By David Amoruso

Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his alcoholism, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera. Director: Mike Figgis Stars. Martin Scorsese's 1995 film Casino follows the life of Sam 'Ace' Rothstein (Robert De Niro) as he runs the mob-owned Tangiers casino. The movie also deals with his relationship with his friend Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) and the love of his life Ginger (Sharon Stone). Martin Scorsese's fascinating new film 'Casino' knows a lot about the Mafia's relationship with Las Vegas. It's based on a book by Nicholas Pileggi, who had full access to a man who once ran four casinos for the mob, and whose true story inspires the movie's plot. Like ' The Godfather,' it makes us feel like eavesdroppers in a secret place.

Hollywood loves gangsters. Not because film makers condone their crimes, but because their stories make them lots of money. It’s difficult to name any other genre that has so many titles based on a true story. Yet, despite this label, the true story often gets twisted to fit the silver screen. That is why Gangsters Inc. shares its knowledge of the facts and truth behind these blockbuster gangster flicks.

When it comes to epic mob movies director Martin Scorsese outdid himself with Casino. It tells the true story of Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and Anthony “The Ant” Spilotro and how the Chicago Outfit dominated gambling in Las Vegas and is based on the research and eventual book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi.

In the movie the names have been changed. Lefty Rosenthal turned into Sam “Ace” Rothstein while Spilotro was now named Nicky Santoro. Thankfully their actions remained the same and the acting of Robert De Niro as Rothstein and Joe Pesci as Santoro is, as you can expect from these two stars, top notch.

Where Scorsese had shown the gritty streets of New York City mob life in Goodfellas, in Casino he upped the ante and showed us the glamorous lives of the men who controlled a billion dollar industry. And, “how [they] messed it all up.”

The true story of Casino was featured in several Gangsters Inc. stories. Most dealing with the individual players or certain incidents more than with the exact plot of the movie. The men responsible for the Las Vegas skim and the money from the Teamsters were bosses Antonino “Joe Batters” Accardo and Joseph Aiuppa, while capo Joseph “The Clown” Lombardo saw to it their orders were carried out as commanded. We have profiled them all.

Spilotro was sent to Vegas to oversee the skim at the casino. He had made a name for himself back in Chicago after learning the ropes from “Mad Sam” DeStefano, one of the most evil mobsters ever to walk the streets of Chi Town.

All in all the violence portrayed in Casino did a good job at showing the capabilities of the group of stone cold killers the real Chicago Outfit had at its disposal. Like when Chicago boss Antonino Accardo needed to send a message to some guys wo burglarized his home.

In the movie Scorsese even cast real mob killer Frank Cullotta to play, essentially, himself as he shoots his way through the final scenes of the movie.

More on Casino:

• The 25th Anniversary of Casino: Looking Back with Nicholas Pileggi and Oscar Goodman
• Mafia hitman Frank Cullotta on movie 'Casino', Tony Spilotro, Killing Informants, Cooperating with FBI
• The lucrative and violent years of Las Vegas mobster Tony Spilotro’s infamous Hole in the Wall gang
• The story behind the documentary: Back Home, Years Ago: The Real Casino

Get the latest on organized crime and the Mafia at Gangsters Inc.'s news section.

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We are familiar with this famous movie that told us the story of mob life in this thriving, young city that has always been rumored to harbor such evil doings. According to Cullotta, the tough guy that made his way to Las Vegas in the late 70s and the one who’s life this movie is loosely based upon, “It’s about 75% to 90% accurate. They got to juice it up. It’s a movie. Real life is boring. Movies, that’s what they do, they juice them up. I was the technical consultant on the movie. Nick Pileggi did a tape on me. If it wasn’t for me, there would be no book ‘Casino’, and there would have been no movie ‘Casino.’”

His role was portrayed in the movie by Frank Vincent. However, this is just one story that was told about this growing desert town. The real story began when the mafia began their tyranny of the desert town long before the era in which the film depicts.

The mafia’s control over this gambling city began way back when:

1947 photo of the outdoor swimming pool at Bugsy Siegel’s Flamingo Hotel.

According to UNLV Associate History Professor, Michael Green and author of the ‘History of the Silver State’, “The state of Nevada legalized gambling and reduced the residency requirement for divorce; both of which were designed to get people to come here, like the place, and stay here and invest. But if they didn’t, at least they would spend some money while they were here.” Also, “World War !! Was a key turning point thanks to a lot of military bases being built in Nevada and the surrounding states. Also, in 1941, the first hotel on the strip opened – the El Rancho Vegas – on April 3. It had about 65 rooms so it wouldn’t exactly fit in today. The El Cortez opened the same year, downtown, and that may have been the first Lansky/Siegel property. It’s also in 1941 that Nevada legalized off-track betting which made the race wire very profitable, and that’s really what excited the interest of Lansky and Siegel. The hotel business followed.”

This was the place that practically started the Vegas mafia.

This including skimming from profits which led to the ultimate murder of Siegel himself for doing the skimming! Michael Green says that things moved quickly after that, “The Thunderbird is built soon afterward and that’s tied to Lansky. The Desert Inn is being started. . . In comes Moe Dalitz and the Mayfield Road Gand from Cleveland, and you do have, at this point – a proliferation of mob ownership and investment.”

Kefauver vs. Crime 1951:

The mob continued to infiltrate the Las Vegas area by purchasing land for cheap, specifically the road to Los Angeles. Green also points out, “ These were professionals at running casinos, at gambling. They’ve been involved in these activities for a long time. It was not as if there was a group out her training them. We did not have a hotel college then. These were the guys with experience. That certainly helped them – they knew how to run these operations. The truth is, the mob here in the ‘50s would be, compared with the mob of Frank Cullotta’s era, boring, because they didn’t have burglary rings and killers running around. These were business people.”

Another thing that pushed the mob to its iconic status was the lack of investigations of the backgrounds of the casino owners. Also, then gambling was legalized in Nevada, it was stated that the county would police their own turf which turned out to be inadequate in managing the magnitude of the operation. This only helped the mobsters take control over everything. This was easy to overlook though because the mafia was making a lot of money for the state.

So, it turns out that the skimming operation, as portrayed in the movie ‘Casino’ was real. However, this operation had its mishaps which often led to greed, murder and mismanagement.

Life in the ‘Casino’ era:

The ‘60s and ‘70s brought forth a new wave of gangsters, including Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal played by Robert De Niro in ‘Casino’ as Sam “Ace” Rothstein who was a mastermind at gambling. He’s the one who took the time to learn all of the stats and the conditions of those that he was betting on. For example, he knew all about the sports and athletes such as whether or not who was sick and who wasn’t. He was tight with the trainers who let him know who had a cold or even a tooth ache! This information was key for him to profit off of his gambling efforts.

The former associate of “Lefty” was Frank Cullotta grew up with another man who made his way into the mob scene. His name was Anthony “Tony” Spilotro and he was sent to Vegas by the Chicago mafia to help control their interests in the casinos there. Joe Pesci’s character in ‘Casino’ was loosely based on Tony’s life.

“Tony” was tied to at least two dozen murders.

However, in the movie ‘Casino’ the only life long friendship that was portrayed was between “Tony” and “Lefty” played by Pesci and De Niro’s characters. However, according to Cullotta, “I know Tony didn’t grow up with this guy, but they say he’s a childhood friend. That’s bullsh*t. Tony probably met “Lefty” somewhere around in the ‘60s, because I know in 1961, when I first met “Lefty,” he was by Tony’s house and he was gambling. They were playing gin. And Tony beat him out of a lot of f*cking money and if this was his good friend. . . I know Tony and he wouldn’t gamble with good friends. Tony was close to “Lefty” but he didn’t grown up with him like I did.”

Cullotta and several associates were known in those days as the “Hole in the Wall Gang” because they were known for going through the walls of homes, banks and other places to burglarize them. According to Cullotta, “We didn’t just go around burglarizing any house. We used to have information. We did it on tips. Information from insurance agents, people that worked in casinos – friends of friends that knew friends have money and, of course, we game them 10-20% of whatever we made.” In the process murder played a role in Las Vegas. However, much of this began to come to an end when The Federal government began to probe into the mob dealings in the city. That’s when the game began to end.

Tony Spilotro’s grave.

In 1960, the Black Book was created to keep gangsters off casino premises. These new regulations aimed at banning certain people from the casinos and they were named in this Black Book. During this decade, Bobby Kennedy, brother of president J.F.K., was tasked with dismembering the organized crime that was still going on in Vegas. This led the passage of the Corporate Gaming Act in 1969 which changed the law so that only key stockholders and executives were able to be licensed to own a casino. Before this, anyone who owned part of a casino could be licensed. However, the mob was strong enough to find a way around this and so the RICO act was passed in 1970 which “allows prosecution and civil penalties for certain acts (including illegal gambling, bribery, kidnapping, murder, and money laundering performed as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise.” It had been used to gather whole groups of criminal empires at a time. Years of trials and testimonies followed.

Tony Spilotro Chicago Perp Walk.

Professor Green talks about the fall of the mobsters saying, “Back in the ‘70s, these mobsters were at discos, they were at restaurants, and by ‘97, the last remnants were at a used car dealership. I think that speaks to how far down they’ve gone.” Eventually, the system beat them.

Movie Casino True Story

These day, Cullotta says, “I think there’s thieves out here. I doubt there’s organized crime, outfit or syndicate out here. I don’t see that here. I don’t feel it. I don’t hear anyone talk about it. It’s definitely not in the casinos. All the corporations are in the casinos now. There’s no more organized crime in these casinos at all. I’m sure there’s some guys that still do it, but they’re not high-rollers. They’re not big guys.” They are all gone.

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