Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal dies at age 79

[clevfan]

Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal dies at age 79

By Mary Manning
LAS VEGAS SUN
Tue, Oct 14, 2008

Former Las Vegas casino executive and mob-connected sports handicapper Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal has died at his Florida home at age 79.

Rosenthal had been living in Miami Beach and died of a heart attack Monday. No funeral services have been scheduled.

A sports gambling pioneer, Rosenthal at one time ran the Stardust, Fremont and Hacienda hotel-casinos secretly.

In 1976 when Nevada authorities discovered that Rosenthal was running casinos without a state license needed to do so, the Nevada Gaming Control Commission held a hearing to determine Rosenthal's legal ability to obtain a gaming license.

The board decided to deny Rosenthal a license as a casino employee.

Later Rosenthal appealed the state's decision to Judge Joseph Pavlikowski and succeeded.

Ultimately, the judge's ruling was trumped by the state when Nevada placed him in the notorious Black Book, which banned him from being in or near any casino in Nevada in 1988.

In 1982 Rosenthal survived a car bombing of his 1981 Cadillac Eldorado outside a Marie Calender's restaurant at 600 E. Sahara Ave.

Rosenthal was taken to a local hospital with minor burns on both legs, his left arm and on the left side of his face.

Police at the scene of the car bombing said Rosenthal refused to sign a crime report or discuss the matter with investigators.

Born June 12, 1929, in Chicago, Rosenthal developed a close friendship with Anthony "Tony the Ant" Spilotro, who was found shot to death with his brother Michael in a cornfield.

In the 1995 Martin Scorsese film, "Casino," Rosenthal, renamed "Sam 'Ace' Rothstein," was played by Robert De Niro and his mob associate Spilotro, renamed "Nicky Santoro," was played by Joe Pesci.

[clevfan]

Oct. 15, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOHN L. SMITH: Final chapter closes on Lefty

FRANK "LEFTY" ROSENTHAL DEAD AT 79

When I first heard Robert DeNiro had agreed to play a character based on Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal in the Martin Scorsese movie "Casino," I couldn't stop grinning.

It was just about perfect. I imagined Rosenthal, a man possessed of a positively gigantic ego, almost allowing himself to be impressed. DeNiro, Brando, Olivier, with the ghost of Cary Grant mixed in for good measure: That would have been ideal by Rosenthal's measure of himself and his place in gambling's Pantheon.

When I first learned from street sources Tuesday that Rosenthal had died of natural causes Monday in Florida at age 79, I didn't smile but only shrugged. A few months ago he'd promised me an interview, but I wouldn't agree to a small condition -- that he not be asked questions about his days as a Stardust casino executive, friend of Tony Spilotro, car-bombing survivor and Black Book member.

In other words, almost all the stuff that made his crazy life worth writing about was off-limits. Details of his death were sketchy, but a variety of sources said Rosenthal died of an apparent heart attack and was found at home by his daughter, Stephanie. Independent sources confirmed Rosenthal had placed his last wager and set his final line.

Here's a sample of reactions from locals who knew Rosenthal at the height of his power.

"It's been said you should never speak ill of the dead," one former federal organized crime prosecutor said. "There are exceptions to the rule. Frank Rosenthal is one of those exceptions. He was an awful human being."

Upon hearing the rumors of Rosenthal's demise, a longtime Spilotro friend said, "I hope it's true."

To settle such disputes, I like to turn to the irrepressible gambler Lem Banker, who knew Rosenthal well and respected his handicapping knowledge -- as well as his game-fixing skill.

"He was an egomaniac," Banker said. "But he was a smart sonofabitch."

Right on both accounts. Rosenthal arrived in Las Vegas from Chicago via Florida in the early 1970s and handicapped out of the Rose Bowl sports book, where the action was surpassed only by the Runyonesque characters. Marty Kane and Joey Boston worked for Rosenthal and became two of the most successful sports bettors.

How could they fail? They were allowed to fill out their betting slips after the games were concluded. Marty and Joey preceded Rosenthal in Black Book inclusion and death.

Banker respects Rosenthal's gambling acumen, but admits the guy would cheat a blind pencil salesman if given the chance. Activities such as past-posting illegal bookmakers and skimming casino profits were in Rosenthal's blood.

What's less appreciated is Rosenthal's tenacity. Call it a survival instinct or an expression of his egotism, but he fought like a cornered wildcat to keep a foothold in Las Vegas. He used attorney Oscar Goodman to sue everyone from Metro to state gaming authorities.

"He was a put-his-face-in-your-face type of guy," Mayor Goodman said. "He had no quit in him, and as a result didn't make any friends in law enforcement."

He won temporary reprieves, including a brief reversal of his 1988 Black Book inclusion, but in a changing Las Vegas, Rosenthal couldn't fade the heat.

Even his use of a weekly TV adulation fest called "The Frank Rosenthal Show" did little to keep him in the legal action. The man who helped write the "Outlaw Line" would remain an outlaw.

I think he stayed angry the rest of his life as he whiled away the years in consummate comfort in Boca Raton and Miami Beach, where he took up residence in a condominium in the Fontainebleau's Tresor Tower. (A Fontainebleau employee on Tuesday confirmed Roenthal's death.) He kept busy with his Web site, his handicapping, and a radio show.

Scorsese's "Casino" gave Rosenthal more than the best of it to the dismay of those who knew the truth about the Stardust's Frank-and-Tony show.

"The portrayal of him by Robert DeNiro was, as far as depicting his exterior, impeccable," Goodman said. "But as far as what made him tick, only Rosenthal knew that."

After "Casino," you'd think Lefty's ego would have finally been sated. Hardly.

Even 10 years after his inclusion on the "List of Excluded Persons," Rosenthal audaciously told me, "You couldn't put out a newspaper without Frank Rosenthal."

What he lacked in stature in the new Las Vegas, Rosenthal more than made up for in unabashed self-confidence.

He would ask, "Who 'invented' the modern sports book?"

Frank Rosenthal, of course.

Who brought vision and innovation to the casino industry?

Mr. Frank Rosenthal!

All true. But who fixed ballgames and cheated bookmakers from coast to coast? The right-handed guy nicknamed Lefty.

Who could justify a life underwritten by the Chicago Outfit and argue with a straight face that he wasn't associated with gangsters?

Only Frank Rosenthal.

You remember him.

He was in all the papers.

[ChuckyTheGoat]

Thx, clev.

Wow! A legend. RIP.

[drunkguy]

wow, a legend passes

[nino brown]

it was a hot dose

[OLD MAN]

now with his passing, his name is removed from the BLACK BOOK. A trivia
question for the oldtimers....what famous LV business owner was also in the BLACK BOOK and wasnt allowed in any casino in the state of NEVADA?????

[Total Square]

Originally Posted by OLD MAN

now with his passing, his name is removed from the BLACK BOOK. A trivia
question for the oldtimers....what famous LV business owner was also in the BLACK BOOK and wasnt allowed in any casino in the state of NEVADA?????

was he later involved in the line service biz???

[Pancho Sanza]

He outlived the ant by over 20 years.

[TheIguana]

Originally Posted by OLD MAN

now with his passing, his name is removed from the BLACK BOOK. A trivia
question for the oldtimers....what famous LV business owner was also in the BLACK BOOK and wasnt allowed in any casino in the state of NEVADA?????

Al Corbo?

[clevfan]

"Casino" movie inspiration Rosenthal dead at 79

By TAMARA LUSH – 20 minutes ago

MIAMI (AP) — Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal — sports handicapper extraordinaire, Las Vegas gaming executive and the inspiration for the blockbuster movie, "Casino," — died Monday. He was 79.

He died from a heart attack in his Miami Beach condo, a fire-rescue spokeswoman said.

Rosenthal, who once survived a car bomb, ran the Chicago mob-owned Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda and Marina casinos through the 1970s and into the mid 1980s. Although Sports Illustrated once crowned him as the greatest living expert on sports handicapping, Rosenthal eventually wound up being listed in Nevada's "black book" of unsavory types banned from the state's casinos because of his ties with the Mafia.

"He's one of the originals," said Nick Pileggi, the author and screenwriter of "Casino." "When Lefty went down, the new Las Vegas emerged. The corporate Las Vegas."

Born in Chicago in 1929, Rosenthal learned the gambling trade through illegal bookmaking operations and made friends with Chicago mobsters — ties that would last a lifetime. In 1961, he appeared before a Senate hearing on gambling and organized crime during which he invoked Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination 38 times — and kept his left hand aloft throughout while doing so, thus garnering the nickname, "Lefty."

Rosenthal's mafia ties may have also taken him beyond the realm of gambling; federal documents claimed that in the 1960s he was associated with a CIA-connected, Cuban-American anti-Castro militant named Luis Posada Carriles. Rosenthal and Carriles denied these claims.

In 1968, Rosenthal went to Las Vegas, presiding over a city in transition, from a Mafia-infused hotbed of sin to a sanitized, global entertainment Mecca.

"Lefty's era was the Las Vegas of the bloated Elvis and polyester suits," said Michael Green, a history professor at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas.

Although Rosenthal ran four casinos, he didn't have a Nevada gaming license — a 1971 indictment in California for conspiracy in interstate transportation in aid of racketeering helped prevent him from obtaining one.

And his ties to organized crime, especially with reputed mobster Tony Spilotro, got him into hot water.

Spilotro was indicted in a skimming scheme, along with about 14 others, which also sealed Rosenthal's fate with gaming regulators, who ended up putting both men in Nevada's Black Book of persons excluded from casinos. Spilotro also had an affair with Rosenthal's estranged wife, Geri — one of the many dramatic moments of Rosenthal's life that played out in the movie, "Casino."

"Lefty was the ultimate handicapper," said Pileggi. "But he couldn't handicap his heart. His marriage ended in disaster."

Green said Rosenthal was pushed out in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Las Vegas began to shed its image of being under the control of organized crime. The transformation became complete years later, with the emergence of corporate gambling interests.

On Oct. 4, 1982, Rosenthal turned the key in his Cadillac and ignited a fiery explosion that ruined the car but didn't kill him. The case was never solved.

Rosenthal left Las Vegas soon after and eventually landed in South Florida, where he ran a sports betting Web site and served as a consultant for offshore online casinos.

Despite his mafia ties, shady bookmaking allegations and game-fixing probes, he had few brushes with the law.

"I don't believe he ever spent a day in jail while I was representing him," said Las Vegas Mayor and former Rosenthal attorney Oscar Goodman. "There were plenty of people who were shooting for him and I'm sure if you ask law enforcement they didn't care for him."

"But he always treated me with respect and dignity, and he paid his bills on time," he said.

Last year, Rosenthal explained to the Miami Herald what it takes to be a better gambler.

"No secrets to a winning formula," he said. "It takes years, perhaps more to establish a rigid form of self discipline. You must also be prepared to accept a lifestyle that requires an aspect of personal sacrifice, and bumpy roads along the way."

Associated Press writers Ken Ritter and Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

[gomerspyle]

how could he be in the mafia if he was jewish? they only let italians in and then only sicilian italians at that

[clevfan]

Defiant Chicago Outfit gambler dies
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 | 5:26 PM
WLS TV CHICAGO

By Chuck Goudie and Ann Pistone

Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who earned his unusual nickname by once holding up his left hand to fend off countless questions at a congressional hearing, is dead of heart failure. He was 79.

For years Lefty Rosenthal was considered the Chicago Outfit's top oddsmaker in Las Vegas and a living legend in the field of sports handicapping. He was the inspiration for the hit movie "Casino" that chronicled the violent, sadistic days of the Chicago mob's reign in Vegas during the 1970's.

Mr. Rosenthal himself survived a car-bombing attack on his life 26 years ago in Las Vegas. When he turned the ignition key on his '81 Cadillac Eldorado, the caddy blew up. Rosenthal escaped the blast with minor injuries because he had a steel plate installed under the floorboard, fearing such a threat.

Rosenthal ran the Chicago mob-owned Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda and Marina casinos through the 1970s and into the mid 1980s. Sports Illustrated once crowned him as the greatest living expert on sports handicapping but Rosenthal ended up in Nevada's "black book" of hoodlums and other unsavory characters who were barred from the state's casinos.


Rosenthal was born of Jewish parents in Chicago the year of the great stock market crash. He learned to make money by hustling bets and setting odds. Rosenthal learned the gambling trade through illegal bookmaking operations and made friends with Italian Chicago mobsters - ties that would last a lifetime. In 1961, he appeared before a Senate hearing on gambling and organized crime. During the proceedings he invoked Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination 38 times - and kept his left hand aloft throughout while doing so.

FBI records reveal that in the 1960s he was associated with a CIA-connected, Cuban-American anti-Castro militant named Luis Posada Carriles. Rosenthal and Carriles denied these claims. In '68, Rosenthal was deployed by Chicago Outfit bosses to Las Vegas. The assignment would put him squarely at odds with one of the most vicious Chicago hoodlums ever to wear a diamond pinky ring: Anthony "Ant" Spilotro.

Spilotro supervised the mob's Vegas rackets with an iron fist and a flashy style that angered Outfit bosses. He and 14 other gangland leaders ended up being indicted by a federal grand jury in a skimming scheme. As the movie "Casino" vividly re-enacted, Spilotro had an affair with Rosenthal's estranged wife, Geri.

Lefty moved to south Florida in the early 1980's, a few years before Tony Spilotro and his brother Michael were murdered and dumped in a shallow grave in an Indiana cornfield. In a second career from Florida, Rosenthal ran a sports betting Web site and served as a consultant for offshore online casinos.

"I don't believe he ever spent a day in jail while I was representing him," said Las Vegas Mayor and former Rosenthal attorney Oscar Goodman. "There were plenty of people who were shooting for him and I'm sure if you ask law enforcement they didn't care for him. But he always treated me with respect and dignity, and he paid his bills on time," Goodman said.

In April 1998, Rosenthal did an interview with ABC's Ted Koppel about the expansion of legal gambling, especially internet betting.

FRANK "LEFTY" ROSENTHAL, Odds Maker: It's alive, it's living and it's growing in it's going to become a phenomenon, if it is not already in fact

TED KOPPEL: If, indeed, this is going to expand, as you suggest, and you think it's going to be big, then we're going to have hundreds of thousands if not millions more gamblers than we do right now and almost inevitably they're going to be using credit cards. Let's say they welsh on their bets. In the old days, gamblers used to know people who would take care of that kind of thing. I'm not sure if Visa and Master Charge operate the same way. Do they?

FRANK "LEFTY" ROSENTHAL: I doubt it very much.

TED KOPPEL: So how are they going to collect?

FRANK "LEFTY" ROSENTHAL: I would think for the most part the write-offs will be so insignificant versus the profit that it really isn't an issue that if I were an operator would put on any top priority. However, even in Las Vegas today as we speak, credit is extended and the write-offs are huge within that industry, referring to the casino business. You're not going to prevent a casino or an offshore gaming property from having losses. The majority of the people that wager in good conscience and pay their bills.

TED KOPPEL: You know, Frank, that there are people in Congress now who are trying to close up whatever loopholes there are so that where gambling is illegal now it will continue to be illegal. For the most part, that looks like trying to bail out, you know, the Titanic with a sieve. Is there a way of closing it down?

FRANK "LEFTY" ROSENTHAL: Realistically speaking I would think not and when you speak about lobbying, you're speaking about the major operators from both the state of Nevada and Atlantic City. The only thing that comes to my mind as far as trying to negate the possibility of wagering on the Internet, maybe somebody ought to get a hold of Bill Gates and get Bill Gates and Janet Reno back in talking terms in the Justice Department. He's probably the only human being on this planet that can figure out a way how to restrict the computer as far as gaming.

TED KOPPEL: Actually, you've raised another interesting possibility, and these folks are A, not without money, and B, not without influence. You talked about the gaming interests in Las Vegas and Atlantic City and I had sort of overlooked that. It clearly is not in their interests that Internet gambling take off. It could make them irrelevant. So they are going to bring their not inconsiderable influence to play also. What can they do to stop this from happening?

FRANK "LEFTY" ROSENTHAL: They go the old route, Ted, lobbying, contributions. What they're trying to do, they're trying to eat the whole pie rather than a slice of pie. The explosion, implosion in Nevada as we're talking, it's almost beyond belief. As we speak right now there's a casino that's going to open up, a hotel/casino in about October 15th. Cost, probably $2 billion plus. So I wouldn't be worried about the operators in Nevada and for them to try to suggest that either Internet wagering offshore is unhealthy while their menu is healthy is really hypocritical.

TED KOPPEL: Give me, and we're going to have to close on this note, but I want you to give me your experience as a veteran in the gambling business, your sense of what this is going to do in terms of luring a lot of people yeah, who might have placed a bet or two at the office, but into a regular gambling pattern who otherwise wouldn't be in it. In other words, how much danger do you see here?

FRANK "LEFTY" ROSENTHAL: I really don't see the danger that you referred to with reference to the Harvard study. That's like saying that if you go to McDonald's and have a Big Mac and that's loaded with calories that we're going to hold them responsible for obesity. Gaming, gambling, the same terminology, it's here to stay. The mass, masses of population on the globe, they want to gamble, whether it's office pool, precinct pools, ABCs pool or just individual pools. Gaming is here to stay. It's growing and the only reason offshore gaming can exist is because of the supply/demand factor. If we were open minded and more realistic, there would not be any offshore gaming. I have to tip my hat to the people with the gaming licenses offshore for being opportunist and having great vision.

TED KOPPEL: Well, of course that could also be said of the nice folks who bring us tons of cocaine and heroin into this country every year. If it were legalized, we wouldn't have to get it from Columbia. But, you know, I'll let you respond to that quickly and then we'll, then we're going to have to wrap it up.

FRANK "LEFTY" ROSENTHAL: I agree with that, Ted. On the other hand, here where I live in the state of Florida, our state recommends, highly promotes the lottery. They encourage you to hit the dream of your life, your fantasy. The chances of you winning the lottery in this state or your state are virtually slim or none and slim's out of town.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Myron]

there's a jewish mafia - usually israelis

[clevfan]

'LEFTY' ROSENTHAL, 79

Casino operator was known as country's top sports handicapper

BY ELINOR J. BRECHER
MiamiHerald.com

Sports Illustrated once called Frank Larry ''Lefty'' Rosenthal -- the bookmaker and Vegas casino operator played by Robert De Niro in the film Casino -- the greatest living sports handicapper.

He got his nickname in 1961 after pleading the Fifth Amendment 38 times before a Senate subcommittee investigating organized crime.

Among other things, he refused to say whether he was left- or right-handed.

The next year, he asked a Miami Herald reporter: ``So what if I'm a gambler? There's no law against that. There's a law against bookmaking, but I'm not a bookmaker . . . I'm a professional handicapper . . . I'm the greatest.''

Rosenthal died Monday, reportedly of a heart attack, at his apartment in the Fontainebleau's luxury Tresor Tower in Miami Beach. He was 79.

Rosenthal -- real name Norman Louis Rosenthal -- hosted the website frankrosenthal.com. Nicholas Pileggi -- who wrote the book from which Martin Scorsese's Casino was adapted -- says that ``for most of his professional life, the Chicago-born and casino-bred Rosenthal has been the country's top handicapper. He was one of a handful of men who literally set the line for thousands of bookmakers from coast to coast.

``During the 1970s and early '80s, Rosenthal ran four Las Vegas casinos simultaneously, including the world-famous Stardust Hotel and Casino. Rosenthal is also credited with creating the first Race & Sportsbook [Parlor] in Las Vegas . . . that was copied by every casino on the strip.''

TV SHOW AND COLUMNS

In addition to running the Fremont, Hacienda and Marina casinos for financier Allen Glick's Argent Corp., Rosenthal hosted a live-from-the-Stardust television show and wrote columns for The Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Valley Times newspapers.

In a Miami Herald interview earlier this year, Rosenthal said Sam ''Ace'' Rothstein, De Niro's character in the 1995 film, was accurate -- even the part about having a crooked blackjack player's hand smashed with a rubber hammer.

The card player and his cohorts ''had raped the Strip's casinos over a period of time,'' he said. ``Hence, we played hardball, sending their entire crew a message.''

At the time of the interview, Rosenthal was consulting with offshore casinos.

Fighting a gaming-commission ban from the Vegas casinos, Rosenthal hired lawyer Oscar Goodman, now the city's mayor.

Goodman told local reporters Wednesday that Rosenthal ``was a tough taskmaster and a perfectionist. He was meticulous in everything he did.''

``He made no friends with the government, that's for sure. I don't believe he ever spent a day in jail when I represented him. If you asked law enforcement, they probably didn't like him much, but he always treated me well and paid his bills on time.''

Goodman said the last time he saw Rosenthal was in Florida in 1996, when they went out for a drink.

`VERY DEMANDING'

He said that as a casino manager, Rosenthal ``was very demanding. He was a certain breed of cat and wouldn't tolerate anything except the very best in customer service. He wanted perfection.''

Once, Goodman recalled, Rosenthal was walking through the Stardust and spotted a cigarette butt on the floor.

``He bent down and picked it up and then asked the pit boss who was responsible for cleaning that area and got a name. He immediately fired that person. You didn't want to screw up in front of him or else you wouldn't have a job.''

Rosenthal lived in Florida before and after his years in Las Vegas, and once owned 13 horses. He was banned from Florida racetracks twice -- in 1961 and 1977 -- and from the state's jai-alai frontons.

In 1963, he was convicted of conspiracy to fix the 1960 NCAA basketball playoffs by bribing a player, and paid a $6,000 fine. In November 1965, federal agents arrested Rosenthal and other accused national syndicate members and charged them with interstate transmission of gambling information. They beat the rap.

`BOOKIE WARS'

He was implicated in a bombing plot during Miami's 1967 ''bookie wars,'' and a year later moved to Las Vegas, where he met and married Geri McGee, a one-time topless show girl. They had two children.

Rosenthal grew close to Tony Spilotro, a jewel thief, loan shark and suspected hit man. Pileggi described Spilotro as the mob's brawn, Rosenthal the brains.

In the late '70s, investigators from Nevada's Gaming Control Board raided the Stardust. Rosenthal was implicated in a ''skimming'' scandal but was never charged.

About the same time, Geri had an affair with Spilotro. In 1980, she pulled a gun on Rosenthal, who filed for divorce. By then, the Gaming Control Board had denied him a gaming license. She later died of an overdose.

In October 1982, Rosenthal almost died when someone planted a bomb in his Cadillac Eldorado. It blew up in a Las Vegas restaurant parking lot, burning his legs.

Rosenthal moved first to California, then back to Florida.

In 1995, he sat for an interview with a Miami Herald reporter at Crocs, his nephew's Boca Raton nightclub.

''Only once does his face show a flash of pleasure, when he speaks of his children: Steven, 25, in the Navy, and Stephanie, 22, who works at a local bank,'' the newspaper reported.

The Levitt-Weinstein/Blasberg Chapel in Miami Beach is handling arrangements for the funeral, which is private.

[OLD MAN]

AL CORBO was the answer to the trivia question above. I once commented to someone who knew him extremely well that AL liked to bet with both hands and his reply to me was "yes, both hands and feet"!