{"id":160192,"date":"2021-01-04T14:35:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T22:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=160192"},"modified":"2021-01-04T15:05:45","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T23:05:45","slug":"two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Neal and George Swarts, two Nevadans who helped shape and enforce gaming policy in Nevada, have died.<\/p>\n

\"Joe
Joe Neal stands near an American flag while gazing into the distance. The former state senator from Southern Nevada died on Dec. 31. (Image: Las Vegas Review-Journal)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A North Las Vegas Democrat and Nevada\u2019s first Black state senator, Neal died on New Year\u2019s Eve at a health care center in Henderson. He was 85.<\/p>\n

Neal\u2019s death resulted from \u201cmultiple system failure,\u201d according to a news release from his campaign manager, Andrew Barbano.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

His opposition to casinos in residential areas stemmed from his contention that \u201cgaming does not put anything back,\u201d he said in an oral history for UNLV, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

“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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n

Neal also opposed casino developer Steve Wynn\u2019s effort to receive a tax exemption on artwork. Neal referred to this tax exemption as \u201c<\/span>Show Me the Monet.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2019s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Neal twice ran unsuccessfully for governor. He r<\/span>etired 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 \u201cunbought and unbossed.\u201d Titus now is a US House member.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether he was fighting for voting rights or against racial profiling, he has never relented,\u201d Titus said from the Senate floor in Carson City. \u201cHe is a man who has changed the face of this state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cars Rigged With Bombs\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

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

The obituary notes that former Gov. Mike O\u2019Callaghan (D) appointed Swarts to the commission.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an era when car bombings occurred in Las Vegas, Swarts\u2019 car once was rigged with a bomb. As former Gaming Commission Chairman Harry Reid noted in his 2008 book, The Good Fight<\/i>, Swarts was \u201clucky\u201d the car bomb did not go off.<\/p>\n

\n

Whoever rigged his car hadn\u2019<\/span>t grounded the wire properly, and the bomb failed to detonate,\u201d Reid wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Reid was targeted in an unsuccessful car bombing in 1981. He later served as US Senate majority leader.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The suspects in the bombing attempts on Swarts and Reid were never identified.<\/p>\n

\u2018Casino\u2019 Bombing<\/h2>\n

In the 1970s and \u201980, car bombings and attempted bombings by the Mob were major news items in Las Vegas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most prominent was the 1982 bombing of Mafia associate Frank \u201cLefty\u201d Rosenthal\u2019s car outside a Tony Roma\u2019s restaurant on East Sahara Avenue near the Las Vegas Strip.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosenthal survived the bombing. His exploits in Las Vegas later became the subject of New York author Nicholas Pileggi\u2019s nonfiction book, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas<\/i>. The book was the basis for the 1995 movie Casino<\/i><\/a>, starring Robert De Niro as a character based on Rosenthal.<\/p>\n

The end of 2020 also saw the deaths of other prominent people<\/a> who had ties to Las Vegas and the casino industry, including Dawn Wells and Phyllis McGuire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Neal and George Swarts, two Nevadans who helped shape and enforce gaming policy in Nevada, have died. A North Las Vegas Democrat and Nevada\u2019s first Black state senator, Neal died on New Year\u2019s Eve at a health care center in Henderson. He was 85. Neal\u2019s death resulted from \u201cmultiple system failure,\u201d according to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":160193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33810,13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0 - Casino.org Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Joe Neal and George Swarts, two Nevadans who helped shape and enforce gaming policy in Nevada, have died. A North Las Vegas Democrat and Nevada\u2019s first Joe Neal and George Swarts, who influenced the Nevada casino industry, died in December 2020.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0 - Casino.org Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Joe Neal and George Swarts, two Nevadans who helped shape and enforce gaming policy in Nevada, have died. A North Las Vegas Democrat and Nevada\u2019s first Joe Neal and George Swarts, who influenced the Nevada casino industry, died in December 2020.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-04T22:35:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-04T23:05:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Joe-Neal-RJ.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"780\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Larry Henry\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Larry Henry\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/\",\"name\":\"Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0 - Casino.org Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Joe-Neal-RJ.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-04T22:35:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-04T23:05:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8b29707270b397c572e9fd8f0fb72952\"},\"description\":\"Joe Neal and George Swarts, two Nevadans who helped shape and enforce gaming policy in Nevada, have died. A North Las Vegas Democrat and Nevada\u2019s first Joe Neal and George Swarts, who influenced the Nevada casino industry, died in December 2020.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Joe-Neal-RJ.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Joe-Neal-RJ.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":780},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gaming Business\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gaming-business\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8b29707270b397c572e9fd8f0fb72952\",\"name\":\"Larry Henry\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Larry-Henry-bio-headshot-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Larry-Henry-bio-headshot-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Larry Henry\"},\"description\":\"Gaming Regulation, Crime, Politics \u2014 Larry Henry is a veteran print and broadcast journalist who spent more than 16 years in Nevada, including serving as legislative reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal and as political editor at the Las Vegas Sun. He's also written about popular culture for the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. As a broadcast journalist, he worked as managing editor at KFSM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Arkansas, where he now lives and where casino growth is a hot topic. A Marine Corps veteran and LSU graduate, he is also an avid movie fan, especially of classic film noir from the 1940s and \u201950s.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/larry-henry\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0 - Casino.org Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0","description":"Joe Neal and George Swarts, two Nevadans who helped shape and enforce gaming policy in Nevada, have died. A North Las Vegas Democrat and Nevada\u2019s first Joe Neal and George Swarts, who influenced the Nevada casino industry, died in December 2020.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0 - Casino.org Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0","og_description":"Joe Neal and George Swarts, two Nevadans who helped shape and enforce gaming policy in Nevada, have died. A North Las Vegas Democrat and Nevada\u2019s first Joe Neal and George Swarts, who influenced the Nevada casino industry, died in December 2020.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2021-01-04T22:35:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-01-04T23:05:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":780,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Joe-Neal-RJ.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Larry Henry","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Larry Henry","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/","name":"Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0 - Casino.org Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Joe-Neal-RJ.jpg","datePublished":"2021-01-04T22:35:12+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-04T23:05:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8b29707270b397c572e9fd8f0fb72952"},"description":"Joe Neal and George Swarts, two Nevadans who helped shape and enforce gaming policy in Nevada, have died. A North Las Vegas Democrat and Nevada\u2019s first Joe Neal and George Swarts, who influenced the Nevada casino industry, died in December 2020.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Joe-Neal-RJ.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Joe-Neal-RJ.jpg","width":1200,"height":780},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/two-nevadans-who-influenced-casino-industry-died-at-end-of-2020\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Gaming Business","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gaming-business\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Two Nevadans Who Influenced Casino Industry Died at End of 2020\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8b29707270b397c572e9fd8f0fb72952","name":"Larry Henry","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Larry-Henry-bio-headshot-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Larry-Henry-bio-headshot-96x96.jpg","caption":"Larry Henry"},"description":"Gaming Regulation, Crime, Politics \u2014 Larry Henry is a veteran print and broadcast journalist who spent more than 16 years in Nevada, including serving as legislative reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal and as political editor at the Las Vegas Sun. He's also written about popular culture for the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. As a broadcast journalist, he worked as managing editor at KFSM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Arkansas, where he now lives and where casino growth is a hot topic. A Marine Corps veteran and LSU graduate, he is also an avid movie fan, especially of classic film noir from the 1940s and \u201950s.","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/larry-henry\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}