The infamous "Black Book" does indeed still exist. For its background, allow us to quote from/paraphrase a Question of the Day that ran back in November, 2008.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board's List of Excluded Persons, colloquially known as the "Black Book," was originally established in the wake of the U.S. Senate's Kefauver hearings of the early '50s –- the first concerted effort to expose and smash organized crime. The Black Book was first instituted in 1960 as a means of excluding from casinos those people deemed to be a threat to the casino business and, in the words of the Nevada Supreme Court, "avoiding any potentially significant criminal or corruptive taint and thus maintaining public confidence and trust in the gambling industry."
While the original book was said to have had a black binding, it's now bound in a silver cover* that bears the Nevada state seal. But it's still known as the Black Book, not least because of the blacklisted status of all those named in it.
Under state gaming law, anyone can be placed in the Black Book if he/she has a felony conviction; committed a crime involving moral turpitude or violated gaming laws in another state; failed to disclose an interest in a gaming establishment; willfully evaded paying taxes or fees; or has a "notorious or unsavory" reputation established through state or federal government investigations.
Originally, the process of placing someone on the list was an administrative function without due process, but nominees are now allowed to attend a public hearing to dispute their inclusion. (one of many bones of contention expressed by Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, portrayed by Robert De Niro in Casino, who criticized the hearing process in a 1999 interview with the Las Vegas Sun, complaining that "once you're nominated you're in. Forget about the hearing. It's a formality.") Once listed in the Black Book, if a person is caught entering a restricted gaming establishment they face a gross-misdemeanor charge. Exemptions include airports, bars, and stores with 15 slot machines or less and no gaming tables.
At its inception in 1960, and for the most part thereafter, the power of the Black Book has been directed primarily against those associated with organized crime. The first 11 names added were all reputed mobsters, mainly with ties to organized-crime syndicates in Chicago, L.A., and Kansas City. They included John Louis Battaglia, Marshal Caifano (who in ’62 unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of the list), Carl James Civella, Nicholas Civella, Michael Coppola, Louis Tom Dragna, Robert L. Garcia, Sam Giancana, Motl Grzebienacy, Murray Llewellyn Humphreys, and Joseph Sica.
After this initial flurry in 1960, three names were added in '65 and then no more for another decade. Tony "the Ant" Spilotro was added in 1978 and a couple of other reputed mobsters were included the following year. There then followed another huge lull until 1986, when John Vaccaro, the mastermind behind a massive slot-cheating syndicate and a member of a southern California organized-crime family, was added to the list. His wife Sandra Vaccaro was also included and remains the only woman ever to grace the pages of the Black Book.
In 1997 Ron Harris "made the grade," so to speak. A 12-year employee of the State Gaming Control Board, Harris was assigned to evaluate gaming devices, but was arrested in 1995 in New Jersey for using a computer program to win a $100,000 keno jackpot. He was later charged in Nevada for rigging slot machines to trigger jackpots in his home state -- you can read the full story in the QoD Archives (12/02/13), or catch it online in the "Slot Buster" episode of History Channel's 2005 "Breaking Vegas" series. As an interesting aside, after serving two years of a seven-year prison sentence, Ron was employed by this company as an IT tech for a number of years and remains both a personal friend and (in)famous guest of our former annual company New Year's party thanks to his signature -- and lethal -- "blue cocktail."
So, that was the current state of affairs when last we checked in on the Black Book -- *which now isn't a "book" at all but exists only online. A re-visitation indicated that the List of Excluded Persons was updated as recently as April 29, 2015 and we found three new names on it. One that we'd missed in the interim -- and which came as something of a surprise -- was that of Roderick William Dee II, a.k.a. "Rod the Hop" for the sleight-of-hand technique that was his signature move, and who was added in July 2013 for being a known cheat. The reason for the surprise was that the current writer actually interviewed Rod, in jail downtown, back in 1999 for a documentary titled "High Stakes: Bet Your Life on Vegas," narrated by Ray Liotta of Goodfellas fame. Rod absented himself from the Black Book a mere five months after his name had been added by the only means by which anyone, to date, has done so: He passed away Dec. 30, 2013, at Nathan Adelson Hospice, from complications arising from a four-year battle with cancer. (That does beg the question as to how much of a threat he'd posed to any casino in the preceding months). Dee's "partner in crime," Larry Keith Green, was added to the list in September 2013.
On August 21, 2014, Gary Frederick Young was also placed in the Black Book, for a range of offences including convictions for felony fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, possession of a cheating device, and cheating at gambling.
The newest entry is for a South African named Tasia McDonald Musa, who added on January 29 on this year following seven convictions and 19 additional arrests for grand larceny or attempted grand larceny, all occurring on the premises of licensed gaming establishments. As the blunt wording of the court record puts it, Musa "seems to be incapable of staying out of trouble in Nevada casinos." Like Young, he did not attend his hearing. Musa's inclusion brings the current total of Excluded Persons to 42.
As a post script, there's one individual currently included on the list who's campaigning to make history and have his name expunged before he dies. To quote his Black Book profile, "In 1986 [Francis] Citro was convicted, along with several other organized crime figures, of racketeering and other federal offenses centered around a large scale loansharking and illegal bookmaking operation. He also has five additional felony convictions. Citro appeared at his Black Book hearing wearing a tuxedo, telling commissioners, 'I've never been invited to join anything in my life, I just wanted to show the proper respect.'"
The record concludes with the statement that "Citro resides in Las Vegas," which is true -- you can find Frankie hanging out at the Italian American Club or The Tap House and promoting live-music events around town. For more information about his campaign to get out of the Black Book, check out this article in the LA Times. Should you happen to run into him, tell him the Brit. says hi -- just take it from one who knows and don't ask Frankie why he can't eat spicy food anymore...
