Gambling's Adult Western

If by "what is it really like?" you mean you have heard rumors about sinister connections between certain Strip hotels and the archracketeers Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello and Phil Kastel, first note what the State Supreme Court has said:

"For gambling to take its place as a lawful enterprise in Nevada, it is not enough that this state has named it lawful. We have but offered it the opportunity for lawful existence. The offer is a risky one, not only for the people of this state, but for the entire nation. Organized crime must not be given refuge here through the legitimatizing of one of its principal sources of income."

Says William Sinnott, acting chairman of the Gaming Control Board:

"We diligently scrutinize each individual who comes in here for a license. He is further scrutinized publicly—with the press there—when his license comes up for both preliminary and final approval. Once he gets his license, there is a constant audit and investigative program going on.

"Actually, the gaming setup operates in a goldfish bowl. It isn't anywhere near as mysterious as people think. Sure, there are constant rumors of hoods, and when there are we move quickly under the breadth of the law to run these rumors down. Invariably, there is absolutely no proof.

"The license-holders have millions of dollars invested here. Do you think they are going to jeopardize that? They are as much concerned about preserving their investment as we are about preserving the state. They don't want hoods in their operation any more than we do.

" Costello, Kastel and Lansky were all either directly or indirectly here for a while—and they left."

It is well known, of course, that the late, reprobate Bugsy Siegel controlled The Strip's Flamingo hotel at the time he was rubbed out, in 1947. As a consequence of the scandal attached, Nevada moved to clamp down on hoodlum interests for the first time under a sweeping new code, which placed over-all responsibility for control with the Tax Commission (this to be transferred in July to a new Gaming Commission, which will include two former FBI men) and investigative duties with the Control Board.

As for Dandy Phil Kastel, the racketeer whose name is most often bruited about nowadays in connection with Las Vegas, it was discovered that he had invested $320,000 in the swank Tropicana when it was to be licensed, in 1957. The Control Board told the other investors that a license would not be issued until Kastel was out, and the other investors bought up his interest.

In sum, Las Vegas seems to have been scrubbed reasonably clean, under a code which makes gambling legal and boldly lays it down that honest gambling cannot be had without the unlawfully acquired experience of many of its operators and most of the casino employees.