BTW: Meyer Lansky, the real-life "Roth," did not own casinos in Havana until very late. He was a big pal of Batista, the once and future dictator of Cuba. After Batista returned in a coup in 1952, he found that tourists were staying away because gambling was hopelessly crooked. Batista brought in Lansky to clean up gambling because Lansky had a reputation for giving the suckers a fair shake--he wasn't greedy, house odds were good enough for him. Batista paid him $100k/year--a small fortune then. He installed his brother Jake as casino manager at the Nacional, and I'm guessing he was in on the skim. But, Santos Trafficante, the Don of Tampa, FL, was the biggest actual owner in Havana. Lansky was the gatekeeper between Batista and the gangsters, and he probably profited from that arrangement, too.

Lansky finally built a hotel/casino, the Riviera, with $5 million of his money and another $6 million from Batista and others. It opened in March, 1958, and started making big bucks. Then Castro took over in January 1959, and Lansky lost everything.