Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, the original Vegas Bookie, died today at his Florida home.

The movie ”Casino” brought Rosenthal’s story to life for everyone outside of Las Vegas. Here in town, Rosenthal was a pioneer of sports gambling. He helped run a number of Las Vegas casinos that were reported to have connections with the mob. The most famous casino Rosenthal was involved with was the Stardust.

It was 1982 when someone rigged Rosenthal’s car with explosives. Somehow he survived, but in 1988 his luck ran out in Las Vegas. This too was used as a scene in the movie, “Casino”.

Rosenthal made the Nevada Gaming Commission black list and thus moved to Florida where he started a new, and much safer era, doing radio talk shows and hosting websites.

Here is a video of that time period in Las Vegas History and information about

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