Casino boss Bennett dies

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1997 | 10:39 a.m.

Charles Augustus "Chuck" Bennett, a Las Vegas casino boss who worked for such gaming giants as Bugsy Siegel and Wilbur Clark, has died. He was 83.

Services will be private for the 58-year Las Vegas resident who died Sunday at Nathan Adelson Hospice. Interment will be in Bunker Memory Gardens Mausoleum.

In addition to working at Siegel's Flamingo and Clark's Desert Inn in the 1940s, Bennett worked at the Sands and Dunes in the 1950s.

Bennett served on the Clark County Planning Commission from 1963-68 and ran for state treasurer in 1970 and the Clark County Commission District E in 1978.

As co-chairman of the the March of Dimes, Bennett helped bring the first iron lung to Clark County. He was a charter member of the Las Vegas Municipal Golf Course, now known as the Las Vegas Golf Club.

Born Aug. 20, 1914, in Gary, Ind., Bennett was a veteran of the Coast Guard.

A 32nd degree Mason, he was a member of Kerak Temple and the Shrine Crippled Children's Hospital.

Bennett came to Las Vegas in 1939 and later on got a job as a pit boss at the Flamingo. He eventually became shift boss at the Desert Inn.

Bennett is survived by a stepson, Bill Wade, of Mount Charleston, and a stepdaughter, Susan Wade, of Seattle, Wash.