Gambling legend Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal dies at 79

Oct 16, 2008 (The Miami Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- CROX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Sports Illustrated once called Frank Larry "Lefty" Rosenthal -- the bookmaker and Vegas casino operator played by Robert De Niro in the film Casino -- the greatest living sports handicapper.

He got his nickname in 1961 after pleading the Fifth Amendment 38 times before a Senate subcommittee investigating organized crime.

Among other things, he refused to say whether he was left- or right-handed.

The next year, he asked a Miami Herald reporter: "So what if I'm a gambler? There's no law against that. There's a law against bookmaking, but I'm not a bookmaker . . . I'm a professional handicapper . . . I'm the greatest."

Rosenthal died Monday, reportedly of a heart attack, at his apartment in the Fontainebleau's luxury Tresor Tower in Miami Beach. He was 79.

Rosenthal -- real name Norman Louis Rosenthal -- hosted the website frankrosenthal.com. Nicholas Pileggi -- who wrote the book from which Martin Scorsese's Casino was adapted -- says that "for most of his professional life, the Chicago-born and casino-bred Rosenthal has been the country's top handicapper. He was one of a handful of men who literally set the line for thousands of bookmakers from coast to coast.

"During the 1970s and early '80s, Rosenthal ran four Las Vegas casinos simultaneously, including the world-famous Stardust Hotel and Casino. Rosenthal is also credited with creating the first Race & Sportsbook [Parlor] in Las Vegas . . . that was copied by every casino on the strip."

TV SHOW AND COLUMNS

In addition to running the Fremont, Hacienda and Marina casinos for financier Allen Glick's Argent Corp., Rosenthal hosted a live-from-the-Stardust television show and wrote columns for The Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Valley Times newspapers.

In a Miami Herald interview earlier this year, Rosenthal said Sam "Ace" Rothstein, De Niro's character in the 1995 film, was accurate -- even the part about having a crooked blackjack player's hand smashed with a rubber hammer.

The card player and his cohorts "had raped the Strip's casinos over a period of time," he said. "Hence, we played hardball, sending their entire crew a message."

At the time of the interview, Rosenthal was consulting with offshore casinos.

Fighting a gaming-commission ban from the Vegas casinos, Rosenthal hired lawyer Oscar Goodman, now the city's mayor.

Goodman told local reporters Wednesday that Rosenthal "was a tough taskmaster and a perfectionist. He was meticulous in everything he did."

"He made no friends with the government, that's for sure. I don't believe he ever spent a day in jail when I represented him. If you asked law enforcement, they probably didn't like him much, but he always treated me well and paid his bills on time."

Goodman said the last time he saw Rosenthal was in Florida in 1996, when they went out for a drink.

'VERY DEMANDING'

He said that as a casino manager, Rosenthal "was very demanding. He was a certain breed of cat and wouldn't tolerate anything except the very best in customer service. He wanted perfection."

Once, Goodman recalled, Rosenthal was walking through the Stardust and spotted a cigarette butt on the floor.

"He bent down and picked it up and then asked the pit boss who was responsible for cleaning that area and got a name. He immediately fired that person. You didn't want to screw up in front of him or else you wouldn't have a job."

Rosenthal lived in Florida before and after his years in Las Vegas, and once owned 13 horses. He was banned from Florida racetracks twice -- in 1961 and 1977 -- and from the state's jai-alai frontons.

In 1963, he was convicted of conspiracy to fix the 1960 NCAA basketball playoffs by bribing a player, and paid a $6,000 fine. In November 1965, federal agents arrested Rosenthal and other accused national syndicate members and charged them with interstate transmission of gambling information. They beat the rap.

'BOOKIE WARS'

He was implicated in a bombing plot during Miami's 1967 "bookie wars," and a year later moved to Las Vegas, where he met and married Geri McGee, a one-time topless show girl. They had two children.

Rosenthal grew close to Tony Spilotro, a jewel thief, loan shark and suspected hit man. Pileggi described Spilotro as the mob's brawn, Rosenthal the brains.

In the late '70s, investigators from Nevada's Gaming Control Board raided the Stardust. Rosenthal was implicated in a "skimming" scandal but was never charged.

About the same time, Geri had an affair with Spilotro. In 1980, she pulled a gun on Rosenthal, who filed for divorce. By then, the Gaming Control Board had denied him a gaming license. She later died of an overdose.

In October 1982, Rosenthal almost died when someone planted a bomb in his Cadillac Eldorado. It blew up in a Las Vegas restaurant parking lot, burning his legs.

Rosenthal moved first to California, then back to Florida.

In 1995, he sat for an interview with a Miami Herald reporter at Crocs, his nephew's Boca Raton nightclub.

"Only once does his face show a flash of pleasure, when he speaks of his children: Steven, 25, in the Navy, and Stephanie, 22, who works at a local bank," the newspaper reported.

The Levitt-Weinstein/Blasberg Chapel in Miami Beach is handling arrangements for the funeral, which is private.

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