U.S. FBI seal

1970-1975

In a massive, coordinated effort, federal agents raided illegal bookmaking operations throughout the U.S. with ties to organized crime.

On December 12, 1970, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents struck in 11 states and 26 cities, including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, Miami Beach, six in Ohio and five in Georgia. The feds served 160 search warrants and made 27 arrests.

Mobsters Wanted

In Nevada, the Feds targeted Caesars Palace and the Rose Bowl Sports Book in Sin City. The following men were arrested, among others, for allegedly running an illegal sports book, in connection with the nation’s top bookmakers, between Palm Springs, California and Las Vegas. They were charged with violating interstate gambling laws.

• Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, Rose Bowl Sports Book manager and alleged Chicago Outfit member

• Jerome Zarowitz, former Caesars Palace casino manager and reputed mob associate in partnership with the New York Genovese and Boston Patriarca crime families

• Elliot Paul Price, Caesars Palace casino host and alleged Patriarca crime family associate

• Sanford Waterman, executive vice president of Caesars Palace

When FBI agents raided Caesars Palace, they seized about $1.6 million in $100 bills (about $9.9 million today), mostly from Zarowitz’s lockboxes kept at the casino, the rest from those of Price and Waterman.

Watertight Case … Or Not

With the defendants free on bond, a trial was set, and the defendants retained attorney Oscar Goodman to represent them.

“The case hinged on wiretap information, which solidly established the multi-state connections and the activity of the group. In short, they were dead,” Goodman said in Of Rats and Men, John L. Smith’s biography of the attorney who later became Las Vegas’ mayor.

In prepping for the case, Goodman noticed an irregularity on the wiretap authorization, that someone other than U.S. Attorney General (AG) John Mitchell had signed his name. The defense attorney later determined the assistant AG had signed for his boss, which is illegal.

On that basis, Goodman requested the court dismiss the case. It did, but an appeal followed.

Ultimately, in late 1975, District Court Judge Roger Foley ended the saga for good. He determined the federal government hadn’t exhausted all other investigative avenues before they’d resorted to bugging and that made the wiretap evidence inadmissible.  Without it, prosecutors didn’t have a case.

“Every defendant walked away without a scratch from the biggest federal assault on the national bookmaking syndicate since the Roaring ’20s,” Smith wrote in Of Rats and Men.

Sources

1941

In an override of Governor Edward Carville’s veto, Nevada legislators legalized bookmaking.

The law explained that “the receiving of bets or wagers on horse races held without the state of Nevada shall be deemed to be a gambling game,” thereby making it permissible for those with a gambling license to take such bets on such events.

1861-present

Since becoming a U.S. territory, Nevada has undergone periods of full, partial and no legalization of gambling. Here’s a timeline of what types of games of chance legislators allowed or disallowed and when:

1861: GAMBLING ABOLISHED: The initial Nevada Territorial Legislature banned the dealing, running, opening, conducting or playing of any game of faro, monte, roulette, lansquenet or rouge et noir or any banking game (where the player bets against the house) played with cards, dice or any other device for anything of value.

1865: Anti-gaming law reiterated: In the first legislative session after Nevada joined the Union in 1864, lawmakers replaced the territorial law with a state statute outlining a similar ban.

1869: Gaming partially legalized: Nevada legalized only the games outlawed in 1861 and mandated operators be licensed.

1873: Lotteries prohibited: Lawmakers banned lotteries, which were defined as any scheme for the disposal or distribution of property, by chance, among paying players.

1875: Additional games legalized: The legislature approved keno, fantan, 21, Diana, and red white and blue.

1885: Legal/illegal games changed: An amendment allowed stud-horse poker, or percentage, with a license. It outlawed roulette.

1901: Slots deemed illegal: The state prohibited the playing or offering of nickel-in-the-slot machines or similar devices.

1903: Bookmaking allowed with license: A new act made it legal, with appropriate licensure, to engage in, conduct or carry on any bookmaking on horse races, prize fights or any games conducted outside of the state.

1905: Slots deemed legal: The state repealed the anti-slots law, thereby legalizing them with required licensure.

1910: GAMBLING ABOLISHED: The anti-gambling act went into effect at midnight Sept. 30, 1910. It disallowed all gambling mentioned in prior acts and amendments along with tan, fantan, seven and a half, hokey pokey, craps, klondike, whist, bridge whist, five hundred, solo and frog.  It also forbade any gambling games in which the operator, for making the game available, received compensation or reward or a share of the money or property wagered. It banned offering or playing slot machines along with all kinds of bookmaking.

1915: Some gambling excepted: The legislature legalized poker; stud-horse poker; five hundred; solo; whist; parimutuel betting on horse races; slot machines for the sales of cigars and drinks; and social games only played for drinks and cigars served individually or prizes up to $2 in value.

“Gambling on casino or old maid is a serious crime, a felony,” noted the Nevada State Journal (Sept. 28, 1930). “But on poker or solo or whist it is all right. Betting on a dog race is felonious, but the same bet on a horse race is clothed with the sanctity of the law.”

1931: WIDE-OPEN GAMBLING LEGALIZED: Lawmakers passed a liberal gaming law that remains in effect today, which legalized all forms of gambling except lotteries and which required licensing of operators. Along with slot machines, the law listed the approved games: faro, monte, roulette, keno, fantan, twenty-one (blackjack), seven and a half, big injun, klondike, craps, stud poker and draw poker. The law permitted slot machines; any banking or percentage game played with cards, dice or any mechanical device or machine; and any game in which the operator receives compensation or reward. It also removed the rules surrounding social games.

Sources

Pasadena, California in 1945

1948

When Pasadena, California vice squad officers got a tip that chef/restaurant owner Paul B. Weston, 56, was sidelining as an illegal bookie, they raided his home and found gambling paraphernalia — where else? — under the stove.

And, sealing Weston’s fate, while the police were in his residence, they fielded 10 phone calls to Weston in which the callers, unaware they were speaking to the law, asked for betting information. Weston was arrested.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons/The National Archives