The story of the movie "Casino" isn't just the story of Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal; it's the story of the beginning and the end of the real Las Vegas. And his story is the story of the official taking over and overtaking of the mafia in Las Vegas, which was the mob's most successful undertaking before the entire organization was taken down by a little schmuck called Anthony "the ant" Spilatro who ruled the Strip with an iron fist before meeting his fate in a cornfield in Indiana. This is the real story…

Nicholas Pileggi, author of the book "Casino" as well as other award winning books about the mob, such as "Goodfellas", contacted Lefty Rosenthal about writing the book. Rosenthal's immediate reaction was simply: "Nope, not interested in writing a book about myself or the mob."

Pileggi had the interest of Martin Scorcese who had already made millions from Goodfellas and was a big fan of Pileggi's writings. It wasn't until Rosenthal received a phone call from Robert DeNiro, who assured him he would bring his life to the screen with respect, that Lefty agreed to tell his story.

Rosenthal grew up on the south side of Chicago amongst Jewish and Italian bookies and bootleggers, gangsters and gamblers. He grew up admiring them and their lives, so as soon as he was old enough, he joined the crap game. He learned the ins and outs of gambling from sitting in the left field bleachers at Wrigley Field in the summer and a basement crap game at a place where he placed bets on football in the winter. Eventually he gained a reputation as a slick player that knew the games inside and out. He won so much money betting sports that the mob recognized his genius and took him on as one of their own. He made them a lot of money and in return they afforded him protection against the bookies who would no longer take his bets.

One of the mob's punks that were hired to watch Rosenthal's back was a small time bone-buster named Anthony Spilatro. He was originally hired to protect Lefty after he won a large bet for the mob at a race track in California. The two had grown up near each other and knew many of the same people, so they had a good relationship. At the track, Frank picked some winners for Tony and after playing for just three days, Tony picked up almost $20,000 thanks to Lefty's picks and so stuck close to his golden goose. At a bar in Cicero, Illinois (my home town) Frank had borrowed a pen from one of the boys. He then mistakenly put the pen back in his own pocket while having a drink with Tony and a couple of dates. The guy accused him of stealing his pen. Frank returned it with an apology for the error, but Tony overheard the accusation and came around, slugged the guy in the gut, took the pen from his pocket and stuck the pen in the guy's leg, then proceeded to beat the shit out of him while everyone else continued drinking. As the guy lay there on the barroom floor bleeding, Tony finished his drink with his foot on the pen sticking half way into the guy's leg.

From then on they were inseparable. Frank needed the protection and he convinced the mob to keep Tony with him so he could do his business in peace. He kept his bets spread out between Chicago, L.A. and New York and kept the bets small enough as not to arouse too much attention. The bookies were so impressed with his record that they gave him the dubious job of setting the point spreads for them. He was privy to inside information on everything from new players to injured players to substitutions and had an upper edge on most of the games. He would half-point some games and the Chicago boys were in on everything and cleaned up before the bookies as well as the law began to harass him. In 1960 he was arrested for bookmaking, so the heat was on and the mob decided Chicago was no longer a viable option for Frank. On a visit to Los Angeles he stopped in Las Vegas. After a couple of hours, as Frank put it, "I couldn't believe I was that stupid. Here's an entire city that lets you do legally what I was running from back in Chicago. So I did what every other smart bettor did and moved West."

When Lefty hit Las Vegas he was dazzled. Between the 24 hour drinking and gambling, the naked girls everywhere and money thrown around at every turn, he was in gambler's heaven. Now he could gamble for himself and leave Chicago and the mob behind. That is, if they didn't mind.

Frank arrived in Vegas in 1967 after taking a beating in Miami. He hit the sports books and the first season betting football went on a 15 week winning streak that amazed even the books. One night at a crap table in the Stardust, he met 31-year old Jeri Magee. Jeri was a Vegas girl, a show girl at the Tropicana and a stripper on her weekends off. She was a drinker and a chip hustler who would go gambling with a high roller, usually introduced by the casino themselves and get the drinks and the bets flowing. While the lights and the bells went off, she would pinch a $100 chip from the guy every once in a while, so by the end of the night she'd end up with a couple thousand and the casino with the rest.

Frank was one of these guys that was set up by the Stardust to meet her at the tables. He was older and frankly, very lonely as he put it and fell so in love that after having his marriage proposals turned down by her he finally agreed to what was her interpretation of a pre-nuptial agreement by putting what Frank said was "over a million bucks, quite a bit over" in a safe deposit box with her having the only key so if she ever wanted out she wouldn't have to hire lawyers and wait for her money, she'd just take that and be gone. On May 1st. 1969 they were married in a lavish ceremony at Caesars Palace in front of 500 "friends". Jeri is a drinker and has a problem with pills, every kind of pill - diet pills, barbiturates, tranquilizers - and she would take numerous combinations while drinking at the casinos until she was only welcomed at the Stardust where Lefty had a couple of close friends.

He finally took a job there as a floor man so he could keep an eye on her as well as learning the games. Frank was so good at his job that he quickly was promoted to shift boss, which he ruled with an iron fist. He demanded perfection from his dealers and fired anyone that couldn't take an instruction the first time. He didn't believe in luck and whenever someone was winning he'd immediately suspect someone of cheating. He would run off the big winners and make others feel uncomfortable by standing behind the dealer that was losing and not saying anything unless it was an instruction for the dealer to clean up his game.

Then, in stepped Alan Glick. With a $62 million dollar loan, Glick purchased the Stardust and two other casinos. The loan, however, was from the Teamsters Union fund, which was another term for the Chicago mob. It was their way of breaking into Las Vegas and into the casino business; Glick was their front man. They would also be moving into the cage. They moved their people into the key positions in surveillance, as well as the soft count room where the skim was done. This is where all the cash is counted. While piling up cash in one pile for the casino, they would make another pile to be taken back to Chicago to be split by the mob. Every day tens of thousands of dollars would be taken from the count rooms by couriers carrying suitcases of cash on coach flights to Chicago. Now the whole Midwest Mafia got involved. Joey Iupa from Chicago teamed up with Nick Savello from Kansas City and Frank Ballisterri from Milwaukee. Frank was their eye at the Stardust where most of the skimming was going on. In 1971 he was given the title of Food and Beverage manager since he can't get a gaming license due to his ties to the mob and his rap sheet for bookmaking in Chicago. But the employees had no doubt that Lefty was the manager. By then the Nevada Gaming Commission had began to scrutinize him, but couldn't pin anything on him to remove him from the casino.

Back in Chicago, Tony was just a muscle man for the mob. He would run money and do favors for them. One guy crossed his boss's wife in a real estate deal. He sent Tony to teach the guy a lesson. After torturing the guy for two days, he returned to his boss's house with a small box. He handed his boss the box, in the box was a human eyeball, the eyeball from the guy that crossed him. He told him he had put his head in a vise until the guys eyeball popped out just before he died. But the body was found and the police suspected Tony, due to the violent nature of the crime. His boss was delighted and Tony was a "made man" which meant that after the secret initiation he was now one of the boys. Invited to the secret meetings, he was now due a part of the take, and was able to take out hits on anyone he wanted to,with agreement from his bosses. But with the heat coming down, he decided to take a vacation to Las Vegas and visit his buddy Lefty.

He was in awe of what Lefty had accomplished, loved Las Vegas and wanted to stay and take a share. But like Lefty said, "We owned the cops in Chicago. The cops in Las Vegas are nothing but cowboys, they wouldn't think twice about putting a bullet in you if they found out you were screwing with them." But now Lefty was getting nervous. The reason Las Vegas was working so well for him was that it was a quiet town going about its business. There was no violence here and the mob kept it that way. They didn't want any heat, any scrutiny about their business or their business partners coming down on them for any reason. Anyone causing trouble was dealt with quickly and only once. They set up only a few rules: there were to be no shootings, no stealing, no car bombs. Any shootings were to be done in the desert well away from town. Holes were actually pre-dug before the person was brought out so as to make the job faster, and since the desert floor could be rock hard it would often take hours to get the hole dug.

Now Tony "the ant" was causing problems. He was violent and loud and would do his beatings and shootings in town and the cops quickly noticed him. He was shaking down bookies, drug dealers and pimps and a few showed up dead on the Vegas streets. He also set up a jewelry ring with his brother Mike stealing jewelry from people around the casinos as well as breaking into their homes and even walking into a few jewelry stores in some outlandish daytime heists. They would get tips from dealers around town when a local high rollers were playing and break into their homes while they gambled. Then, the FBI walked in and began to watch Spilatro.

Meanwhile, Rosenthal is making millions by keeping on top of his sports betting. It's just enough to keep his wife happy and in enough pills and booze to keep her quiet and at home. Frank is the first person to put a sports book inside the casino. Until then, all the sports books were private casinos that mostly catered to the horseracing crowd. He even discovered Segfreid and Roy and built a stage for them at the Stardust. He put the first female Blackjack dealers at his tables and almost doubled his drop in the first year. But one day two large jackpots hit at the Stardust just a couple of hours apart. Frank became incensed at his incompetent slot manager and fired him. The mistake he made was that the manager was a cousin of the gaming commissions chairman Pete Echovaria. Pete went to see him to get him rehired, but Frank was adamant about not rehiring him which angered Echovaria and began a chain of events that Frank would regret.

In 1976 when he was up for licensure he was assured by an insider that he would easily pass the gaming commissions' exam and be licensed. Instead they began to pepper him in the court room about his past ties to Chicago and the Teamsters and the mob. They also began to drill him about his friendship with Tony Spilatro and when the hearing was over, he was turned down and told not to return. Frank was devastated; he was banned from the Stardust as well as gaming altogether. Now the animosity between Frank and Tony was becoming dangerous for Frank. Frank was still running the casino from his home. He had surveillance monitors set up at home to watch all the tables and several telephone lines to the pit and cage. With Lefty at home he and Jeri had plenty of problems with booze and affairs they both were having. By the next year Lefty had paid off a judge and was re-instated to the position of Entertainment Director, he even began hosting his own talk show on local television. It was a huge success. He was the Johnny Carson of Las Vegas, having virtually everybody that was anybody on his show. Anyone appearing in town would promote the show first, from Sinatra to Sammy, Liz Taylor and Muhammad Ali. But the mob was unhappy, they wanted him out of the limelight, they wanted him to just gamble and make money for them. In the meantime, Jeri was boozing it up and with all the fights her and Lefty were having, she ended up at Spilatro's apartment one day and in the sack with him that night. The next night she and Lefty are having it out about the night before and after a bottle of bourbon she blurts out about her affair with the "ant" (I don't capitalize his nickname out of disrespect for the piece of crap. My personal Spilatro story to follow later.) This made Lefty nuts and he couldn't handle it. But Lefty was in no position to make a move on anyone. In 1981, after months of surveillance by the FBI, they finally caught Spilatro trying to heist a jewelry story in Commercial Center: MY STORE. This is where my experience with the "ant" comes in. I was a jeweler in Las Vegas when I landed here in 1980. I worked for another jeweler named Tony Spitilari who I was introduced to through a phone call from an Italian friend of the family in Chicago who Tony owed a big favor to. Tony did most of his work through the back entrance of a warehouse on Western Ave. here in town and one of his customers was Tony Spilatro. He would bring in jewelry and Tony would take the stones out and melt down the gold into ingots and sell them to a refiner in L.A. who would refine the gold into 24kt. And the stones would be remounted or just sold in Chicago; anything besides diamonds would just be crushed with hammers.

One day Spilatro came in when Tony was on vacation and I'm the only one there and hands me a shoebox full of rings and chains. I was working on a piece that had to be done that night and I told him I'd have his stuff for him the next night. Spilatro came up behind me while I'm sitting at the bench soldering a ring, grabbed the torch from my hand, grabbed the bottle of denatured alcohol from the bench and told me me he's going to basically turn me into a human strike-anywhere matchstick if I don't drop everything and pop the stones out of the rings and melt them down. He and his buddy sat there for the better part of two hours telling me how they were going to torch me in one sentence, then the next sentence he's asking me if I would like to open a shop and just do work for him and his friends, he would guarantee me $500 cash a week and all I would have to do is melt down gold jewelry and make stuff up for him and his friends.

The next day I was looking for a new job. I knew who Spilatro was from Chicago and I didn't want to do business with him or even have him know who I was. Then the next year, on July 4th he and four of his boys were caught after they broke into the Tower of Jewels in Commercial Center. I was the jeweler for the store at the time and was called in to identify pieces of jewelry he managed to get off my bench, along with several stones. When they called me up to the witness stand Spilatro immediately recognized me and gave me a smile and a wink. When I was asked if that was the jewelry on my bench at the time I just said "It looks similar" and that was enough to impeach my testimony and I was done. But they were found guilty anyway and I was off the hook.

But it was a bad time for everyone connected. Six of the big boys were being investigated in front of a Grand Jury who had testimony about their skimming business from the casinos in Vegas. This was the most dangerous time for anyone either connected, directly or indirectly, since they couldn't afford to have any damaging testimony. They'd just as soon kill you first.

And that's just what they had planned. Any names on the witness list were vulnerable to being killed before trial. On October 4th. 1982 I was finishing work at the store. At 6:45 a blast shook the window of the shop. I was there with the owner and we both thought it was a sonic boom from Nellis Air Force Base nearby. When I left the store I drove west down Sahara. Only two blocks from Commercial Center was Marie Calendar's Pie Shop and Restaurant where in the parking lot was a ring of Las Vegas fire trucks and an ambulance as well as several Metro police cars surrounding an El Dorado that was burned to a crisp. It wasn't until later that night on the 10 o'clock news that I found out that it was Spilatro's attempt to return Lefty Rosenthal back to the ashes he came from whilst sitting in his car. But the car bombing was unsuccessful since the 1981 Cadillac El Dorado just happened to have an extra steel plate between the engine and the driver's compartment that shielded Lefty from the initial blast and he pushed himself out of the car just before the gas tank blew, which managed to blow several windows out of the surrounding cars as well as Marie Calendar's. Then, the FBI offered Rosenthal the chance to turn on the mob by entering the witness protection program in return for testimony, but he refused. He learned from the mob that it was Spilatro who set up the hit. He made it look like a mob hit rather than his heavy handed approach. A month later Jeri was found dead from a drug overdose in a hotel in L.A., but Lefty believes it was the mob that had her drugged, since it came only two weeks before the mob's trial. But they couldn't get to Alan Glick, the Stardust owner. He received immunity in return for his testimony and from that trial the aging mob bosses are given stiff sentences.

That was the beginning of the end of old Las Vegas. But the mob had one last thing to clean up before going to jail. It was Spilatro and his loud mouth, heavy-handed ways that brought the attention of the FBI to Las Vegas and the mob in the first place. Had it not been for him the mob would most likely still be in Las Vegas, in part anyway. At least they believed that. He was the last one to testify and was out on $180,000 bail when he received a phone call from his boss in Chicago to come back to the city before the trial. They were going to get him and his brother Mike out of the country before his testimony put them all in the electric chair. They took the next flight out of Las Vegas. They were told to pack their stuff and they would meet their connection in Indiana that would take them into Canada and then on to Italy. When they reached the cornfield Mike was attacked first and beaten to death with a baseball bat while they made Tony watch. They then beat Tony almost to death and buried him, still alive. Two weeks later the bodies were found by a farmer.

Frank was much luckier. With the boys locked up and with the fact that Lefty was one of the only ones connected to the Vegas mob that didn't rat anyone out, he was given a reprieve. He re-married and moved to Boca Raton, Florida where he still resides as a sports handicapper. And although he was immediately put into the Gaming Commission's Black Book of excluded persons from casinos, as he said, "I'm capable of wearing a beard and mustache and sneaking into casinos in Vegas. I've been there plenty of times, and I still know my sports."

And now all the casinos are owned by huge corporations, thanks to Howard Hughes and blowhards like Steve Wynn who insists on slapping his name all over his properties. It wasn't these people that invented Las Vegas, it was the blood money of the Chicago mob that built Vegas and this was their story. I only hope there comes a day when people like Lefty Rosenthal are reprieved. A day when Lefty might step off a plane at McCarran Airport to the adulation of real Las Vegans who would welcome him back as a part of our "sinful" past. And maybe Wayne Newton could spare a little of his "Mister Las Vegas" title with the few "Lefty" Rosenthals that are still alive today who really did invent Las Vegas.

-Ken Pearlman