No 'black book' to keep scammers out of New York casinos
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ALBANY – Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano is among hundreds of mobsters, cheats and other nefarious figures on “black book”-type exclusion lists barring their presence from casinos from Atlantic City to Las Vegas.
But if the one-time Gambino crime family underboss ambled into a casino in New York, the state where the notorious Cosa Nostra canary built an underworld resume that included 19 murders, he could be dealt in at the blackjack table – along with "Baby Shanks," "Skinny Joey" and "Dicky Boy."
That's because the New York Gaming Commission has a list of excluded persons that excludes no one. The commission lets individual casinos compile their own lists of excluded individuals even as its own list is barren.
“At present there’s no one on the list,” the commission’s spokesman, Brad Maione, told the Times Union. “If excluded persons are reported to the commission they will be added.”
And it appears nobody has ever appeared on the list, as the spokesman said: "The commission has not undertaken to add names to the excluded persons list, but each gaming facility themselves has certain authority to bar individuals."
New York is yet to find a single person deemed worthy of banishment. Mafia figures are listed on excluded lists in several states, but not in the Empire State, which has five organized crime families in New York City alone, in addition to multiple criminal organizations that could be interested in gambling.
Nevada, meanwhile, excludes a reputed Hawaiian mob boss, Wilford Kalaauala Pulawa, who joined the list in 1975, as well as mob figures from faraway cities such as Kansas City.
James Walden, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, told the Times Union he found New York's handling of excluded persons to be "mindboggling." Walden, who successfully prosecuted high-ranking mob members, said he could not believe that, at minimum, there was not a process to add members of organized crime and politicians convicted of racketeering and corruption.
"Not to mention convicted drug traffickers, given the widely known use of casinos to launder money," said Walden, a partner in the firm of Walden Macht & Haran in Manhattan. "It seems like an enormous hole, easily filled. The absence of anyone on the list is a clear indication that the powers that be don’t really care, and do not want to fill it."
New York’s would-be list allows for the exclusion of “career or professional offenders” which includes people who served more than a year in prison for gambling offenses or been convicted of “any crime of offense involving moral turpitude,” according to Section 1342 of the New York Racing, Pari-Mutuel Wagering and Breeding Law.
The commission can prohibit “cheats and persons whose privileges for licensure or registration have been revoked,” the law stated.
Gravano would fit the criteria for exclusion in New York because the commission allows the banning of people excluded in other jurisdictions; Sammy the Bull has been banned from New Jersey casinos since 1993.
Asked why Gravano was not on the list, Maione said: "He is not known to patronize New York gaming facilities."
Before placing someone on an excluded list, the commission serves the person notice and allows them a chance for a hearing to make their case. As of May 12, the last time the blank list on the web was dated (it says " the following persons are to be excluded or ejected from any licensed gaming facility 1." with nothing following the "1."), nobody had made that case.
At Rivers Casino in Schenectady, a spokesman declined to comment. The casino is part of the Illinois-based Rush Street Gaming, which has casinos in Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Illinois has a list banning 26 individuals, including convicted bookies, fraudsters and former Cook County Undersheriff James Dvorak, known as "The Bohemian," who was convicted of bribery-related corruption charges.
Pennsylvania's gaming commission excludes 946 people. The eclectic list features many patrons who left children in vehicles while they gambled inside casinos, cheats, thieves, crooks who passed counterfeit bills, presented false identifications, tried to bilk casinos while working or whose nefarious reputations preceded them.
Pennsylvania, for instance, also includes in its list Philadelphia mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, who was banned from Keystone State casinos after getting into a fight in 2016. Massachusetts bans nearly 45 people, including 94-year-old former New England crime family boss Luigi "Baby Shanks" Manocchio.
In Nevada, home to the gambling mecca of Las Vegas, the 35 excluded persons include Dominic Anthony Spinale, known as "Dicky Boy" and "Roll Star," a mob associate linked to late Chicago mob enforcer Anthony "The Ant" Spilotro, whose character was portrayed by Joe Pesci in the 1995 Martin Scorsese movie "Casino."
Once on the Nevada list, it is a gross misdemeanor (up to a year in jail) to enter a casino. The establishments also have a duty to inform the Nevada Gaming Control Board if an excluded person is on their premises – and can face discipline for failing to exclude people on the list.
Closer to New York, New Jersey bans 484 people, including Gravano and a slew of other high-ranking mobster figures in New York and New Jersey.
Gaming commission officials in New York argue that the existing statutes provide a mechanism for casinos and gaming facilities – including Off-Track Betting, Indian gaming facilities and horse racing tracks such as Saratoga – to implement those rules and enforce no trespassing orders.
Patrick McKenna, a spokesman for the New York Racing Association, said the association can remove customers and permanently ban people "for a number of reasons including bad behavior, past criminality or actions that violate NYRA policies."
"Accordingly, NYRA maintains active records to ensure those who have been ruled off are not permitted to enter Belmont Park, Aqueduct Racetrack or Saratoga Race Course," he said.
