Columnist Jeff German: Gaming regulators adding pages to Black Book

JEFF GERMAN is a senior investigative reporter. His column also appears in the Las Vegas SUN on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He can be reached at 259-4067 or on the Internet at [email protected]

FROM the very day it came into being in 1960, Nevada's "List of Excluded Persons," or the Black Book as it is more commonly known, has attracted notoriety.

This is not the kind of exclusive club one takes pride in joining.

Today, 30 names, many well-known underworld figures, appear on the list. Once you've been "black-booked," you are banned for life from setting foot in Nevada casinos.

The objective of the book, which actually is silver in color, is to protect the gaming industry from criminal elements.

Sen. Harry Reid, who chaired the Nevada Gaming Commission from 1977 to 1981, says it's a matter of maintaining the industry's integrity.

"When we have people who are known organized crime types, and they're actively coming to Nevada, we should keep them out of the gaming establishments," he says

But not everyone believes the Black Book has value to the casino industry.

"It's not only unconstitutional, but it's un-American," Las Vegas attorney Oscar Goodman says. "I think that it's a publicity tool for gaming enforcement that has no relationship with reality.

"The people put in the book are those people who don't have any gaming violations, but whose last names end in vowels. And the people who are the cheats and the crooks in the casinos go on their merry way."

Over the last two decades, Goodman has challenged the constitutionality of the Black Book on several occasions, but each time he has come up short.

His most notorious cases involved such reputed underworld figures as Frank Rosenthal, Anthony Spilotro and Joey Cusumano. Spilotro's name was removed only after his 1986 gangland slaying outside Chicago.

The only person to escape induction after being nominated was the late mob associate Herbie Blitzstein. He was murdered in January 1997, one month after the state Gaming Control Board offered his name to the Gaming Commission.

To help keep track of the notorious figures, every casino is given a copy of the book, which contains photos, physical descriptions and other personal information about each member.

Since its inception in 1960, a total of 46 people, all convicted felons, have been listed in the Black Book. The names of 16 have been removed following their deaths.

Among those once named were the late Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana and the late Civella brothers, Nick and Carl, who ruled the Kansas City mob in the days when organized crime held hidden interests on the Las Vegas Strip.

Of the 11 original inductees in 1960, only reputed aging mob figures Marshall Caifano, 86, and Louis Dragna, 77, still are alive.

For the most part, the Black Book has accomplished its goal of safeguarding the industry from unsavory individuals.

But once in a while, a bad guy slips through the cracks.

Dennis Nikrasch -- the alleged mastermind of a slot cheating ring lawmen believe stole $6 million from Las Vegas casinos -- is one example.

Nikrasch, 56, and three others, including Eugene Bulgarino, who allegedly has Philadelphia mob ties, were arrested by FBI and state gaming agents earlier this month.

In 1986, Nikrasch was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a similar slot cheating scam that had bilked casinos out of $10 million.

At his sentencing, U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben called Nikrasch a "habitual criminal" who was not likely to be rehabilitated.

After serving about a third of his prison term, Nikrasch was released from prison in 1991.

He attracted little attention from authorities upon his return to Las Vegas until last November, when the FBI picked up on his latest jackpot rigging scheme.

State gaming agents now acknowledge they dropped the ball in pursuing him as a Black Book candidate.

"We were looking at him," Control Board Enforcement Chief Keith Copher says. "In retrospect, we should have gone forward, but we didn't."

Copher and his agents got a chance to make up for things by playing a key role in the FBI's criminal investigation of Nikrasch.

Ironically, Nikrasch now may never land in the Black Book.

The Control Board does not push candidates who are in prison. If they're behind bars, after all, they're no threat to the casino industry.

Nikrasch is likely to receive a lengthy jail term if convicted, which means he could be in prison the rest of his life.

Though the Nikrasch case has left gaming agents mildly embarrassed, the Control Board the past couple of years has been anything but lax in pursuing Black Book nominees.

In 1997, eight men of nefarious character were added to the exclusionary list, the most inducted in one year since 1960.

"We're trying to put more emphasis on the Black Book and make it more meaningful to the industry," Copher says. "There are people who are deserving to be in there, and we want to make sure we get them in."

Three cheaters -- including Ron Harris, the ex-Control Board computer whiz who went afoul of the law -- were among those blacklisted in 1997.

Copher says the board in recent years has tried to place a greater emphasis on nominating cheaters.

"They have just as dangerous an impact on the industry as organized crime figures," he explains.

The other five named to the Black Book last year all are reputed mobsters associated with crime families in Kansas City, New York and Los Angeles.

The highest ranking of the five, Anthony "Tony Ripe" Civella, is believed to be the boss of the Kansas City mob. Civella is the son of the late Carl Civella.

This year, two more mob associates, Peter Ribaste and Michael DiBari, were nominated for the Black Book. Both are awaiting hearings before the Nevada Gaming Commission this summer.

The Control Board, meanwhile, expects to keep up the pressure. It plans to nominate as many as a half-dozen more candidates by the end of the year.

The goal is to make the club a little less exclusive.

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