There are 37 people on the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s List of Excluded Persons — the state’s so-called “Black Book.”
It’s a list on which the Nevada Gaming Commission places the worst of the worst casino patrons associated with criminal activity or who try to find ways to cheat casinos, either with gadgets that are used to manipulate slot machines, marked cards or with methods that distract casino managers from catching them stealing.
Nevada’s system is unlike other states like New Jersey, which has an exclusion list of more than 850 people.
Nevada regulators have tried to keep the number manageable because it’s the responsibility of casinos to prevent people on the list from entering their businesses.
Usually, the only way persons’ names are removed from the list is if they die.
That means the Gaming Control Board staff must keep up with the whereabouts of people on the list and every year or so remove the names of those who have passed away.
Regulators usually don’t act on a removal until they have a verified death certificate, which aren’t always easy to obtain on people who have moved to foreign countries.
That means dozens of people with a notorious past have been stricken from the list over the years, including mobsters for which the list was established in the first place in 1960.
The original Black Book list had 11 names, all of whom have been removed.
A database of current and former persons in Nevada’s black book lists around 80 people and over the years, more than 30 have been removed. Among them are several known mobsters and organized crime figures that hold a place in Las Vegas history, some of whom have their stories told at the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement – the Mob Museum – in downtown Las Vegas.
Here’s a list of some of the Black Book mobsters whose names have been removed:
Frank Larry “Lefty” Rosenthal, inducted Nov. 30, 1988, and removed Jan. 27, 2009. Once the entertainment director of the Stardust and Argent Corp., he was allegedly associated with mob figures and pleaded no contest to a charge of conspiracy to bribe a college basketball player. His story was fictionalized in the Martin Scorsese film “Casino” as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, portrayed by Robert de Niro.
Anthony Joseph “Tony the Ant” Spilotro, inducted Dec. 2, 1978, and removed Oct. 21, 1986. The Chicago mob’s enforcer in Las Vegas whose badly beaten body was found in an Indiana cornfield in 1986. Also fictionalized in “Casino,” he was Nicky Santoro, portrayed by Joe Pesci.
Sam Giancana, one of the original 11 nominees, inducted June 13, 1960, and removed Dec. 19, 1975. A Chicago mob boss with CIA ties who gained control of many Las Vegas casinos in the 1950s and 1960s. Skimming at the Sands, Riviera and Desert Inn generated $2 billion a year for the mob, according to the FBI. He also was linked to the 1960 presidential election of John F. Kennedy and to a 1963 CIA plot to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Herbert “Fat Herbie” Blitzstein, inducted Jan. 7, 1997, and removed May 22, 1997. A lieutenant to Spilotro, Blitzstein was found dead in his Las Vegas home in January 1997 from a gunshot wound to the base of his skull that some believed to be an organized crime hit. Murdered Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German wrote frequently about Blitzstein throughout his career.
Carl James Civella, inducted June 13, 1960, removed Dec. 19, 1996, and Nicholas Civella, inducted June 13, 1960, removed April 18, 1983, two brothers that were part of the original 11 inductees who were Kansas City, Missouri, mob bosses who were convicted of skimming and hiding ownership interests in the Tropicana.
Murray Lewellyn Humphreys, inducted June 13, 1960, removed Jan. 23, 1975, another of the original 11, who worked with Giancana and was an alleged lieutenant of Chicago mobster Al Capone.
Michael Coppola, inducted June 13, 1960, removed Jan. 13, 1975, an original 11 who was a New York mob enforcer involved in drug trafficking and who moved to Miami.
Louis Tom Dragna, inducted June 13, 1960, removed May 22, 2014, an original 11 who Nevada Gaming commissioners said “was considered to be the boss of the Los Angeles organized crime family with an arrest record dating back to 1946.”
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
