Panel told no mob in LV gaming

Friday, Sept. 11, 1998 | 10:38 a.m.

BILOXI, Miss. -- The National Gambling Impact Study Commission was told Thursday that Nevada casinos for the most part are free of the mob's influence.

"Organized crime infiltration of the casino industry is a shadow of what it once was," said Jay Albanese, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor who is an expert on the mob and gambling.

Albanese, author of several books on organized crime, told the nine-member commission that the emergence of corporate America in the casino industry has helped drive away the mob.

"The immense size of these companies and their attention to stock prices, public image and the regulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, make it easier for them to resist attempts at organized crime infiltration," Albanese said.

Douglas Seay, the federal commission's top researcher, testified that the new corporate image has given the industry a "clean bill of health."

In a 14-page overview on gambling and crime, Seay said big corporations are immune from the traditional intimidation tactics the mob has used to infiltrate casinos.

Tough gaming regulations in Nevada and New Jersey also have restricted organized crime's movement inside the casino industry, he said.

These developments, which have occurred over a period of years, have erased the longtime perception that Las Vegas once was a major source of revenue for the nation's crime families," Seay said.

Las Vegas helped create that image, but Hollywood and the media enhanced it, Seay added.

Thursday's testimony from the experts here confirmed what law enforcement authorities in Nevada have been saying for a long time.

The industry's transformation has taken place over the last 15 years, where there have been no cases of widespread casino skimming reported on the Las Vegas Strip.

After the hearing, casino leaders welcomed the remarks of the experts.

"Clearly, Nevada, through the regulatory process both on the federal level and the state level, has had a dramatic success over the decades in rooting out organized crime in the gaming industry," said Jim Mulhall, vice president of governmental relations for the Nevada Resort Association.

John Wilhelm, president of the international Culinary Union, and a member of the commission, agreed:

"I think the hearing simply confirms what all of us who follow the industry know to be true, and that is the days of organized crime's involvement in the gaming industry, whether it's through ownership or unions, or any other way are long gone," Wilhelm said. "That's to all of our benefit. "

Wilhelm made a point of telling his fellow commissioners during's Seay's testimony that his union, which represents hotel industry workers in Nevada and across the country, has been found to have no mob influence following an exhaustive inquiry by a special federal monitor.

But the experts cautioned that law enforcement officials must remain vigilant over businesses that feed off the casino industry.

"These vendors must be screened carefully and continuously for links to organized crime," Albanese said.

Seay explained that the mob hasn't stopped trying to infiltrate casinos in new jurisdictions.

Those communities, he said, can combat such a threat by creating regulatory schemes similar to Nevada's and New Jersey's, he said.

Today, the federal commission was to wrap up its discussion of crime and gambling, as it resumed its hearing in New Orleans.

The panel's next hearing will be in Las Vegas in November.