Interesting article. Thanks, Johnny.
At some point in the Fifties, Congress passed a law that prohibited American investors from holding gaming properties in both Cuba and Nevada. They had to choose one or the other. Lansky chose Cuba. Look what happened to him. Batista also invested in the Riviera, and lost all of it.
When Batista returned to power in 1952, he found the Cuban tourist industry in a bad state. Gambling was so crooked that Americans were staying away. He brought in his "old friend and business associate" Lansky to straighten things out, on a contract of $100k/year. He knew Lansky had a reputation for giving the suckers an honest game--he was satisfied with house odds and didn't need to add to them.
Lansky never actually owned a casino in Havana until he and his partners built the Riviera. But, he made plenty from his influence with Batista. His brother Jake ran gaming at the Nacional. And, thanks to Lansky, Trafficante became the biggest American casino owner in Havana. And, on the day he was assassinated, Albert Anastasia was on his way to a meeting with a Cuban labor leader in NY to see about getting a piece of the new Havana Hilton.
After Castro shuttered the casinos, he encountered the first (and probably the last) labor demonstration against him. The Hotel and Casino Workers Union demanded that the casinos reopen. Castro agreed, temporarily. He even hired Joe Louis as the official casino greeter, and ran ads in US papers proclaiming that Cuba's differences were with the US government, not Americans. Not many Americans believed him--they stayed away.
