Las Vegas history question

One thing that adds spice to Las Vegas is the knowledge that until not too long ago, the mob ran the town and its casinos, and with an iron fist.

I've heard about how many folks were killed and buried by mobsters in the desert outside of town.

My question: assuming the murders did indeed occur, were the deceased always fellow mobsters, or were gamblers victims as well?

having worked quite extensively for the mob and grew up around it, I would say mostly fellow mobsters.

OK, thanks.

I was wondering what they did if they caught a player cheating in their casino, especially a degenerate who'd already been warned: something beyond being backroomed, I'd imagine.

Tough question. Just guessing maybe, probably. How about the video poker scandal with the royals not hitting? That guy was shot but allegedly not shot for cheating, but for testifying about cheating. Close enough.

Quote: MrV

OK, thanks.

I was wondering what they did if they caught a player cheating in their casino, especially a degenerate who'd already been warned: something beyond being backroomed, I'd imagine.

Quote: ontariodealer

having worked quite extensively for the mob and grew up around it, I would say mostly fellow mobsters.

Wrong.
Usually the bodies in the desert were fellow DEALERS who were talking to the DA about making a deal to save themselves from jail and poverty.

For quite some time a few BJ tables at a number of casinos were running in the red on the second swing shift. Now there ain't no way BJ tables can disgorge chips on the second swing shift. Maybe when there are crowds all around or something but it had to be collusion between dealers and players, that much the green eye shade types knew.

It was a hollow sleeve. A whole stack of red chips but only a bit oversized in diameter, red chip on top, red chip appearing on the side. Nothing to alarm the eye in the sky. Nothing to alarm the sleepy Pit Boss from across the Pit. All those at the table probably were in on it but on that shift, the place is dead.

Dealers were taking a "stack of red chips" and paying a winning bet to a customer. Nothing wrong with that. Unless of course you know its a hollow sleeve containing a stack of black chips inside it. Twenty black chips going out is alot, keep it up all night. Yeah, no wonder the green eye shade types finally realized something is rotten in Denmark but only on the second swing shift.

Trouble is alot of those dealers did not want to keep quiet and do their time, they wanted to talk. The DA wanted them to talk, the casino owners wanted them to talk. The fellow dealers didn't want them to talk, the ringleaders didn't want them to talk, the shills "didn't sign on for this". Things were getting too hot. Tapes were being carefully examined. Lives were being ruined and some people were really upset.

And so bodies started showing up in the desert and the headlines. Lots of them. This was oh..late sixties. There was a record breaking heat wave in Vegas and a record breaking number of bodies being disinterred and I was a dumb kid just off the plane and wandering around downtown without having made a hotel reservation for a ten dollar room at the Four Queens.

I don't want to derail the thread but do want to add that I tried to find The Gambler's Book Store and like any tourist I was walking there...stopped to talk to a homeowner who was rigging barbed wire around his garage to keep out weekend burglars. When I asked him about the book club he said 'what you doin' walking. I'll call you a taxi and give you twenty dollars for it. And where is your water bottle?"

Quote: FleaStiff

Wrong.
Usually the bodies in the desert were fellow DEALERS who were talking to the DA about making a deal to save themselves from jail and poverty.

For quite some time a few BJ tables at a number of casinos were running in the red on the second swing shift. Now there ain't no way BJ tables can disgorge chips on the second swing shift. Maybe when there are crowds all around or something but it had to be collusion between dealers and players, that much the green eye shade types knew.

It was a hollow sleeve. A whole stack of red chips but only a bit oversized in diameter, red chip on top, red chip appearing on the side. Nothing to alarm the eye in the sky. Nothing to alarm the sleepy Pit Boss from across the Pit. All those at the table probably were in on it but on that shift, the place is dead.

Dealers were taking a "stack of red chips" and paying a winning bet to a customer. Nothing wrong with that. Unless of course you know its a hollow sleeve containing a stack of black chips inside it. Twenty black chips going out is alot, keep it up all night. Yeah, no wonder the green eye shade types finally

realized something is rotten in Denmark but only on the second swing shift.

Trouble is alot of those dealers did not want to keep quiet and do their time, they wanted to talk. The DA wanted them to talk, the casino owners wanted them to talk. The fellow dealers didn't want them to talk, the ringleaders didn't want them to talk, the shills "didn't sign on for this". Things were getting too hot. Tapes were being carefully examined. Lives were being ruined and some people were really upset.

And so bodies started showing up in the desert and the headlines. Lots of them. This was oh..late sixties. There was a record breaking heat wave in Vegas and a record breaking number of bodies being disinterred and I was a dumb kid just off the plane and wandering around downtown without having made a hotel reservation for a ten dollar room at the Four Queens.

thats interesting, the world where i'm from (not vegas) they would hardly ever eliminate others...and when they had to they used bikers not their own.