When Fulgencio Batista returned to power as president in Cuba in 1952, he aimed to foster a gambling empire from which he could generate revenue for his coffers. To facilitate casino development, he and his administration:

• Restricted gambling licenses to hotels or nightclubs worth $1 million or more

• Waived taxes, which were as high as 70%, on all building materials imported for new hotels

• Deemed all casino pit bosses, stickmen and dealers to be skilled technicians, so they’d qualify for entry into Cuba under two-year visas versus the typical six-month ones afforded to incoming workmen

• Subsidized construction costs of new hotels

Government-backed banks provided $6 million of the $14 million to construct the Havana Riviera, for instance. The pension fund of the Catering Workers Union of Cuba provided most of the $24 million for the Havana Hilton. Casino operators typically leased space for their operations from the hotel owners; a rate of $1 million per year was typical.

Consequently, lavish hotel and casino construction boomed, as did the gambling business. Cuba became what Mexico had been during Prohibition — a playground for wealthy Americans.

“Havana’s casinos are elegant salons with expensive chandeliers, brocade draperies and a mink-stole clientele … At the roulette tables the smallest chips are a quarter. At the craps tables they are a dollar — but nobody who really amounts to anybody thinks of betting less than a $5 chip,” described LIFE magazine (March 10, 1958).

Government taxes on the new casinos “were set ridiculously low: $25,000 for a license plus 20 percent of the profits,” LIFE reported. While this was the official cost, the true under-the-table fee was $250,000. “And no one has even tried to guess how big a cut the politicians demand at the end of the month.”

Further, Batista’s brother-in-law, Roberto Fernandez y Miranda, had a monopoly on the country’s slot machines from which he collected half the profits.

Las Vegas Gamblers Want In

Despite the corruption in Cuba (or perhaps because of it), eight Nevada licensees perceived an opportunity to make money by capitalizing on Havana’s gambling trend and dropped at least $400,000 into casinos there.

• Owner Wilbur Clark and associates, Thomas McGinty, Moe Dalitz and Morris Kleinmann, of the Desert Inn in Las Vegas leased space adjoining the Hotel Nacional de Cuba in which they opened and operated a $1 million casino called Wilbur Clark’s Casino International.

• Hy Abrams, owner, and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, investor, in the Sands in Las Vegas, and Jack Davis, investor in the Fremont hotel-casino in Las Vegas held a share of the Havana Riviera casino.

• Clifford Jones, co-owner of the Thunderbird hotel in Las Vegas, owned an interest in the Havana Hilton’s casino.

For these men, their investments were ultra-high risk and tenuous, as government depravity was rampant and political strife was high in Cuba.

“For the gamblers, the one completely unknown factor is the position of Batista himself,” LIFE noted. “If he fell from power, the gambling mob would have to make a whole new set of deals with a different bunch of politicians. The gambling trade might slow down.”

Sources

Casino International in Haiti

1959

In February, The New York Times outed Clifford A. Jones. It brought to light that he held gambling interests in and out of Nevada, which The Silver State’s gaming law then prohibited.

It was no secret that Jones owned shares in the Thunderbird, Palace Club, Golden Nugget and Lucky Strike casinos in Las Vegas.

What The Silver State’s gambling regulators didn’t know and learned from the newspaper story was that Jones co-owned the Casino International in Haiti and planned to open three more gambling houses, the first in Aruba, then Puerto Rico and Jamaica.

The year before, the state mandated that all licensees with casino interests both in and out of Nevada choose one or the other locale or risk losing their Nevada gambling license. At that time, Jones indicated he’d stay domestic and divest his only international holding — the Havana Hilton in Cuba.

Law, Politics, Gambling

Jones was an attorney with the law firm Jones & Wiener and had represented several major Las Vegas casinos. He also had been the state lieutenant governor from 1947 through 1954.

“In a town [Las Vegas] built on ‘juice,’ or connections, Jones’s nickname was ‘the Big Juice.’ He was at the center of an ecosystem in which mob money guys, state officials and earnest gamblers moved with ease,” wrote David Schwartz in Grandissimo: The First Emperor of Las Vegas, a book about Jay J. Sarno, the mastermind behind Caesars Palace and Circus Circus.

The State Reacts

Upon learning the content of the Times piece, Nevada Governor Grant Sawyer asked gaming investigators to determine whether or not it was factual. It was.

Also true was that Jones still owned his gambling interest in Cuba! Getting out of it perhaps wasn’t easy or even possible, as it might not have been up to him. Jones was believed to be the front man of that casino for powerful, big-time mobsters, Meyer Lansky and Abner “Longie” Zwillman, the real principals.

In March, gambling regulators ordered Jones to show cause why he shouldn’t lose his Nevada gambling license.

Jones Chooses Again

At the hearing he confirmed he remained financially involved in at least two casinos outside of Nevada. Jones agreed to disengage from the Havana Hilton by March 21 but asserted he’d continue as a proprietor of the International Casino in Haiti.

Given Jones’ stance, presumably the state informed the gambler he’d have to forfeit his ownership in the Las Vegas casinos.

By July, the Nevada gambler had done just that. He’d:

• Sold his 2.3 percent holding in the Lucky Strike to Monte Bernstein
• Sold his 16 percent ownership of the Thunderbird to Joe Wells
• Sold his interest in the company that operated the Silver Palace also to Joe Wells
• Transferred his 12,500 shares of Golden Nugget stock to G.C. “Buck” Blaine

Jones finally had made good on his promise, albeit a revised one.

Sources