Casino - Love and Honour in Las Vegas is the true crime classic by Nicholas Pileggi, which was turned into a hit movie by Martin Scorsese starring Robert DeNiro and Sharon Stone. Pileggi co-wrote the film and it won Sharon the Golden Globe. A terrific movie, but there is even more dirt in this true account of Mafia involvement in 1970's Las Vegas casinos.
After some backstory on Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal and Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro growing up in Chicago, the Mob installs Rosenthal in the Stardust and other Vegas casinos to protect and increase the 'skim' operations. Everyone from the dealers and floor bosses to the count room to casino wide operations worked the skim - slipping wads of cash into their pockets. Reservations would delete rooms paid by cash, gardeners would sell the same palm multiple times without buying a tree, blackjack dealers would pocket chips and the metal safe boxes would be cleaned out before arriving at the secured count room. As long as the Chicago bosses got the main cut no one made waves. Backed by Teamsters Pension Funds and a Gaming Board approved front man as the face of the casino, Rosenthal ran the operation sharp and hands-on while there was a hiatus in law enforcement.
Tony Spilotro was a low level mobster into local burglaries and loan sharking who moved in and believed he ran the town through intimidation - whether he had any real power was mute if he wanted you killed. Although they grew up together, Rosenthal resented being attached to Tony. It was bad for business. Geri was a gorgeous showgirl and hooker who enamoured Rosenthal and they began a tortuous marriage of fighting and reuniting. Despite the millions in cash and jewelry, Geri had addiction problems that would eventually tear them apart. Her affair with Tony did not help.
"It should have been so sweet...We were given paradise on earth, but we fucked it all up."
This is an amazing story backed up with FBI wire taps, and court evidence supplied by the key players. The ingenious ways the mob developed for skimming made everyone millionaires until their hubris imploded the works. Covering the growth of major casinos throughout the 1970's, this is completely fascinating. It would be interesting to read a follow up analysis of modern Las Vegas as the junk bond corporations moved in following the mobsters - another story of fakery and money juggling, I am sure. Casino is the kind of true crime investigation you can easily read again.
Highly recommended.
Pileggi's novel Wiseguy was also adapted into the Scorsese film GoodFellas.
1995 / Paperback / 420 pages
Comentários