In 1973, Sam “Ace” Rothstein—a seasoned sports handicapper with deep ties to the Chicago Outfit—was dispatched to Las Vegas with a singular mission: to run the prestigious Tangiers Casino alongside frontman Philip Green. Tasked with overseeing operations in a city where glitz and vice intermingled, Sam soon proved his mettle by doubling the casino’s profits. This remarkable success, however, came at a price: a significant portion of the extra revenue was funneled out of the casino’s count room and discreetly delivered to Midwest Mafia bosses, ensuring that every dollar earned furthered the Outfit’s interests.
Recognizing the value of Sam’s lucrative operation, Chicago boss Remo Gaggi sought to protect not only the cash skim but also the entire casino enterprise. To that end, he sent Nicky Santoro—Sam’s childhood friend and a notorious mob enforcer—into Las Vegas. Nicky’s role was clear: secure Sam’s operation against any threat, be it from rival criminals or law enforcement. To bolster his security force, Nicky recruited his younger brother Dominick and enlisted the help of longtime friend Frankie Marino. Together, they assembled a crew renowned for their expertise in shakedowns and jewelry burglaries. Yet as Nicky’s methods grew increasingly brutal and his criminal exploits more brazen, his actions attracted unwanted media attention and intensified scrutiny from local law enforcement. Eventually, his notoriety reached the point where he was blacklisted—named in the infamous Black Book—effectively banning him from every casino in Nevada.
Amidst this volatile environment, Sam’s personal life began to intertwine with his professional challenges. He met Ginger McKenna—a captivating con artist, showgirl, and former prostitute—whose charm and street smarts captivated him. Their connection soon blossomed into love, culminating in marriage and the birth of their daughter, Amy. In a show of trust and partnership, Sam entrusted Ginger with a substantial sum: two million dollars in cash along with a million dollars’ worth of jewelry. However, even as they appeared to build a life together, cracks in their relationship began to show. Ginger’s longstanding relationship with hustler and pimp Lester Diamond cast a long shadow over their marriage. When Sam discovered Lester accepting a portion of his money from Ginger, he ordered Nicky’s crew to beat the man—a decision that would only further complicate an already fragile domestic balance.
By 1976, pressures both inside and outside the casino had mounted. Sam, striving for operational efficiency, fired the slot manager Don Ward for incompetence. This move, however, carried unforeseen consequences. Ward happened to be the brother-in-law of Clark County Commission chairman Pat Webb, who, in a bid to settle matters amicably, tried to persuade Sam to rehire him. When Sam refused, Webb retaliated by leveraging his political influence to have Sam’s gaming license denied—a severe blow that jeopardized his position and the entire operation at the Tangiers. In an attempt to control the narrative and perhaps to distract from the mounting issues, Sam began hosting a local television talk show directly from inside the casino. While the show elevated his public profile, it also irritated both Nicky and the Mafia bosses back in Chicago, who felt that such exposure invited unnecessary attention from the police and state regulators. Sam increasingly blamed Nicky’s reckless behavior for drawing the heat, and every attempt to persuade Nicky to leave Las Vegas only deepened the rift between them.
The situation took a darker turn when the Midwest bosses discovered that insiders were pilfering from the cash skim. In response, they installed Artie Piscano, an underboss from Kansas City known more for his meticulous record-keeping than for his discretion, to oversee the operation. Defying explicit orders, Piscano maintained detailed written records of every dollar siphoned from the Tangiers. His carelessness, however, proved to be his undoing: an FBI bug, planted in Piscano’s grocery store, captured incriminating conversations about the skim, triggering a comprehensive investigation into the casino’s finances.
By 1980, the personal and the professional collided with explosive consequences. Ginger, entangled in a web of deceit and discontent, kidnapped their young daughter Amy with plans to flee to Europe together with Lester Diamond. In a desperate bid to salvage his crumbling domestic life, Sam managed to convince Ginger to return with Amy. Yet as the tension simmered, Sam inadvertently overheard a phone conversation in which Ginger discussed plans to kill him. In a fit of rage, Sam expelled her from their home, though he would later relent and offer forgiveness. The emotional turmoil took another turn when Ginger confided in Nicky about her situation. Their conversation kindled an illicit affair between the two, one that soon became apparent to private investigators. When Ginger eventually demanded that Nicky eliminate Sam to solidify their union, Nicky abruptly ended their tryst, even going as far as to threaten to expose their liaison to the FBI. In the aftermath, Ginger chose to abandon Sam completely, absconding with all of her cash and the valuable jewelry that had once represented their union.
As 1982 dawned, the ramifications of Piscano’s records reached their peak. The FBI, armed with undeniable evidence, shut down the Tangiers Casino. In the fallout, Philip Green, the casino’s frontman, agreed to cooperate with the authorities. The FBI even approached Sam, presenting him with damning photographs that clearly implicated Nicky and Ginger in their sordid affair. Despite the gravity of the situation, Sam refused to aid the investigation, choosing instead to maintain his silence as the walls around him closed in. The Chicago Outfit soon found themselves ensnared in a broader crackdown, with top bosses arrested and charged. Facing imminent trial, the Mafia orchestrated the murders of any potential witnesses—a grim reminder of their ruthlessness.
The year 1983 proved to be a turning point marked by tragedy and near-catastrophe. Ginger, having squandered her personal fortune in a series of ill-fated investments and associations with disreputable characters, met an untimely end by succumbing to a lethal overdose of drugs in Los Angeles. In the same year, Sam narrowly escaped death when a car bomb exploded near him—a calculated attempt on his life for which he suspected Nicky bore responsibility. Sam later remarked that the bomb had not been sanctioned by his Chicago superiors, who apparently had “other ideas” for his fate.
By 1986, the simmering tensions reached a violent climax. The Midwest bosses, exasperated by Nicky’s continuous disregard for protocol and his repeated attempts on Sam’s life, decided that drastic action was necessary. They ordered Frankie and his crew to eliminate Nicky and his brother Dominick once and for all. Lured to a remote meetup in an isolated Illinois cornfield, the pair were ambushed. In a brutal and merciless act of retribution, they were beaten with baseball bats, stripped of their clothing, and ultimately buried alive in a shallow grave—a grim fate that signified the end of Nicky’s reign of terror.
With the elimination of its key enforcer, the Mafia began to withdraw from the once-lucrative casino industry. The old, storied casinos were demolished, making way for sleek, modern establishments built with capital sourced from junk bonds—a stark symbol of Las Vegas’s transformation from a world of personal connections and territorial control to one dominated by corporate interests. Sam, whose career had been built on trust and reliability, found himself an anachronism in this new era. Although he had been a high earner and a dependable asset to the Outfit, the changes in the industry meant that his style of management no longer fit the new order.
Ultimately, Sam was allowed to live—an acknowledgment of his past contributions—yet his life in Las Vegas had irreversibly changed. He chose to leave the city behind, relocating to San Diego and returning to the world of sports handicapping, remarking with a wry sense of finality, “Right back where I started. Why mess up a good thing?” His parting words encapsulated a bittersweet reflection on a life lived amid the turbulence of organized crime, personal betrayal, and the inexorable march of time