Corruption scandals not only uncover the incestuous nature of politics, says College of Southern Nevada history professor Michael Green, but they also remind us of the role undercover juice plays in Vegas. By financing their campaigns, jailed strip club mogul Michael Galardi influenced former county commissioners Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, Erin Kenny and Dario Herrera to vote favorably on matters of interest to him. Kenny also shilled for developer Jim Rhodes.
If you’re a successful politician in Nevada today, Green says, you’re fronting for the gaming industry.
“It’s Nevada’s biggest industry; you don’t run against it. You want to protect it,” he says. “Pat McCarran publicly defended the casino industry. Privately, he loathed the industry. He wanted a Nevada of mining, federal projects and ranching, but he understood gaming was the golden goose. Folks who’ve worked for Kirk Kerkorian, like Terry Lanni, have tended to be more publicly prominent and have become the public faces for his enterprises ... “
But it hasn’t always been limited to casinos.
“Frontmen, puppets or public faces, whatever you call them, we have a history with them,” Green says.
Puppet: U.S. Sen. William Stewart (elected in 1864)
Puppeteers: Central Pacific Railroad and the mining industry
“The company gave Stewart 50,000 acres of land for voting for friendly legislation.
He wrote many of the laws that governed the mining industry,” Green says.
Puppets: Bugsy Siegel and Billy Wilkerson
Puppeteer: Charles “Lucky” Luciano and Meyer Lansky
“Siegel and Wilkerson were the public faces of the Flamingo [opened in 1946], but it was a mob-owned property.”
Puppet: Wilbur Clark of Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn
Puppeteer: Mobster Moe Dalitz
“Clark was a great publicist and glad-hander. He shook hands with everybody, from the average customer to heads of state, but it was Dalitz who owned the Desert Inn [opened in 1950].”
Puppets: Judges
Puppeteer: Argent Corp. (owned the Stardust in the ’70s and mid-’80s)
“The book version of Casino talks about judges who the Argent Corporation and [its CEO] Frank ‘Lefty’ Rosenthal felt they could count on.”