, each with its own entrance. Midweek room rates start at $149.?

The fanfare surrounding Thursday’s 11 pm opening mirrors the excitement over earlier grand openings that helped transform the Strip. This includes the 1989 opening of the Mirage. The Steve Wynn-built Mirage ushered in an era of themed megaresorts designed in part to attract families.

That era has given way to other concepts, including resorts that restrict smoking. At Resorts World, smoking will be limited to the casino.

This revival includes a $1 billion addition to the Convention Center just east of the Strip and an underground Tesla people-mover system by Elon Musk’s Boring Co. The transit system ultimately will have a station at Resorts World, connecting it to the Convention Center. ?

Licensed Sexologists?

Among the attractions at Resorts World are nine swimming pools and 40 dining and drinking establishments. One ice cream shop at the resort will sell vegan, plant-based ice cream, while another will sell alcohol-infused ice cream. Also on the property are shops selling items ranging from crystal-encrusted handbags to fine wines.

Also included is a Kardashian Kloset pop-up store selling clothing that members of the blended Kardashian-Jenner family have worn. Another feature is Pepper, a sexual wellness shop with licensed sexologists on staff.

Among the stars already set to perform at Resorts World are Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan. Singer Miley Cyrus is scheduled to appear at a July 4 event featuring a fireworks show beginning at 11 pm.?

We’re excited about what the Genting Group has created and for people to experience Resorts World Las Vegas,” says a post this week on the Clark County government Facebook page.

Resorts World and the other large hotel-casinos on the Strip are in Clark County, outside Las Vegas city limits.

Stardust Memories

The Resorts World site is where the Stardust Casino was in operation for decades until it closed in 2006. The 1,500-room Stardust was imploded on March 13, 2007.

The Stardust achieved widespread recognition with the 1995 publication of Nicholas Pileggi’s book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. The book focuses on Chicago oddsmaker Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, who oversaw the Stardust and other Las Vegas casinos for Midwestern crime families.?

Other Mob-connected casinos from that era, including the Sands, Desert Inn, and Dunes, also have been demolished and replaced by modern resorts.

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The fire at about 6 pm on Saturday occurred in a storage area where building materials and mechanical equipment are kept, according to KLAS-TV. The fire was behind the parking garage.

Eyewitnesses posted photographs and video on social media sites, showing flames and billowing smoke at the site of the 3,506-room resort on the northwest end of the Strip.

The red-tinted Resorts World Las Vegas is just south of Circus Circus and the smaller Slot-A-Fun. The $4.3 billion resort is set to open on Thursday. ?

No one was injured in the blaze, which did not spread to other structures, according to fire officials. The cause is under investigation.

The fire occurred as the temperature in the Las Vegas Valley soared to 114 degrees on Saturday, tying a record for that date set in 1940. Las Vegas has been in the midst of a heat wave, reaching 100-degree temperatures for the first time since Oct. 1, 2020.?

Eyewitness Makayla Williams told the television station the fire created a traffic jam on the Strip.

We saw the fire at the building and there was smoke, and it took us around the Strip causing a 20-minute back up,” Williams said.

James Banks, a visitor from Phoenix, noted that the fire created a large amount of smoke.

“Looked like something had been burning for quite some time, and all we saw was plumes of smoke in the sky,” he told the television station.

Las Vegas resident Chris Walton said the fire was “scary”? because the hotel-casino is new.

“They shouldn’t be having these problems,” he said.

‘Sexual Wellness’

Resorts World Las Vegas is the first new hotel-casino to open on the Strip since December 2010, when the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas began operating. In February, “multiple” people were hospitalized from smoke caused by a fire at the Cosmopolitan, officials said. Smoke in the hallway on the 51st floor came from a balcony at one of the rooms.

At its opening, Resorts World will feature more than 40 places for food and beverages. These include a vegan ice cream store and a bubble tea shop called Tiger Sugar.?

Also included is a Pepper sexual wellness shop with licensed sexologists on staff. Pepper also will have employees in a “key holder” role. In addition to other duties, this job requires employees to “engage guests in conversations about sexual wellness.”

Former Mafia Site

Resorts World was constructed on the Strip where the Stardust Casino once stood. At one time, the Stardust was overseen by Chicago oddsmaker Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal for Midwestern crime families.?

This era was portrayed in former New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi’s nonfiction book, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. Pileggi and director Martin Scorsese cowrote the screenplay for the 1995 movie Casino, a fictionalized account of the book.

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The four-day CES show is set to begin Jan. 5, 2022, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. After being held in Las Vegas for four decades, the event was conducted virtually at the beginning of this year because of COVID-19 restrictions.?

Next year, an online option will be available for those who do not want to participate in-person.

The Arlington, Va.-based Consumer Technology Association’s trade show formerly was called the “Consumer Electronics Show.” On its website, the CTA urges people not to refer to it by that former name.

The show in 2020 attracted 180,000 visitors to Las Vegas, the newspaper reported.?

Since the March 2020 onset of the coronavirus pandemic, no large conventions have been held in the city. Conventions are seen as vital in filling up the Las Vegas Valley’s massive hotel towers, especially during the slow midweek days.

During the past year, several large resorts on the Las Vegas Strip temporarily closed their hotel rooms during the middle of the week because of low demand.

Seeking Conventioneers

On Saturday, Las Vegas casino floors began operating at 80 percent capacity, up from 50 percent. The social distancing requirement was shortened from six feet to three feet.?

In an earnings call this week, MGM Resorts International Chief Operating Officer Corey Sanders indicated hotel rooms could start filling up again as people become comfortable with relaxed social distancing rules, according to the newspaper. During the call, he mentioned the CES event.?

I think there’s a slight chance early 2022, we could start seeing 90 percent occupancies,” Sanders said.

Since 1999, Las Vegas resorts have generated more revenue from conventions and hotel amenities than from gambling, according to the Wall Street Journal.

This economic shift shows up in the way the area promotes itself. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority recently unveiled a television ad that does not have any footage of casino floors or any gambling tables or machines.

Tourism officials also are touting a $987.1 million West Hall expansion at the Las Vegas Convention Center and an underground people-mover developed by Elon Musk’s The Boring Co. Both are intended to appeal to conventioneers.

‘An Additional Amenity’

In an interview with Casino.org, a prominent screenwriter noted this shift away from Las Vegas’ longtime status as a desert gambling outpost was because of a “totally different economy of scale.”

Nicholas Pileggi said the change began in the 1980s, when publicly traded corporations started building 3,000-room megaresorts. At these luxury resorts, gambling “is an additional amenity,” he said.

Pileggi, who co-wrote the 1995 Las Vegas Mafia movie Casino with director Martin Scorsese, said casino companies learned that the new model is more lucrative. This model includes appealing to conventioneers.

“You can make a lot more money with that kind of crowd than you can with three hundred guys who were betting yellow chips at the craps table,” Pileggi told Casino.org.

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Knapp, a veteran investigative reporter at KLAS-TV, oversees the Mystery Wire website for Nexstar Media Group. Nexstar owns the Las Vegas CBS affiliate and 197 other stations around the country. Knapp also hosts the national radio show Coast to Coast AM on some weekends.?

Knapp’s reporting on Rosenthal popped up on the Mystery Wire site earlier in March. It includes interviews with Rosenthal and footage from The Frank Rosenthal Show, which he hosted from the Stardust Casino. His guests included Frank Sinatra and other celebrities.?

Knapp’s stories include footage showing Rosenthal’s wife, Geri, a former Tropicana Casino showgirl, and Tony “The Ant” Spilotro. Spilotro was the Chicago Outfit’s representative in Las Vegas. He and his brother, Michael, were killed in a 1986 Mob beating. They were buried in an Indiana cornfield.

The Rosenthals’ volatile marriage, and Geri’s romantic relationship with Tony Spilotro, are at the center of New York-based author Nicholas Pileggi’s nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. Pileggi and director Martin Scorsese cowrote the 1995 Mafia movie Casino, based on the book.

Rosenthal oversaw the Stardust and three other Las Vegas casinos for Midwestern crime families. He survived a car bombing in 1982 outside a Las Vegas Tony Roma’s restaurant and later moved to South Florida. He died of a heart attack in Florida in 2008 at age 79.?

A month after the car bombing, Geri Rosenthal died in Southern California at age 46 of an apparent overdose.

The Mystery Wire site also includes video of the 2007 Stardust implosion. That location on the Strip now is occupied by the under-construction Resorts World Las Vegas.?

Gaming Commission Spat

In his original reporting, Knapp notes that Rosenthal did not speculate about who might have blown up his car, other than to say it was not the Boy Scouts of America. No one has ever been held criminally responsible for the bombing.

A sit-down interview that an unnamed reporter conducted in Florida with Rosenthal also is on the Mystery Wire site. In that interview, Rosenthal says organized crime existed in Las Vegas when he was there. He adds that he knew who those approximately 20 people were.

“They were comprised of the Gaming Control Board, the Gaming Commission, all appointed officials, maybe one or two county commissioners, maybe two local judges, and possibly one Supreme Court justice,” Rosenthal says.

He says those people “controlled everything that went on within that state.”

That’s what I consider to be the real organized crime element,” he says.

Rosenthal’s battles with gaming regulators included a public confrontation with former US Sen. Harry Reid (D), who was Gaming Commission chairman at the time. That incident was dramatized in the movie.

Former Mayor To Honor Movie?

Rosenthal’s attorney, Oscar Goodman, a former Las Vegas mayor, is hosting a dinner on April 7 at Oscar’s Steakhouse in downtown Las Vegas in honor of the movie Casino. The restaurant at the Plaza Hotel Casino is named after Goodman.

Goodman will discuss his experiences with the movie, including a dinner at his home that he and his wife, Carolyn, hosted for the stars. Carolyn Goodman is the current Las Vegas mayor.

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The April 7 event will be held at Oscar’s Steakhouse downtown in the Plaza Hotel Casino. The steakhouse is named after Goodman. His wife, Carolyn Goodman, is the current Las Vegas mayor.

Guests at the Casino dinner will be served a meal similar to what the Goodmans prepared at their home for the stars during filming. Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci were among those who attended the dinner at the Goodman’s house.

Social distancing restrictions limit the number of people who can attend the April event. Tickets are $300 for two people, $600 for four, and $900 for six. Ticket are available at https://plazahotelcasino.com/dinner-series.

At the dinner, Goodman will discuss his experiences during the filming, including his brief on-screen appearance as himself.

As a criminal defense attorney, Goodman represented Tony “The Ant” Spilotro, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and other underworld figures active in Las Vegas decades ago.

Las Vegas Mobsters

The movie is based on the nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas, by New York author Nicholas Pileggi, a former Associated Press reporter.

The book centers on Rosenthal’s troubled marriage to his wife, Geri, and her romantic relationship with Spilotro.

Rosenthal ran the Stardust and other Las Vegas casinos for Midwestern crime families. He survived a 1982 car bombing at what was then a Tony Roma’s restaurant on Sahara Avenue near the Las Vegas Strip. That building later became a Hustler adult novelty store.

About a month after the car bombing, Geri Rosenthal died in Southern California of an apparent overdose. She was 46.

In 2008, Rosenthal, who had moved to South Florida, died at age 79 of a heart attack.

The movie, which Pileggi co-wrote with director Martin Scorsese, is based upon the book. The characters’ real names were used book but changed in the movie for legal reasons.?

In the movie, the Stardust became the Tangiers Casino. Resorts World Las Vegas is being built on the Strip where the now-demolished Stardust once stood. ? ?

End of an Era

One of the last remaining Mob figures from that era, Frank Cullotta, died last August of complications from COVID-19. He was 81.

Cullotta had been a boyhood friend of Spilotro’s and was his associate in Las Vegas. Cullotta appeared in the movie as a hit man.?

Dennis N. Griffin, who has written several books about the Mafia in Las Vegas, told Casino.org that the period depicted in the movie Casino is gone forever.

I believe that Frank’s passing marked the end of that era of Vegas history,” Griffin said.

An exhibit featuring memorabilia from the movie is on display in the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas.

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Scott Sibella, Resorts World’s president, said the property will be smoke free throughout the site except inside the casino, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Construction of the red-tinted property is “rapidly moving forward,” he said. The resort is about 90 percent complete.

In the fall, Sibella told KSNV-TV the 3,500-room hotel-casino will open in the summer of 2021, even if COVID-19 is still an issue.?

We hope COVID is behind us,” Sibella said. “If COVID isn’t behind us, we hope it is less restricted. But we’re opening next summer either way.”

The coronavirus pandemic has driven visitor volume in Las Vegas down to 1989 levels. That is evident in the slowdown at McCarran International Airport. During the pandemic, passenger arrivals and departures at the airport just east of the Strip have been down by more than 30 million people. This is seen as problematic in an isolated desert city that relies on airline travel to bring in large numbers of tourists.

However, casino executives are hopeful that coronavirus vaccinations will spark the economy and ease travel concerns among tourists and convention attendees.?

One sign of that optimism is the recent reopening of a half dozen resorts that had closed their hotel rooms in recent months because of low consumer demand. At least six resorts, including the Palazzo at the Venetian Resort, have announced hotel reopenings this year.

Las Vegas Mafia Site

As this takes place, Resorts World is continuing to fill 6,000 job vacancies. These openings attracted 85,000 applicants. ?

Lori Calderon, executive director of talent acquisition and community engagement, recently said on LinkedIn that the resort’s table game and dealer auditions have concluded. She said banquet interviews and auditions are taking place in the middle of this month.

Resorts World is being built on the northwestern end of the Strip near Circus Circus Hotel and Casino and the small Slot-A-Fun Casino.?

At one time, the now-demolished Stardust stood where Resorts World is going up. The Mob-connected Stardust was the centerpiece of Nicholas Pileggi’s 1995 nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. The book became the basis for the Las Vegas Mafia movie Casino, which Pileggi co-wrote with director Martin Scorsese. In the movie, the name of the Stardust was changed to the Tangiers for legal reasons

Smoke-Free Resorts

Resorts World is not the first hotel-casino on the Strip to restrict smoking at least partially on the property.

The Cosmopolitan also has imposed smoking restrictions in some public areas, but not the gaming floor. The Cosmopolitan towers over the older Jockey Club on the west side of the Strip, south of the Resorts World.

Farther south, Park MGM last year became the first property on the Strip to implement a full smoking ban. The resort is located near T-Mobile Arena, home of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights.

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“Wide Open: 90 Years of Legal Gambling in Nevada” begins March 11 at 7 pm in the museum’s historic courtroom. The first night’s speakers are Geoff Schumacher, the museum’s vice president of exhibits and programs, and UNLV associate history professor Michael Green.

The second event is March 25, featuring author David G. Schwartz, a professor and vice provost for faculty affairs at UNLV, and former MGM Resorts executive Alan Feldman. Feldman also is distinguished fellow in responsible gaming at UNLV’s International Gaming Institute.

The March 11 event will “chart the gambling industry’s rise from legalization in 1931 through the Mob-controlled golden age of the 1950s,” according to the museum website.

The second portion will examine the industry’s growth from the 1960s through the megaresort era that hit its stride in the 1990s.

Tickets for both events are sold out. However, viewers can watch a free livestream on the museum website, themobmuseum.org.

Wide-Open Gambling

In 1909, the state banned almost all games of chance, according to the Nevada Resort Association website. The association is the gaming industry’s lobbying arm.

Within a few years, gaming laws were “relaxed,” allowing for nickle-in-the-slot machines that paid in drinks, cigars, and amounts of money under $2.

By 1919, all cities and counties throughout the state were licensing card rooms that permitted social games such as bridge and whist,” the association’s website notes.

With the Great Depression underway, wide-open gambling became legal in Nevada on March 19, 1931, when Gov. Fred Balzar (R) signed Assembly Bill 98 into law.

The event did not attract much attention, even from the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper, Green says on the Mob Museum’s Instagram page.

“It probably tells you everything you need to know that that afternoon the lead story in the Review-Journal was about the new hospital at Eighth and Ogden,” he says. “Las Vegans didn’t think this was going to change the world. It turned out it did.”

Mobsters in Las Vegas

Over time, legal casinos opened downtown near the train station and began to pop up on the desert highway toward Los Angeles. That highway now is known as the Las Vegas Strip.

Between 1941 and 1958, the highway became home to 13 resort hotels, according to author Larry Gragg. He also is a history professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

“The shift here has to do with the effort to creating affordable luxury for tourists,” he says. “What they meant by that was if you come to Las Vegas, you will have all the amenities of a resort hotel. You’ll have beautiful rooms, fine dining, a nicely landscaped property, in addition to an array of table games and slot machines, with the additional advantage of having big-name entertainment in showrooms.”

The Flamingo was opened by gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, who earlier was part owner with other mobsters of the El Cortez hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas.?

Over the years, Mafia infiltration into Las Vegas led to federal investigations and courtroom convictions. This era is portrayed in the 1995 Las Vegas Mafia movie Casino.

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The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors this week approved an easement agreement The Boring Co. needed for the construction project, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The tunnel will connect Resorts World to the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall. The project could be completed by the time Resorts World opens this summer.

Scott Sibella, president of Resorts World Las Vegas, said last fall the hotel-casino will open in the summer of 2021 even if the coronavirus pandemic is not alleviated. The resort is being built on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip near Circus Circus and Slots-A-Fun.

We hope COVID is behind us,” Sibella said. “If COVID isn’t behind us, we hope it is less restricted. But we’re opening next summer either way.”

The Boring Co. was founded by Tesla’s Elon Musk. Tesla vehicles will be used in The Boring Co.’s underground transit system in the Las Vegas Valley.

Tunnel System

The Resorts World loop is separate from a tunnel that will connect the convention center to Encore at Wynn Las Vegas. Encore is a hotel-casino on the east side of the Strip.

In addition, a $55 million Convention Center Loop will carry passengers to and from exhibit halls.

Plans also are underway for a Vegas Loop to transport passengers from the Strip to downtown Las Vegas. The Vegas Loop would include a stop at Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders, and possibly at McCarran International Airport. The airport and stadium are near the Strip. Both are at the southern end of the resort corridor.

The people-mover routes are seen as important in attracting conventions back to Las Vegas. Conventions and large events help fill up hotel rooms, especially during the slow middle of the week. With the pandemic causing a decline in tourism, some hotel-casinos have partially or completely closed their operations during the midweek days because of low customer demand.

Former Mob Site

Resorts World’s projected summer opening has led to a flood of job applications at the $4.3 billion hotel-casino. More than 85,000 people have applied for 6,000 job openings at the property.

The book focuses in part on sports handicapper Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust and other Las Vegas casinos for Midwestern organized crime families. In the movie version based on the book, the Stardust’s name was changed to the Tangiers.

In high school, Sibella, the Resorts World Las Vegas president, was a busboy at the Stardust coffee shop and buffet.

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About 85,000 people have applied for 6,000 jobs at Resorts World Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That averages out to about 14 applicants for every job.

In the fall, Resorts World executive Lori Calderon announced on LinkedIn that the resort would begin to extend job interview invitations in early December.

Calderon, executive director of talent acquisition and community engagement, encouraged those seeking a job to create a profile on the Resorts World website. On the site, applicants could search for job titles and chat with a virtual recruiter.

At that time, people began signing in to apply for jobs ranging from locksmith to card dealer.

“We hope COVID is behind us,” he said. “If COVID isn’t behind us, we hope it is less restricted. But we’re opening next summer either way.”

‘A Lot of Healing’

Jeremy Aguero of Applied Analysis told the newspaper the large number applicants demonstrates the damage COVID-19 has done to the economy.?

We have a lot of healing to do,” he said.

The damage is reflected in job-loss figures. In December, 300,700 leisure and hospitality jobs were reported in Nevada. This is 14 percent lower than the same month in 2019, the newspaper reported.

These job losses can be traced to the severe slump in tourism. Since the onset of the coronavirus in March, McCarran International Airport has lost 29 million arriving and departing passengers. This is significant for a tourism-dependent city built in a remote desert location. The nearest large metropolitan area, Los Angeles, is at least four hours away by car. Phoenix is five hours away.

Without conventions and large events, resorts in the area are having trouble filling up hotel rooms. The weekend hotel occupancy rate in Las Vegas was 45.4 percent in December. During the middle of the week, the occupancy rate dropped to 25 percent. In response, some hotel-casinos on the Strip have closed all or part of their operations during the slow middle of the week.

Resorts World Expansion?

The $4.3 billion Resorts World Las Vegas is the most expensive hotel-casino on the Strip, exceeding the $4.18 billion Cosmopolitan.?

Resorts World is being built near Circus Circus and Slots-A-Fun on the west side of the Strip. Resorts World is on the site of the now-demolished Stardust hotel-casino, a Mob-connected property at the center of Nicholas Pileggi’s 1995 nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas.?The book was the basis for the Las Vegas Mafia movie Casino.

As the Malaysia-based Genting Group prepares to open Resorts World Las Vegas, the company is eyeing the Newburgh Mall in upstate New York for a gaming space with video lottery terminals. The company recently announced plans to turn a former department store into a commercial gaming space.?Newburgh is about 60 miles north of New York City.

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Tom O’Connell, a retired US attorney, is headlining a Mob Museum presentation titled “Vegas Abduction: The Inside Story of the Kevyn Wynn Kidnapping.” O’Connell was the lead prosecutor in the case. He is host of a six-part podcast, Vegas Fed, on the Wynn kidnapping.

Tickets to the event are sold out. However, the museum is providing a free livestream on its website, themobmuseum.org. The presentation begins at 7 pm PST.

The kidnapping, involving a prominent area family, stands as a major story in Las Vegas criminal history. In late 1989, about four years before his daughter was abducted, Steve Wynn held a high-profile grand opening for the Mirage Las Vegas. The Mirage, now owned by MGM Resorts, is considered the first megaresort on the Strip.

In 1993, Kevyn Wynn worked in retail operations for Mirage Resorts. She was 26.

‘Please Don’t Hurt Me’

The incident began when she returned to her condominium the night of July 26, 1993. Earlier, she had finished her job duties and worked out in the Mirage gym. She dined with family members before going home, according to news accounts.?

At her condo, masked kidnappers confronted her at gunpoint. The kidnappers bound her and taped her eyes. They forced her to pose for pictures in her underwear. The men threatened to release the pictures publicly if her father called the police, according to newspaper stories.

Wynn later said she thought she would be raped.

I said, ‘Please don’t hurt me. Please don’t hurt me,’” she said. “I was shaking. I was petrified.”

Alerted to what had happened, Steve Wynn went from his home to the Mirage. Over the telephone, a kidnapper demanded $2.5 million. Wynn said the casino vault had $1.45 million in $100 bills that night, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Wynn left the casino with new money “stacked like bricks” in a white plastic bag, the newspaper reported.

“It was heavy,” Wynn said. “I held it like a baby with my arms around it.”

After an employee dropped the money off at Sonny’s Saloon nearby, Wynn learned where he could find his daughter. He located her in a parking lot at McCarran International Airport. She was in her black, late-model Audi.

“I called her name,” Wynn said. “From the back seat of the car, she said, ‘Dad, is that really you?’ ”

She was bound but unharmed. She had been held captive for more than two hours.

Kidnappers Convicted?

Days after the abduction, the man accused of masterminding the crime, Ray Marion Cuddy, was taken into custody at a luxury car dealership in Newport Beach, Calif. He was there to pay a $70,000 installment on a $183,000 Ferrari, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Two other suspects, Jacob Sherwood and Anthony Watkins, were arrested a short time later.?

Cuddy, a former circus performer, was sentenced to 24 years and five months in prison. Sherwood was handed a 19-year prison term. Watkins cooperated with authorities. He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

This is the second recent sold-out event at the Mob Museum exploring an earlier era in Las Vegas casino history. Screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi and former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman were participants in a discussion at the museum in November on the 1995 Las Vegas Mafia movie Casino.

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Dennis N. Griffin, who has written several books about the Mafia in Las Vegas, said the retired mobster told him before a final trip to the hospital that “the Vegas of his day was gone.”

Cullotta died Aug. 20 in a Las Vegas hospital of complications from COVID-19. He was 81.?

“I believe that Frank’s passing marked the end of that era of Vegas history,” Griffin told Casino.org.

Cullotta moved to Las Vegas in the late 1970s to help his Chicago boyhood friend, Tony “The Ant” Spilotro, operate a criminal enterprise in Southern Nevada. Spilotro was the Chicago Outfit’s overseer in Las Vegas.

Griffin cowrote three books with Cullotta about this period in Southern Nevada. Griffin also is coauthor of two books published after Cullotta’s death, including Frank Cullotta’s Greatest (Kitchen) Hits: A Gangster’s Cookbook. Cullotta once ran a Las Vegas pizza restaurant called the Upper Crust. It was located east of the Strip near the UNLV campus.

The second new book is Bringing Down Cullotta: The Story ‘Casino’ Couldn’t Tell You, by David Bowman and Griffin. The book is being released this month

‘Like No Place on Earth’

Griffin told Casino.org that Las Vegas’ aura and history “will last forever.”

It is truly like no place else on earth,” Griffin said. “The Casino movie, and all the other movies and books about Vegas, will keep it alive.”

Nicholas Pileggi, who cowrote the movie Casino with director Martin Scorsese, told Casino.org that Las Vegas these days is “spectacular.” However, Pileggi said he misses the period when walking into a smaller casino on the Strip was like “seeing a friend.”

Pileggi said Las Vegas once was a town for gamblers. Now gambling is just another amenity that larger casinos offer, he told Casino.org.?

Several hotel-casinos in Southern Nevada from this earlier period have been demolished. Corporate casino ownership in Las Vegas led to a megaresort boom that began in the 1980s.

Griffin said he doesn’t know if corporations can bring back the way it was.

“I’m not even sure they want to,” Griffin said. “It’s an entirely different world now, and some might say not for the better.”

The Rat Pack Era

Gaming historian David G. Schwartz of UNLV told Casino.org that casinos can recapture some of the magic of the Rat Pack era by focusing on “personalized attention.”

Rat Pack stars such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin hit their stride in Las Vegas during the 1960s with performances in the Copa Room at the now-demolished Sands hotel-casino on the Strip. The stars sometimes mingled with guests. The Venetian and Palazzo were built where the Sands once stood.

Schwartz has written several books about gaming, including the recently published?At the Sands: The Casino That Shaped Classic Las Vegas, Brought the Rat Pack Together, and Went Out With a Bang.

“I think that, for Las Vegas at least, the brand has overshadowed the experience,” Schwartz told?Casino.org. “Casinos will tell you how awesome they are. But they don’t always do such a good job of communicating what will make the experience inside them unique and worthy of a trip.”

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A North Las Vegas Democrat and Nevada’s first Black state senator, Neal died on New Year’s Eve at a health care center in Henderson. He was 85.

Neal’s death resulted from “multiple system failure,” according to a news release from his campaign manager, Andrew Barbano.?

A Louisiana native, Neal served in the Nevada Senate for 32 years. He advocated for an increase in the gaming tax and was opposed to neighborhood casinos.

His opposition to casinos in residential areas stemmed from his contention that “gaming does not put anything back,” he said in an oral history for UNLV, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“If you have a gaming house in your community, then that gaming house is going to draw money from that community that should go for Medicare or groceries or paying the rent and things of that sort,” he said.

After the deadly MGM Grand fire in 1980, Neal succeeded in passing legislation to improve safety regulations in casinos. This resort on the Las Vegas Strip is now named Bally’s.?

Neal twice ran unsuccessfully for governor. He retired from the state Senate in 2004. In a 2005 resolution inducting him into the state Senate Hall of Fame, state Sen. Dina Titus (D) said Neal was “unbought and unbossed.” Titus now is a US House member.

“Whether he was fighting for voting rights or against racial profiling, he has never relented,” Titus said from the Senate floor in Carson City. “He is a man who has changed the face of this state.”

Cars Rigged With Bombs?

Former Nevada Gaming Commission member George Swarts died on Christmas Day. He was 77. His obituary on the Las Vegas Review-Journal website does not list the cause of death.

The obituary notes that former Gov. Mike O’Callaghan (D) appointed Swarts to the commission.?

In an era when car bombings occurred in Las Vegas, Swarts’ car once was rigged with a bomb. As former Gaming Commission Chairman Harry Reid noted in his 2008 book, The Good Fight, Swarts was “lucky” the car bomb did not go off.

Whoever rigged his car hadn’t grounded the wire properly, and the bomb failed to detonate,” Reid wrote.

Reid was targeted in an unsuccessful car bombing in 1981. He later served as US Senate majority leader.?

The suspects in the bombing attempts on Swarts and Reid were never identified.

‘Casino’ Bombing

In the 1970s and ’80, car bombings and attempted bombings by the Mob were major news items in Las Vegas.?

One of the most prominent was the 1982 bombing of Mafia associate Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal’s car outside a Tony Roma’s restaurant on East Sahara Avenue near the Las Vegas Strip.?

Rosenthal survived the bombing. His exploits in Las Vegas later became the subject of New York author Nicholas Pileggi’s nonfiction book, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. The book was the basis for the 1995 movie Casino, starring Robert De Niro as a character based on Rosenthal.

The end of 2020 also saw the deaths of other prominent people who had ties to Las Vegas and the casino industry, including Dawn Wells and Phyllis McGuire.

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A New York organized crime figure, Siegel was in Hollywood and Las Vegas on the behalf of his syndicate associates. Siegel had maneuvered his way into the Flamingo construction project, begun by Los Angeles nightclub owner and Hollywood Reporter founder Billy Wilkerson.?

The Flamingo first opened its doors on Dec. 26, 1946. It was built on a highway slicing through the desert south of downtown Las Vegas. Today, that highway is the Las Vegas Strip, packed with towering hotel-casinos. The Flamingo is still at the same location, though none of its original buildings remain.? ?

When it opened, construction had not been completed. Other problems hampered the start-up. By the summer, Siegel would be shot to death at his girlfriend Virginia Hill’s home in Beverly Hills. The gunman firing from outside the house has never been identified. Some suspect Siegel’s underworld partners, unhappy with his handling of the project, orchestrated the hit.

Soon after the killing, Moe Sedway and other mobsters took charge of the Flamingo. ? ?

The exhibit at the Mob Museum opened this month and runs until Jan. 10. The display includes a down-payment check Wilkerson wrote to buy the land where the Flamingo was constructed. Also on display is a document that Siegel signed, removing Wilkerson from any involvement with the Flamingo. The document is dated March 19, 1947. Three months later Siegel would be dead at age 41.

El Cortez Gangsters

Before taking over the Flamingo, Siegel briefly owned the El Cortez hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas with other mobsters. The El Cortez is still in operation.

On Jan. 1, the El Cortez will begin selling 16-inch-by-16-inch squares of the floral carpeting that covered the gaming floor since 2007. The carpet was removed in September as part of a renovation project. ?

Though this carpeting was not on the floor when Siegel owned the El Cortez, collectors are fond of items from Las Vegas casinos that have been around for decades. Many older casinos that had Mafia connections have been demolished, including the Dunes, the Sands, and the Desert Inn.

Robert De Niro Connection

Also this month, the Mob Museum will post on its YouTube page a video of screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi discussing the Las Vegas Mafia movie Casino. Pileggi, a former New York crime reporter, cowrote the movie with director Martin Scorsese. The movie is based on Pileggi’s 1995 nonfiction book, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas.

The 87-year-old Pileggi recently appeared by teleconference at an event held in the museum for the movie’s 25th anniversary.

In a video clip the museum posted on its Facebook page Thursday, Pileggi discusses how he convinced Chicago Outfit associate Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal to talk with him about that era. Rosenthal ran the Stardust and other Las Vegas casinos for Midwestern crime families.

“That was it,” Pileggi said. “Lefty starting giving up everything he had.”

The full recording will be available on the museum’s YouTube channel on Dec. 28.

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In court papers filed last week, prosecutors allege John Tortora Jr. ordered the November 1997 killing of a man suspected of stealing from his Joker Poker gambling machines, according to the Rockland/Westchester Journal News.

An attorney for the 63-year-old Tortora asserts his client, known as Johnny T., had no involvement in the decades-old killing, the newspaper reported. Richard Ortiz, a 29-year-old landscaper, died after being stabbed in the stomach outside a Yonkers neighborhood tavern, according to published accounts. Yonkers is just north of the Bronx, a New York City borough.

Prosecutors also said Tortora ordered Ortiz killed for providing law enforcement with information about the Mafia’s criminal activities, according to the newspaper.

Attorney Barry Levin denied Tortora was a member of the Genovese crime family. The lawyer said his client did not own the gambling machines Ortiz was suspected of stealing from, according to the Journal News.

Earlier this year, Tortora pleaded guilty to lesser charges unrelated to Ortiz’s death, including what prosecutors said was the reputed mobster’s 20-year involvement in a sports-betting operation, the newspaper reported.

Two cooperating witnesses against Tortora, including a reputed Lucchese crime family associate, have pleaded guilty in connection with Ortiz’s death, according to the Journal News. However, there is no federal court database of their arrests or guilty pleas, the newspaper reported. The case against them is only included in court documents that Tortora’s lawyers have filed.

‘Joey Electric,’ ’Tony Meatballs’ Due in Court

Another case involving gambling and reputed organized crime figures made news recently in Philadelphia. Federal prosecutors there have accused 15 Mafia associates of illegal gambling, loan sharking, and drug trafficking.

The defendants include Joseph “Joey Electric” Servidio, 60, Anthony “Tony Meatballs” Gifoli, 73, and Louis “Louie Sheep” Barretta, 56, according to news accounts.

Prosecutors said the crime family extended its operations from Philadelphia to the Jersey Shore, especially in Atlantic City.

US Attorney William McSwain said the mob remains a “problem,” but “isn’t what it used to be, and thank God for that.”

“We will not rest until the mob is nothing but a bad memory,” he said.

The defendants are scheduled to appear before a federal judge on Jan. 8, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Las Vegas Wiseguys

The Las Vegas Mafia movie Casino also was in the news during recent weeks regarding its 25th anniversary.

The movie stars Robert De Niro as a casino operative, based on mob associate Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. Sharon Stone plays his wife, while Joe Pesci portrays a character patterned after Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro. In the 1970s and early ’80s, Spilotro was the Chicago Outfit’s overseer in Las Vegas. He and his brother, Michael, were killed in a mob hit in the Chicago area in 1986 and buried in an Indiana cornfield.

The Mob Museum in Las Vegas recently hosted an event to celebrate the movie’s anniversary. The event featured Nicholas Pileggi, who appeared via teleconference.

Pileggi, a former New York City crime reporter, cowrote the screenplay with director Martin Scorsese. Pileggi also wrote the 1995 nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas, which became the basis for the movie.

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David G. Schwartz told Casino.org the personal attention that smaller casinos like the now-demolished Sands provided on the Las Vegas Strip are harder for the larger resorts of today. The Sands began in the 1950s with 200 rooms before expanding to 777 rooms. Newer resorts have thousands of hotel rooms.

Schwartz is associate vice provost for faculty affairs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Among his books is the recently published At the Sands: The Casino That Shaped Classic Las Vegas, Brought the Rat Pack Together, and Went Out With a Bang.

“I think that, for Las Vegas at least, the brand has overshadowed the experience,” Schwartz told Casino.org. “Casinos will tell you how awesome they are. But they don’t always do such a good job of communicating what will make the experience inside them unique and worthy of a trip.”

With tourism in a slump since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March, casinos are seeking unique ways to attract customers. Two resorts in Las Vegas only allow patrons age 21 and over onto the main property. These adults-only properties?are Circa Resort in downtown’s Glitter Gulch and the Cromwell on the Strip. Also, Park MGM recently became the first smoke-free resort on the Strip.

The Rat Pack

Schwartz noted that “promotions and press relations” were important to the Sands. The property played up the entertainers who performed in its marquee Copa Room. These included Rat Pack members such Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford. Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe could be spotted at the Sands.

Schwartz said people are “entranced by this era mostly because of the personalities.”

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr. were larger than life icons,” he said. “The Copa Room at the Sands let customers meet and mingle with the stars in an intimate setting.”

In 1996, the Sands was closed and demolished to make way for the Venetian and Palazzo on the east side of the Strip. A plaque and replica footprints are on display outside the Venetian where the Rat Pack’s well-known members once posed in front of the Sands’ iconic “A Place in the Sun” sign.

‘It’s Disneyland’

Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the Las Vegas Mafia movie Casino with director Martin Scorsese, recently told Casino.org he liked the intimacy of the Sands. He stayed there while writing the nonfiction book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. The book became the basis for the 1995 movie.

For decades, Las Vegas mainly was a town for gamblers, Pileggi said. Employees remembered customers. Walking into a casino was “like seeing a friend,” he said.

Beginning in the 1980s, corporations realized they could make more money with larger resorts that offer gambling as “an additional amenity,” Pileggi said.

While he misses the intimate appeal of the Sands era, Pileggi said the never version of the city has its upsides.

“It’s Disneyland,” he told Casino.org. “The climate is good. These hotel-casinos are spectacular. It’s just unbelievable.”

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Resort World Las Vegas executive Lori Calderon said on LinkedIn this week that company leaders “will begin the process of extending invitations to interview this upcoming week.”

She is executive director of talent acquisition and community engagement at Resorts World Las Vegas.

Calderon encouraged people to apply for jobs by going to the Resorts World Las Vegas website. A careers link on the site allows applicants to create a profile and search for job titles. The site also allows job seekers to chat with a virtual recruiter.

The careers site includes duties and requirement for the available jobs.

Falloff in Tourism

The 3,500-room Resorts World Las Vegas is slated to open next summer. It is under construction on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip, near Slots-A-Fun and Circus Circus.

Malaysia-based Genting Group, which owns the property, is partnering with Hilton Hotels and Resorts on the project. The $4.3-billion Resorts World Las Vegas is the most expensive property on the Strip, topping the $4.18-billion Cosmopolitan. The Cosmopolitan towers over the Jockey Club, a longtime property on the west side of the Strip near the Bellagio.

The construction of Resorts World Las Vegas comes at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has led to a slowdown in tourism to Las Vegas. Several hotel-casinos have closed during the middle of the week because of low consumer demand. These include the Mandalay Bay and Park MGM.

Much of the falloff in midweek tourism is attributed to a decline in conventions and large events. These? events are seen as helpful in filling up hotel towers in the middle of the week.

Even in the current slowdown, Resorts World Las Vegas will be the second new hotel-casino to open in the Las Vegas Valley over several months. Circa Resort, an adults-only property in downtown Las Vegas, opened its gaming areas on Oct. 28. More than 500 of its 777 hotel rooms are set to open before the end of the year.

Mafia Era

Resorts World Las Vegas is being built at the site of the now-demolished Stardust Casino. The Stardust was at the center of author Nicholas Pileggi’s 1995 nonfiction book, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. The book chronicles events during an era when Mafia figures ran some Las Vegas casinos.

Pileggi recently told Casino.org he misses the intimacy and “magic” of the smaller casinos from that era, but said the larger new properties are “spectacular.”

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Pileggi said when hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip each only had several hundred rooms, the staff and customers often knew one another. Entertainers such as Dean Martin could be seen dealing blackjack at the Sands after performing in the Copa Room. Frank Sinatra, another member of that era’s famous Rat Pack, might wander out to the casino floor and mingle with customers.

The period from the late 1950s through the 1970s had an intimate appeal, Pileggi said.

It was a different time,” he told Casino.org this week. “It was sort of fabulous.”

New York-based Pileggi, an 87-year-old former Associated Press reporter, co-wrote the Las Vegas Mafia movie Casino with director Martin Scorsese. The film was released 25 years ago this month. An exhibit of memorabilia from the movie recently went on display at the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas.

The movie is a fictional account of Mafia associate Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal’s rocky marriage to Geri Rosenthal, a former dancer at the Tropicana Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone portray characters based on the Rosenthals. Joe Pesci plays a character modeled after mobster Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro.? ? ? ?

The movie is based on Pileggi’s 1995 nonfiction book, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas. The characters’ real names were used in the book, but were changed in the movie for legal reasons. For the book, Pileggi interviewed Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, former Chicago and Las Vegas gangster Frank Cullotta, and many more from that period.

Pileggi also co-wrote the 1990 New York Mafia movie Goodfellas with Scorsese. This movie is based on Pileggi’s true-crime book, Wiseguy.

An Earlier Era

When Pileggi was writing the book Casino, he stayed in Las Vegas at the Sands, where employees remembered him, he said.

Walking into a casino was “like seeing a friend,” Pileggi said.

In those days, Las Vegas casinos were “basically for gamblers, for people who wanted to go and gamble,” he said.

“They weren’t necessarily places you took your kids,” Pileggi said.

That began to change in the 1980s, when corporations moved in and started building 3,000-room megaresorts, where gambling “is an additional amenity,” Pileggi said.

He said the newer Las Vegas is a “totally different economy of scale.”

“You can make a lot more money with that kind of crowd than you can with three hundred guys who were betting yellow chips at the craps table,” he said.

New Las Vegas

Many people who remember the earlier days are no longer around, Pileggi noted. The Sands was demolished in 1996 to make way for the Venetian. Other properties from that period, including the Stardust, Dunes, and Hacienda, also have been demolished and replaced by newer resorts.

Pileggi said the newer version lacks the same “intimate quality,” but has its own appeal.

“It’s Disneyland,” the veteran screenwriter said. “The climate is good. These hotel-casinos are spectacular. It’s just unbelievable.”

While newer visitors have “their own Las Vegas,” he sometimes is nostalgic for an earlier era.

“When I go to Vegas now, I kind of squint my eyes and try to think of the old days,” Pileggi said.

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The Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas celebrated the anniversary with a sold-out presentation on Thursday, featuring author/screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, appearing virtually, and former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

Goodman’s wife, Carolyn, is the current mayor. A restaurant at the Plaza Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas is named after him. In special dinner events at Oscar’s Steakhouse, he discusses Las Vegas history and his work as a lawyer representing accused underworld figures. Memorabilia at the restaurant and menu items also reflect his experiences.

The 87-year-old Pileggi co-wrote the screenplay with director Martin Scorsese. Pileggi is?a former Associated Press reporter living in New York City. The movie is based on Pileggi’s 1995 nonfiction book, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas.

Pileggi and Scorsese also co-wrote the Mafia movie Goodfellas, which premiered in 1990. It is based on Pileggi’s book Wiseguy, about New York gangster Henry Hill.

The movie also focuses on skimming operations in Las Vegas. During this era, untaxed gaming revenue illegally was sent from Las Vegas casinos to crime families in the Midwest.

In the movie, Robert De Niro plays Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a character based on Rosenthal. Sharon Stone portrays his wife. Joe Pesci plays the Spilotro-inspired character.

The characters’ real names were used in the book, but changed in the movie for legal reasons, Pileggi said.

Car Bombing

Rosenthal ran the Stardust Hotel and Casino and three other Argent Corp. resorts in Las Vegas for Midwestern Mafia bosses. A high-profile figure, Rosenthal hosted a television talk show with guests such as Frank Sinatra.

In 1982, Rosenthal survived a car bombing outside a Tony Roma’s restaurant in Las Vegas. He later moved away from Southern Nevada. The car bombing has never been solved.

Rosenthal died of an apparent heart attack in Florida in 2008 at age 79. Geri Rosenthal died in Southern California of an accidental overdose in 1982. She was 46.

In his career as an attorney, Goodman represented Spilotro. Goodman appears briefly in the movie.

Casino Exhibit

In celebration of Casino‘s anniversary, the Mob Museum has an exhibit on display featuring memorabilia from the movie. The museum is housed in a former federal courthouse.

The display includes movie props representing the Tangiers Casino, the name used for the Stardust in the film. Resorts World Las Vegas is being built on the Las Vegas Strip where the now-demolished Stardust once stood.

Other items on display at the exhibit include an original movie script that Frank Cullotta donated to the museum. Cullotta was a childhood friend of Spilotro’s in Chicago.

In the 1970s, Cullotta moved to Las Vegas to serve as Spilotro’s lieutenant. Cullotta was a consultant for the movie and had a brief role as a hitman. He died in August at age 81 of COVID-19 complications.

The Casino exhibit is on display at the museum until Nov. 14, 2021.

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Resorts World Las Vegas executive Lori Calderon said on LinkedIn the application process includes a newly launched career link on the hotel-casino’s website. She is the resort’s executive director of talent acquisition and community engagement.

Calderon said employment interviews will begin in “a few weeks.”

The career tab on the Resorts World Las Vegas website allows users to search for specific jobs, such as “poker dealer.” The site includes duties and requirement for the available jobs. From there, users can create a profile and submit an application.

On her LinkedIn page, Calderon offered a “helpful hint” to applicants.

“Ensure that you meet or exceed all of the requirements for the positions you are selecting, as you are competing against people that are invisible to you,” she said.

Summer 2021 Opening

Resorts World Las Vegas is on track to open next summer, according to the hotel-casino’s President, Scott Sibella. He said construction is about 75 percent complete.

We hope COVID is behind us,” Sibella told KSNV-TV. “If COVID isn’t behind us, we hope it is less restricted. But we’re opening next summer either way.”

The resort will have 3,500 hotel rooms. Malaysia-based Genting Group, which owns the property, is partnering with Hilton Hotels and Resorts on the project.

The $4.3-billion Resorts World Las Vegas is the most expensive property on the Strip, topping the $4.18-billion Cosmopolitan. The Cosmopolitan towers over the older Jockey Club on the west side of the Strip.

Resorts World Las Vegas recently announced it has formed a partnership with Singaporean nightclub operator Zouk on “the most technologically advanced nightclub in Las Vegas” as an attraction at the property.

Famous Mafia Location

Resorts World Las Vegas is being built on a northwest portion of the Strip where the Stardust hotel-casino once stood.

The Stardust achieved widespread notoriety with the 1995 publication of the true-crime book Casino, by former New York Associated Press reporter Nicholas Pileggi.

Rosenthal oversaw the Stardust and three other Argent Corp. hotel-casinos in Las Vegas for Midwestern Mafia families. He died in Florida in 2008 at age 79.

Pileggi and director Martin Scorsese co-wrote the movie Casino, based on the book. The characters’ real names and the name of the Stardust were used in the book, but not in the movie. The names were changed in the movie for legal reasons.

Pileggi is set to appear virtually at an event on Thursday at the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas to celebrate the movie’s 25 anniversary.

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The home is adjacent to the Las Vegas Country Club and was listed late last month. It recently went under contract with a buyer, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported last week.

Asking price on the 3,266-square-foot, 50-year-old residence was $835,000. The closing is planned for Dec 4.

The two-story house was home to Rosenthal while he ran Las Vegas casinos for the Chicago mob. That may explain some of its amenities.

Windows and doors are bulletproof. One window is still indented from where it was struck by a bullet.

The house is really kind of the Fort Knox of Las Vegas,” said Brian Burns of Synergy-Sotheby’s International Realty in a blog run by The Mob Museum of Las Vegas. “He was trying not to be killed by the mob and trying not to be heard by the FBI.”

The house also once had an underground tunnel that led to a neighboring residence. The home is also soundproof.

Lefty, Geri Had Wild Arguments in House

The residence was the setting for several volatile events. Some were included in the “Casino” movie.

For instance, Lefty Rosenthal and his wife, Geri, had lively disputes there. Once, she pointed a gun at him in their bedroom and another time Geri pulled out a firearm when the pair were arguing in the front yard.

In the second instance, Nancy Spilotro, who was married to Tony Spilotro — who was associated with the Chicago Outfit and was known as “Tony the Ant” — was able to push Geri to the ground and grab the gun away. That’s despite the fact Nancy was only about five feet tall and weighed around 100 pounds.

Former Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman, who was also an attorney and represented Lefty Rosenthal, often visited the house to meet with his client. When Rosenthal was in trouble during the 1970s, Lefty wore silk pajamas during those morning meetings.

Art Imitating Life

Even so, the two-story house sounds like a typical upscale suburban residence. It has three bedrooms, as well as two-and-a-half baths. Expansive windows face the golf course.

But the occupants were not the typical residents of a gated country club community. Lefty Rosenthal was associated with several reputed mobsters.

Sharon Stone played Ginger McKenna in the movie, with that character based on Geri Rosenthal. Don Rickles — himself a Las Vegas fixture — also starred in the movie as Rosenthal sidekick Billy Sherbert.

The film was directed by Martin Scorsese.? The house shown in the movie is not the actual house in which Rosenthal lived. Scorsese used another residence in Las Vegas that is adjacent to another golf course.

As the years continued, Rosenthal was banned from Las Vegas casinos. He was listed in the “Black Book,” and in 1983, Rosenthal left Las Vegas. He died in 2008 while living in Miami Beach.

Several owners have lived in the house since then. But Lefty Rosenthal’s memory continues.

Rosenthal Left Mark on Vegas

“There is no question … Rosenthal left his mark on Las Vegas,” Geoff Schumacher said. “If you set aside the organized crime drama for a moment, Rosenthal designed and opened at the Stardust the first sportsbook as we know them today.”

In fact, smoked mirrors in Rosenthal’s former house are rumored to have come from the Stardust casino.

To mark the 25th anniversary Thursday of the film Casino, The Mob Museum will present a discussion featuring movie screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, who also wrote the book Casino.?Oscar Goodman will also take part.

The in-person event is sold out. But The Mob Museum has also kicked off a special exhibit featuring artifacts, memorabilia, and rare photographs from the movie.

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Scott Sibella, president of Resorts World Las Vegas, said the company did not intend to offend anyone with the program announced Wednesday.

“We respect and are proud of our arts community,” Sibella told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Sibella said the mural program is for “back of house” hallways where employees are allowed, but not guests.

“We wanted to create a unique opportunity for anyone that has passion for art to showcase their work with our team members,” he told the newspaper.

The company had earlier stated artists would receive free art materials for the project and an invitation to the resort’s grand opening. Resorts World Las Vegas also had planned to provide “professional photography and video content” that artists could use in their portfolios.

A Twitter user identified as Sarah Hester Ross, a Las Vegas musical comedian, tweeted: “STOP ASKING ARTISTS TO DO THINGS FOR FREE!! We’ve been out of work for 6 months and you are a multi-BILLION dollar industry!!!!”

The 12 artists selected now will be paid an amount that has not been specified. The resort also plans to pay artists to create work that guests will be able to see, according to KSNV-TV.

Summer 2021 Opening

Resorts World Las Vegas is about 75 percent complete and on schedule to open next summer, Sibella told KSNV-TV.

Sibella told KSNV-TV the resort will open even if the pandemic is still a factor in the summer of 2021.

“We hope COVID is behind us,” he said. “If COVID isn’t behind us, we hope it is less restricted. But we’re opening next summer either way.”

Stardust Memories

Resorts World Las Vegas is being built at the site of the former Stardust hotel-casino on a northwest portion of the Las Vegas Strip, near Circus Circus.

The Stardust became familiar to a wide audience with the publication in 1995 of Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas, a nonfiction book by New York-based crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi.

Pileggi’s book chronicles a love triangle involving Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, his wife, Geri, and mobster Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro. Rosenthal oversaw the Stardust and other resorts in Las Vegas for Midwestern crime families.

The book was the basis for director Martin Scorsese’s 1995 movie Casino, starring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci. Pileggi cowrote the script with Scorsese.

The characters’ real names and the name of the Stardust were used in the book, but not in the movie, for legal reasons.

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Frank Cullotta, 81, died Thursday, Aug. 20, in a Las Vegas hospital from complications of COVID-19, said Geoff Schumacher, vice president of exhibits and programs for The Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

Cullotta arrived in Las Vegas from Chicago in 1978 to serve as lieutenant for his boyhood friend, Mafia member Anthony Spilotro. Known by the nicknames “Tough Tony” and “The Ant,” he had been the Chicago Outfit’s overseer in Las Vegas since the early 1970s.

Cullotta was a “very important figure” in Mob history in Las Vegas and Chicago, Gary Jenkins, a retired Kansas City Police Department Intelligence Unit detective, told Casino.org. In the 1970s, Jenkins helped investigate a Mafia skimming pipeline from Las Vegas to Kansas City.

This spree ended July 4, 1981, when they were arrested breaking into a gift and jewelry store on East Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas.

Learning Spilotro had him targeted for death, Cullotta became a government witness, testifying against mobsters he knew. He also entered the federal Witness Protection Program.

Midwestern Mafia families were active in Las Vegas during this era, skimming millions in untaxed gaming revenue from casinos around town.

Silver Screen Debut

Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, an attorney who represented Spilotro, did not think highly of Cullotta. In his 2013 book, Being Oscar, co-written with journalist George Anastasia, Goodman refers to Cullotta as a “lowlife.”

According to the colorful former defense counsel, the FBI hated Cullotta when they were investigating him. But after he flipped, they fell in love with him, Goodman wrote. “He was still the same rotten person he was when he was on the streets. But now he was their guy and could do no wrong.”

Cullotta served as an adviser on the film and also appeared briefly on camera as a hitman.

Actor Frank Vincent portrayed a character based on Cullotta, while Joe Pesci played a hot-headed crime figure modeled after the volatile Spilotro.

Spilotro and his brother, Michael, were beaten to death in a 1986 Mob hit near Chicago and buried in an Indiana cornfield.

Modern Mobster

After coming out of Witness Protection, Cullotta moved back to Las Vegas and hosted a podcast and YouTube show.

Cullotta cohosted the YouTube show, Coffee With Cullotta, that has more than 20,000 subscribers. He also appeared in a multi-part podcast, Mobbed Up: The Fight for Las Vegas,?produced by the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper in partnership with The Mob Museum.

Cullotta also cowrote The Rise and Fall of a ‘Casino’ Mobster?and other books with true crime author Dennis N. Griffin.

Griffin told Casino.org he developed a cherished friendship with Cullotta.

“I believe his contribution as a government witness helped break the back of the Outfit’s control in Vegas and, in effect, altered the history of Sin City,” Griffin told Casino.org. “I’m going to miss him a lot.”

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