KVIG Informative

Nevada gaming regulators refused a casino manager a license in 1976, citing his criminal record and testimony about corruption. It took another decade of federal investigation to prove the company that employed him was a front for organized crime — and the licensing power regulators used against him in 1976 is still the tool the state leans on to pull licenses today.

Businessman Allen R. Glick received his first Nevada gaming license in 1974 and used a $62.7 million loan from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund to buy the Stardust and Fremont hotel-casinos, according to UNLV Special Collections’ Southern Nevada Jewish Community Digital Heritage Project. Glick’s company, Argent Corporation, also came to control the Hacienda and Marina casinos, the same source states.

Frank Rosenthal ran Argent’s day-to-day casino operations without holding a gaming license himself, serving instead as executive consultant to the company’s board chairman, according to the Nevada Supreme Court’s 1977 opinion in State v. Rosenthal. The Nevada Gaming Commission found he significantly influenced gaming policy at Argent’s properties and, in January 1975, directed him to apply for a license as a key employee, the opinion states.

The Gaming Control Board and Gaming Commission each held hearings in early 1976 and voted unanimously to deny Rosenthal’s application, the Nevada Supreme Court opinion states. The commission’s denial cited a North Carolina conviction for bribery conspiracy, testimony about an attempted bribery of an athlete, statements from police officers about corruption of public officials, and Rosenthal’s exclusion from Florida horse-racing operations, according to the same opinion. Rosenthal challenged the denial in district court and won there, but the Nevada Supreme Court reversed that ruling on Feb. 3, 1977, upholding the commission’s broad discretion over gaming licensing.

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While Rosenthal’s license fight played out, Argent’s casinos were already being skimmed. Carl Wesley Thomas devised the skimming process for Argent’s counting rooms, using methods that included stealing coins from the slot department, converting them to bills and stealing the bills, along with direct theft from counting boxes, according to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in United States v. Cerone.

Rosenthal supervised the skimming of gambling proceeds from the Stardust and Fremont, and the money moved from Las Vegas to Chicago before being distributed among organized-crime groups in Kansas City, Cleveland and Chicago, the same appellate opinion states. Kansas City figure Carl DeLuna kept records of the transactions, according to the opinion.

The FBI raided Glick’s Stardust offices in the summer of 1978, according to UNLV Special Collections. A four-month federal trial followed, and on Oct. 8, 1987, the 8th Circuit affirmed convictions of five men — Joseph Aiuppa, John Peter Cerone, Joseph Lombardo, Angelo LaPietra and Milton Rockman — on conspiracy and Travel Act charges tied to concealed interests in the Argent casinos, the appellate opinion states. Aiuppa and Cerone were sentenced to 20 1/2 years, Lombardo and LaPietra to 16 years, and Rockman to 24 years, each with an $80,000 fine, according to the same source.

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Glick sold Argent Corporation to Trans-Sterling Corporation in December 1979 and returned to real estate work in California, according to UNLV Special Collections. The skimming operation had run from early 1974 until the sale, the 8th Circuit opinion states.

Nevada’s gaming regulators still use the licensing authority the Nevada Supreme Court upheld in the Rosenthal case. The Nevada Gaming Control Board maintains an active list of license denials, findings of unsuitability and revocations under NRS 463.174, and a Board notice shows the Nevada Gaming Commission revoked Scott Martin Sibella’s gaming license and finding of suitability on Dec. 19, 2024, according to Board records.

The Rosenthal ruling did not stop the skimming already underway at the Stardust — that took an FBI raid and a decade of federal prosecution to unwind. What it did was give Nevada regulators a legal foothold to keep unlicensed operators out of casino management in the first place, one state gaming officials still lean on every time they add a name to that list.