“Sometimes the most obvious is the best way” – The Kansas City Mob and the skimming of Las Vegas casinos

http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profil...s-is-the-best-way-the-kansas-city-mob-an

The definitive book on KC and Vegas (and the Mafia and the Nevada gaming industry) is "The Black Book and the Mob" by Ronald Farrell and Carole Case, two scholars with University of Nevada Las Vegas. It's a must if you want to get deep into organized crime and Nevada casinos.

Awesome article going to get the book

Giacamo or anyone else,

I'm sure this has been answered before, but why weren't the west coast families cut it on the Vegas skim? Wasn't Vegas basically their territory? Whenever I read about the skim, all of the midwest families are discussed but that's it. I know when AC opened for gambling, the bosses agreed that the midwest would have Vegas while the east coast families would have AC, but wouldn't the west coast families be brought into this? Even if there were just a few of them left, by commission rules, shouldn't they have been cut in?

Los Angeles did have an interest in one of the casinos, but Frank DeSimone sold it when Hughes showed up. San Francisco and San Jose had casino interests in Reno until leadership changes in the late 1950's and early 1960's. Joe Cerrito and Vince Figlia messed up and lost their Reno Casino interests to Denver and Milwaukee. The Gambling gold trove died by the late 1970's, as Las Vegas became the gambling mecca. The Casinos were pretty much funded by the big families.

Thanks, Giacomo.

I'm also wondering why the west coast families, or whatever was left of them in the '70s, weren't cut in on the skim operations specifically, as all of the midwest families seemed to be. Los Angeles is the closest family to Las Vegas by proximity. Didn't the commission have a rule about the local family getting a taste?

No, only Dragna got a small taste of the Flamingo when Bugsy was killed, the commission members Bonanno, Gagliano, and Magaddino voiced it to the backers, and Dragna would invest in an unknown 1950's casino. Those were the only two that I know of. DeSimone would be bought out of the Flamingo by the Genovese family sometime while Tony Bender was acting boss, and Licata would sellout to Hughes. Jimmy Lanza would have Joe and Ralph run a few unions in Las Vegas, but nothing in the way of the skims.

David I send you a PM.

It has been discussed a bunch of times on this forum, the original guys who were in on the Vegas scene were the Jewish members of the Combination(Lansky, Dalitz, Zwillman, Stacher, Berman, etc.) and the Italians that they were affiliated with (Chicago, Cleveland, and the Genovese). Some other families such as New England, Detroit, St. Louis, and New Orleans had pieces of various sizes in the casinos, then Hughes came in and bought most of Vegas out. After that families affiliated with the Teamsters got in lead by Chicago, KC, Milwaukee, Detroit and Cleveland with the Genovese also involved. There were no Commission rules that would have given anyone on the West Coast anything, Vegas was like Miami open territory. If a family had the connections and the money needed to get involved they could, if not then no dice.

Vegas might have been their territory but as we all know the East Coast bosses were definitely tied in. I don't think Patriarca was tied into AC but he owned a piece of one of the big Vegas casinos. Weird how they cut them up along with Florida because there wasn't much structure it seems.

Wasn't the midwest presence based on an agreement in the late '70s to where the east coast families would have AC while the midwest families would have Vegas?

Anyhow, I apologize for asking about Vegas and the west coast families when it's already been discussed. I would never want to interrupt one of the 500,000 threads about Joey Merlino on this site. My bad.

Didn't Chicago and NY had agreement? The Outfit could have Vegas and they would stay out AC.

It was a Grandfather act. Meaning that they met in the 1970's when AC allowed gambling. Families outside Chicago, Detroit, and Kansas City influences that had casino interests in LV could keep them, but no new one, while the east coast families could run AC, but the midwest and western families could not by into those casino's. AC was Bruno's territory, and he was pissing The Genovese, Lucchese, Boston and New Jersey off, by not allowing them into to deals or investing in Casinos.

“His demeanor was very vulgar, coarse and he used many profanities” – The Kansas City Mob and Las Vegas skim http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profil...lgar-coarse-and-he-used-many-profanities

Re-reading Casino right now.

Nick Civella was no saint, but when Allen Glick complained that the desk light was hard on his eyes, and Nick replied that he could accommodate him by pulling his eye balls out, I laughed.

Is Glick still alive? I'm surprised he hasn't written a book. He's probably still in hiding. Who could blame him?

Not sure if this has been posted, but the Kansas City Public Library put together an Organized Crime File Collection for the recent season of Fargo.

https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/kchistory%3A131628

I'm pretty sure Glick is still alive and living in San Diego

I believe he told Glick upfront during this conversation that he,Glick probally wouldn't walk out of the room alive.That he just might though if he is lucky.Something like that.