The specter of organized crime that once haunted Nevada gaming is a ghost of the past, according to an unprecedented year-long review by the state Gaming Control Board.
"We couldn't find any significant threat to the gaming industry," Ron Asher, chief of the board's Enforcement Division, said of the report. "The regulatory system is alive and well."Bill Bible, chairman of the Control Board, was a bit more cautious.
"I would not sound the death knell for organized crime in Nevada," Bible told the Las Vegas Sun.
As the FBI and Las Vegas Metro Police continue to probe underworld activity, law-enforcement officials believe organized crime figures still work the streets of Las Vegas.
Asher's review found that about two dozen people with past mob associations - from dealers to upper-management executives - work in the industry. But Asher said gaming enforcement officials "couldn't find any indication that they're involved in illegal activity or have a major impact on the industry."
Bible agreed the mob is no longer a player in the core of the casino industry.
"Today, they're on the outside trying to cheat casinos, rather than skimming from the inside," Bible said.
As late as 1984, a controversial Metro Police intelligence report called mob infiltration the "single greatest threat" to the state's economic well-being.
The turnaround began about the same time, as federal, state and local police saw the fruits of a massive Mafia crackdown in Las Vegas. Most of the Midwest mafia bosses who oversaw skimming operations at Las Vegas casinos were convicted on racketeering charges and imprisoned. Before that, the publicity generated by federal wiretaps on the crime bosses allowed the state to yank the licenses of those who had assisted in the mob's racketeering operations on the Strip.
In June 1986, the Chicago mob, the most active crime family in Las Vegas, abruptly curtailed its operations following the gangland slaying of its Las Vegas overlord, Anthony Spilotro.
From there, state gaming agents took over.
In recent years, background investigations on prospective licensees have become more sophisticated while credit transactions are more tightly monitored.
"It's more difficult to come into Las Vegas with suitcases full of money and launder it," Asher said. Casinos now must report all business transactions above $10,000.
The new corporate mentality of casinos also has stymied the mob. Most casinos today are public companies that must adhere to strict Securities and Exchange Commission regulations. And it's more difficult for the mob to infiltrate a public corporation than a private concern.
A couple of years ago, Asher said, one organized-crime family tried to get into the industry through the normal licensing process. The mobsters applied for a license to operate a privately owned casino on the Strip, but they quickly abandoned the effort.
"They came in and saw the licensing process and found they couldn't get into the core of the industry," Asher said.
All applicants are required to disclose whether they have a criminal history, whether they've ever been subpoenaed before any law-enforcement agencies and whether they've ever been sued.
In the past decade, the Control Board has reached across jurisdictional lines.
"We just couldn't do it ourselves," said Asher, a 21-year FBI veteran before joining the Control Board. "We don't have the statutory authority to do everything."
The Control Board, for example, has come to rely on the FBI in tracing illegal bookmaking rings to the mob. Most bookmaking cases are broken through the use of wiretaps. The board doesn't have wiretapping powers.
About 15 years ago, the Control Board wasn't even considered a bona fide law-enforcement agency in the eyes of the FBI. As a result, the FBI shied away from sharing information with the board. But the Legislature beefed up the board's authority and since then, cooperation with the FBI has improved dramatically.
Meantime, casinos - increasingly answering to shareholders and recognizing a need to prove business integrity - sought better cooperation with regulators. Many gambling halls began to hire former police to run their security departments.
The media have also played a role by periodically focusing attention on the underworld.
Though agents believe they have erased the mob's influence on the Strip, they acknowledge they know little about the extent of other less traditional forms of organized crime.
That includes Southern California youth gangs that have pulled off a series of casino heists in Nevada.
Asher said his agency also has found it difficult to keep tabs on the influence of the growing Asian and Russian mobs.
"At this point, what is blatantly obvious to me from our study is that we don't know much about the other groups," Asher said.
"We need to increase our capabilities at all levels of enforcement toward non-traditional organized crime," Bible said.
Asher said the mob study also showed the Control Board needs authority to regulate lucrative sports information services, which often deal with illegal bookmakers.
Nevada's Black Book, though it has only 25 members, has been an effective tool in limiting the mob's hold on the Strip, Asher said.
New Jersey, by contrast, has roughly six times the number on its exclusionary list. It also has three times more agents monitoring Atlantic City's dozen casinos. Nevada has 82 agents and more than 200 casinos.
On the whole, Asher said, the regulatory process has been extremely effective in recent years.
"I really and honestly believe that it's a different industry out there," he said.