Columnist Jeff German: Banned in Missouri, but not here

Wednesday, March 2, 2005 | 10:55 a.m.

At 77, Carl " Tuffy" DeLuna doesn't get around as much as he used to during his days as the reputed underboss of the Kansas City mob.

Authorities say they haven't seen him in Las Vegas since he was released from federal prison in 1998. He served 12 years behind bars for his role in a massive scheme by Midwest crime families to skim profit from Strip casinos in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Lately, however, DeLuna has been spending time in Kansas City area casinos, which is why Missouri gaming regulators banned him last week from all gaming properties in the state.

Missouri's list of excluded persons, now totaling eight names, is patterned after Nevada's Black Book of "undesirables," which was created in 1960. The late bosses of the Kansas City mob, Nick Civella and his brother, Carl Civella, were original members of the Black Book. Their names were removed after they died.

At the moment there are 39 people barred from casinos in Nevada but, believe it or not, DeLuna isn't one of them. He seems to have slipped through the cracks.

"We don't have any information that he's been harmful to the industry at this point," says Keith Copher, the Gaming Control Board's chief of enforcement. "If information would be received, then it would be a consideration."

Nevada regulators haven't totally ignored DeLuna over the years.

The Control Board nominated him for exclusion in 1979 after his name surfaced in FBI wiretaps that detailed the mob's influence on the Strip. Mafia families in Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Cleveland were diverting profit back to the Midwest from several casinos, including the Stardust and Tropicana.

Regulators, however, never acted on DeLuna's nomination during the high-profile FBI probe, which eventually resulted in skimming indictments in Kansas City of DeLuna and most of the top Mafia bosses in the Midwest. By the time of DeLuna's 1986 conviction, he still wasn't in the Black Book.

Then in 1989 the Control Board withdrew his nomination.

Bill Bible, who chaired the board at the time, was quoted as saying it didn't make sense to proceed against DeLuna because the underworld figure was serving a lengthy prison term and unable to come to Nevada.

But in 1996 gaming agents noticed the K.C. mob had stepped up its presence in Las Vegas again.

Several ranking members of the crime family, including its new reputed boss, Anthony Civella (the son of Carl Civella), were observed making frequent trips to the Strip. One suspected family member, William Cammisano Jr., was even getting comped at a well-known resort.

It didn't take long for gaming regulators to place the names of Civella and Cammisano in the Black Book. Both were banned from casinos in early 1997.

DeLuna was still in prison at the time. But when he was released a year later, the Control Board made no effort to bar him, too.

For nearly seven years he received little scrutiny from authorities until Missouri regulators decided last week that he posed a threat to their casino industry.

Don't expect DeLuna to lose much sleep over his misfortune in Missouri -- as long as he's still welcome in Nevada.