According to Lansky's biographer, Robert Lacey, in "Little Man - Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life" (the best researched Mob bio, IMO), he was worth no more than $5-6 million at his peak--not chickenfeed then or now, but hardly a great fortune. The reason Lansky lived to age 81 and died peacefully, according to Lacey, was that "he was the accountant, never the boss," and so never incurred the jealousy that is so often fatal in Mob life.

Lansky wasn't so smart about Cuba. He invested $5 million of his own money, and $6 million of others' money, in the Havana Riviera, Cuba's largest hotel/casino, which opened in March 1958. Castro nationalized it the following year--Lansky and his investors lost eveything.