I don't have the book in front of me but I seem to remember he put up 3 million for the Havana casino.
When he came back to the states, he'd lost most of his money.
He'd lost most of his nest egg, Carpet joints were no longer tolerated like they had been in the past and he was too well known to prosper in that business.
Lacey's point in that book was that Lansky had been successful in the Jukebox business(Wurlitzer yanked the distributership
away from him because of his rep)he had famous friends and he was as he said at the Kefauver hearings, a "Gambler."
He was not however, this all powerful mob boss.

The stories about Ben Siegel's murder are a good example
of the Lansky myth.
If anyone had Siegel killed, it was Dave Berman, Gus greenbaum,
Doc Stacher and Moe Sedway.