In December, Law and Social Inquiry, the journal of the American Bar Foundation, will publish an article on Nevada's Black Book by two criminal justice professors at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "Denunciation and the Illusion of Social Control: The Case of The Nevada Black Book" is authored by Carole Case and Ronald A. Farrell.
In Nevada, individuals are excluded from casinos when their names have been listed in what is popularly called the Black Book. As a state regulatory procedure, the Black Book is aimed at excluding organized crime figures from the gaming industry. Among those who have been listed in the Book are reputed Chicago mob associates Sam Giancana, Anthony Spilotro, and Frank Larry Rosenthal, the latter two of whose Las Vegas activities are the subject of the new movie "Casino."
Farrell and Case are also authors of "The Black Book and The Mob: The Untold Story of the Control of Nevada's Casinos," a book just published by the University of Wisconsin Press in which they detail the backgrounds and alleged illicit activities of the Black Book figures and the political, economic, and moral factors that impelled their exclusion from Nevada gaming.
This work comes at a time when the nation's politicians have called for a panel to study gambling, including the effectiveness of law enforcement in controlling crime in the industry, which is exactly what Nevada's Black Book is intended to accomplish.
But Farrell and Case argue that the Black Book is largely symbolic, as well as discriminatory in its application. They contend that the drama and denunciation surrounding the procedure are meant to imply to the public that gaming is legitimate and the regulators can control organized crime in the gaming industry. This enables the preservation of powerful financial interests in gaming, Farrell and Case say, although the state contends that it is intended to protect the public welfare.
Mafia stereotypes and conflicts among competing organized crime groups have also been driving forces behind the Black Book, according to the authors. The result is that those who are excluded from gaming are remarkably similar -- the majority are Italian and associated with organized crime in Chicago and Kansas City. Interestingly, Farrell and Case say, these were the losers in the battle to obtain control of gambling in Nevada. The winners (who gained legitimacy and became casino owners over the years) were members of competing non-Italian groups from New York and Cleveland. These groups' victories were aided as regulators licensed them preferentially and acted to keep the former competing organized crime groups out.
Further complicating the picture, they say, are the many corporate interests that have emerged out of former organized crime activities, and that have also vied for power in the industry. Certain of these corporate interests, the authors say, have also become winners in the ongoing struggle as they, too, have established themselves as legitimate and have influenced the control of gambling.
Thus, according to Farrell and Case, the Black Book blacklisted only certain organized crime figures and forbade them any involvement in casinos. While apparently no more criminal than many of their more businesslike counterparts, those whose names have been placed in the Book tend to be caricatures of the mafia stereotype.
