Club owner to fight Black Book inclusion

Monday, Oct. 23, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Sam Cecola, founder of a topless dancing club in Las Vegas, has served notice he will fight an effort to include his name in the Black Book, which would bar him from Nevada casinos.

Cecola, through his lawyer, Dominic Gentile, has filed a request for a hearing before the state Gaming Commission to argue that he should not be the list of persons excluded from casinos.

He was nominated in September for the Black Book by the state Gaming Control Board. His motion for a hearing starts the process of each side filing briefs. And a hearing will be set later.

In 1997, Cecola was sentenced to 46 months in a federal prison for his convictions on one count of defrauding the IRS and five counts of filing false income tax returns.

The government alleged he and his associates skimmed in excess of $2.5 million from adult bookstores in Illinois and Wisconsin over an 11-year period.

To preserve his liquor license at the Club Paradise in Las Vegas, he agreed to transfer his majority ownership to his wife, Geralyn, and to never enter the business or be involved in its operation.

But Metro police said telephone records revealed Cecola talked with his wife about the club operations. Despite the objections of Metro, the Clark County Commission voted in February last year to award the wife a license.

Cecola was released from prison in May and lives in Barrington, Ill.