The Black Book--Thought it might jar some discussion

[HotPants]

Nevada's "Black Book"

Officially known as the "List of Excluded Persons," the state's list of notorious gamblers names 35 people who are considered so unsavory to legal gambling that they are prohibited from setting foot in a casino.

Current "Black Book" members and the year they entered the list:

Marshall Caifano, Chicago mob leader 1960

Louis Dragna, Mob leader, convicted racketeer 1960

Alvin Kaohu, Hawaiian organized crime member 1975

Wilford Pulawa, Hawaiian organized crime boss 1975

John Vaccaro, Slot cheater 1986

Sandra Vaccaro, Slot cheater 1987

Chris Petti, Mob associate, convicted bookmaker and card cheater 1987

Michael Rizzitello, Mob associate, convicted kidnapper 1988

William Land, Card cheater 1988

James Tamer, Mob skimmer, bank robber 1988

Frank Masterana, Convicted bookmaker 1988

Frank Rosenthal, Mob associate 1988

Harold Lyons, Slot cheater 1989

Joseph Cusumano, Mob associate, convicted racketeer 1990

Douglas Barr, Slot cheater 1990

Timothy Childs, Slot cheater 1991

Francis Citro, Mob collector, convicted racketeer 1991

Richard Perry, Convicted sports fixer 1992

Anthony St. Laurent, Reputed mob associate, convicted racketeer, bookmaker 1993

Dominic Spinale, Convicted illegal bookmaker 1994

Brent Eli Morris

Douglas William Barr, Convicted slot cheat 1994

William Dominick Cammisano Jr., Reputed mob figure, convicted felon 1997

Ronald Harris, Former Gaming Control Board computer expert who rigged slot machines 1997

Anthony "Tony Ripe" Civella, Reputed Kansas City, Mo., mob figure 1997

Jerry Dale Criner, Convicted slot cheat 1997

Louis John Olejack, Convicted card cheat 1997

John Joseph Conti, Reputed mob associate 1997

Stephen Cino, Reputed mob associate 1997

Charles Panarella, Reputed mob associate 1997

Michael DiBari, Slot cheater 1998

Peter Joseph "P.J." Ribaste, Reputed mob associate 1999

Fred Pascente, a former Chicago police detective who served time for his connection to an Illinois mail fraud ring. (1999)

Michael Joseph Balsamo, a six-time convicted slot cheat, who is in the North Las Vegas jail in connection with a nationwide slot cheating scheme. (1999)

Peter Jay Lenz -- Convicted on bookmaking charges three times and on federal charges of making false statements on a passport application.

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Past Members and Nominations

Former Black Book members
A notorious roster of Nevada's past
Some of Las Vegas' most notorious characters have appeared in the book. While law enforcement authorities have said many more names should be on the list, a look at past members of the Black Book provide a glimpse of Nevada's battle to keep organized crime out of casinos.

1. John Louis Battaglia. Entered 1960. Removed 1975.
2. Carl Civella. Entered 1960.
3. Nicholas Civella. Entered 1960. Removed 1983.
4. Michael Coppola. Entered 1960. Removed 1975.
5. Robert L. Garcia. Entered 1960. Removed 1986.
6. Sam Giancana. Entered 1960. Removed 1975.
7. Motel Grzebienacy. Entered 1960. Removed 1975.
8. Murray Llewellyn Humphreys. Entered 1960. Removed 1975.
9. Joseph Sica. Entered 1960. Removed 1998
10. Felix Alderisio. Entered 1965. Removed 1965.
11. William Alderman. Entered 1965. Removed 1965.
12. Ruby Kolod. Entered 1965. Removed 1965.
13. Anthony Joseph Spilotro. Entered 1978. Removed 1986.
14. Gaspare Anedetto Speciale. Entered 1989. Removed 1992.
15. Carl Wesley Thomas. Entered 1990. Removed 1994.
16. Albert Corbo. Entered 1994. Removed 1998


Nominated but not entered:

1. Anthony Giordano. Nominated 1975. Withdrawn 1976.
2. Michael Santo Polizzi. Nominated 1975. Withdrawn 1976.
3. Anthony Joseph Zerilli. Nominated 1975. Withdrawn 1976.
4. Carl Angelo DeLuna. Nominated 1979. Withdrawn 1989.
5. Joseph Agosto. Nominated 1979. Withdrawn 1984.
6. Samel Filippo Manarite. Nominated 1993. Withdrawn 1993.
7. Herbie Blitzstein. Nominated 1996. Blitzstein was killed in a gangland-style execution before hearings were conducted on his nomination.

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Black Book History

The Black Book:
Origin and Evolution

The first thing you'll notice about the Black Book is that it's not black at all. The "book" is indeed a scant 36 pages in a silver cover. Established to exclude persons who are a threat to the Nevada gaming industry, it has become a symbol of the state's battle against the perception that organized crime is just around every door in the booming casino industry. Those nominated to the book are usually reputed associates of organized crime.
On the list are the names of crime family bosses, mob associates, convicted felons and gaming cheaters -- people defined under Nevada law as having a "notorious and unsavory reputation which would adversely affect public confidence and trust that the gaming industry is free from criminal or corruptive elements."
When the list was created in 1960, 11 people were put on it immediately, including then-Chicago mob boss Sam "Momo" Giancana. No new names were added until 1975, except for Ruby Kolod, former part-owner of the Desert Inn and a convicted extortionist, and two others. They were included in the book for three weeks in 1965 during a golf tournament, and then their names were removed.
The control board made expanding the exclusion list a priority in 1967, but nothing happened. In 1972, the Gaming Commission decided against placing on the list notorious mobsters such as Meyer Lansky, who had much publicity surrounding them but few criminal convictions.
Hawaiian mobsters Wilford "Nappy" Pulawa and Alvin George Kaohu were added in 1975. Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, the Chicago mob's main man in Las Vegas, was put in the book in 1978.
In 1988, under then-board Chairman Mike Rumbolz, an expansion effort again was made, after the Metropolitan Police Department's intelligence division completed a three-year investigation into potential nominees.
Metro prepared packages on 55 people -- all known organized crime associates, many of them from Las Vegas -- and submitted them to the board in 1988. Still, only five people were added to the list that year.
"We could give you dozens and dozens and dozens of names of people who ought to be in there," said one Metro intelligence officer.
Under state gaming law, anyone can be placed on the exclusion list if he: has a felony conviction, committed a crime involving moral turpitude or violated gaming laws in another state; failed to disclose an interest in a gaming establishment; willfully evaded paying taxes or fees; or has a "notorious or unsavory" reputation established through state or federal government investigations.
Las Vegas gaming attorney Grant Sawyer, who died in February, 1996, said in a 1992 interview with the Review-Journal that the Black Book was created to fend off federal attacks on legal gambling. When he was governor from 1958 to 1966 Sawyer said he worked to draft the laws that created the exclusion list in 1960 as a way to remove organized crime family figures from Nevada casinos.
The reforms of state laws and regulations started a new process for the licensing of gaming operators at the time, and has changed little since, Sawyer said.
Along with the exclusion list, the three-member Gaming Control Board and five-member Gaming Commission were instituted, replacing the old Nevada Tax Commission.
Sawyer and others in Nevada believed if they did not act to control mob influence in the state's legal gaming industry, Congress effectively would eliminate the industry through high taxes.
"We felt threatened by Congress," Sawyer said. "Nevada was being blasted in headlines all over the country.
"We were involved at that time in a very serious and aggressive program to eliminate from Nevada any organized criminal effect," Sawyer said. "Nevada was infested with organized crime members, and one of the reasons I ran (for governor) was to clean it up.
"If we had mob members hanging out in the hotels and casinos, it would provide fodder for people to believe that the mob was running these places."


The Procedures

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Originally, the process of placing someone on the list was by administrative fiat without due process.
Since the 1970s, nominees have been allowed to attend public administrative hearings before the gaming board and commission and they could dispute their inclusion.
A 1995 book, "The Black Book and the Mob," by University of Nevada, Las Vegas, sociologists Ronald A. Farrell and Carole Case, details the procedure for nomination and entry:

"The names of persons considered for entry are submitted to the Gaming Control Board by either the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department or by members of the regulatory body itself. (It is interesting to note that the Nevada Gaming Control Board materials that we reviewed make no mention of names being submitted to the board by city police departments other than Las Vegas.) Upon receipt of the names, the board conducts an investigation into each individual's background, often drawing upon materials provided by the police department. When the investigation is completed, the case is prepared and the issue is placed on the agenda of a board meeting whose time and itinerary are announced publicly. At the meeting, the state's deputy attorney general for gaming presents the board's case supporting inclusion of the person in the Black Book. The meeting is held publicly, and a court reporter transcribes the proceeding. Seldom is the "candidate" or his attorney present at this stage of the regulatory process.
"Following the board's action, the candidate must be formally notified of his nomination, and, within 20 days, is entitled to a "bill of particulars" listing the grounds for his proposed entry. He is also entitled to a hearing before the commission, which, if requested, is to take place within 60 days of his nomination. It is a "show cause" hearing, in that it is the responsibility of the nominee or his counsel to establish why his name should not be included on the List of Excluded Persons. In the absence of such a request, the commission proceeds on its own time to meet and act on the board's recommendation. The commission meeting, too, is held publicly, again with the state deputy attorney general for gaming presenting the board's case, followed by the attorney for the nominee presenting the case against inclusion. Witnesses may be called. Evidence is presented. Summations folow. A vote is taken."

The legality of the exclusion list has survived numerous court challenges at the state and federal levels.
Once on the list, members face a gross misdemeanor charge if they enter a nonrestricted gaming establishment. Exemptions are airports and bars and stores with 15 slots or less and no table games.
Casino officials who tolerate or don't report visits by exclusion members face fines or licensing problems with the control board.
Nevada began using the Black Book as a regulatory tool 37 years ago, drafting the original 11 members on June 13, 1960.


A view on how the Black Book is used

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Farrell and Case argue that the Black Book has been used sporadically, usually in response to some event or attack on gaming regulation. They say it has been more a publicity tool than a way to actually keep casinos clean, with the Black Book dominated by members who resemble a stereotype of organized crime. "The Black Book and the Mob" makes a case that the forces of good and evil aren't so easy to separate when it comes to the regulation of gambling:

"Our story traces a pattern of exclusion that suggests that certain competing criminal interests have been winners in part because they established themselves as legitimate and were licensed preferentially by the regulators. Thus, the Black Book blacklisted only certain organized crime figures and forbade them from entering casinos. While no more criminal than many of their more businesslike counterparts in the industry, those whose names have been placed in the book tend to be caricatures of the mafia stereotype."
Nevada's "List of Excluded Persons," known popularly as the "Black Book".


The Original 11 members
1. John Louis Battaglia. Removed 1975.
2. Marshall Caifano. Still on the list
3. Carl Civella. Removed 1996.
4. Nicholas Civella. Removed 1983.
5. Michael Coppola. Removed 1975.
6. Louis Dragna. Still on the list
7. Robert L. Garcia. Removed 1986.
8. Sam Giancana. Removed 1975.
9. Motel Grzebienacy. Removed 1975.
10. Murray Llewellyn Humphreys. Removed 1975.
11. Joseph Sica. Still on the list.

[Dragon]

Isn't the last entry the guy from the Dunes? Maybe they should have a seperate list for stiffs!!

[Blowfish]

Yep, it is. He was there when the place started. He's still in Costa Rica trying to play and trying to set up new operations.

Bad Bad Apple

[Latin King]

trying to set up new operations?? such as?? how could he get away with it? costa rica isn't big enough!

[Checkers]

masterana's the head of caribbean sports in costa rica

corbo is donbest's dana corbo's pop

and rosenthal writes for this site

[Blowfish]

Costa Rica may not be very large, but boy does the Internet offer anonymity, for both players and books alike.

[Checkers]

¡Chingas tu!

[Blowfish]

hijo de punta, se habla espanol, pero no sabe SLANG en espanol.

[Checkers]

nos esforzamos mas