Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas
by Nicholas Pileggi
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The true story behind the Martin Scorsese film: Focusing on Chicago bookie Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal and his partner, Anthony Spilotro, and drawing on extensive, in-depth interviews, the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of the Mafia classic Wiseguy-basis for the film Goodfellas-Nicholas Pileggi reveals how the pair worked together to oversee Las Vegas casino operations for the mob. He unearths how Teamster pension funds were used to take control of the Stardust and Tropicana and how show more Spilotro simultaneously ran a crew of jewel thieves nicknamed the 'Hole in the Wall Gang.' For years, these gangsters kept a stranglehold on Sin City's brightly lit nightspots, skimming millions in cash for their bosses. But the elaborate scheme began to crumble when Rosenthal's disproportionate ambitions drove him to make mistakes. Spilotro made an error of his own, falling for his partner's wife, a troubled showgirl named Geri. It would all lead to betrayal, a wide-ranging FBI investigation, multiple convictions, and the end of the Mafia's longstanding grip on the multibillion-dollar gaming oasis in the midst of the Nevada desert. Casino is a journey into 1970s Las Vegas and a riveting nonfiction account of the world portrayed in the Martin Scorsese film of the same name, starring Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone-a story of adultery, murder, infighting, and revenge. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
3/5
This book took me by surprise due to two things.
First, the it was slightly more fast paced than I expected, with a couple of exceptions here and there. There's always something going on, and it's kinda insane how much these guys were being watched and followed by the police without getting arrested for anything relevant. Honestly, really makes evident the way the mob was just this HUGE organization, and a very untouchable one at that. Specially at the end, when we read about the leaders just offing guys they specifically said were loyal to the end, just because they couldn't take risks.
And second is just how similar this story is to the movie. Honestly, even if you take the fact that this guys worked with Scorsese in the movie and show more the fact that these kind of writers always change a couple of details here and there for narrative purposes, it's pretty impressive how are entire scenes that were adapted completely untouched.
All in all, it's a pretty decent book telling an insane story that I really enjoyed. Would not recommend it to everybody, since there are a couple of really slow parts in the middle, but if you liked the movie, you'll probably enjoy this book. show less
This book took me by surprise due to two things.
First, the it was slightly more fast paced than I expected, with a couple of exceptions here and there. There's always something going on, and it's kinda insane how much these guys were being watched and followed by the police without getting arrested for anything relevant. Honestly, really makes evident the way the mob was just this HUGE organization, and a very untouchable one at that. Specially at the end, when we read about the leaders just offing guys they specifically said were loyal to the end, just because they couldn't take risks.
And second is just how similar this story is to the movie. Honestly, even if you take the fact that this guys worked with Scorsese in the movie and show more the fact that these kind of writers always change a couple of details here and there for narrative purposes, it's pretty impressive how are entire scenes that were adapted completely untouched.
All in all, it's a pretty decent book telling an insane story that I really enjoyed. Would not recommend it to everybody, since there are a couple of really slow parts in the middle, but if you liked the movie, you'll probably enjoy this book. show less
I knew the minute Sharon Stone threw those chips in the air in the movie Casino that I was going to love this movie. That love affair has never ended and then the book popped up on Bookbub and I was thoroughly excited! So much so that I bought the book, watched the movie, read the book and then watched the movie again.
One main difference is that the book actually uses all the real names of the individuals. This allows the reader to set off exploring more about the real people online and pull up pictures to match names and faces. Of course, you can always use Pesci, DeNiro and Stone as the faces and still be ok.
This is essentially the story of Las Vegas post Bugsy Siegel and pre-current day corporate Vegas.
Although money to build and show more fund the casino’s initially came through corrupt union bosses and organized crime, it has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. But in the glory days, it was organized crime, primarily out of Los Angeles and Chicago, who owned Vegas.
Lefty Rosenthal was a handicapper, bookmaker and odds man, trusted by the mob to go out to Vegas and run the Stardust and Hacienda Hotels. The first part of the book introduces Lefty and his background as well as his best friend, Tony Spilotro, a well-known Chicago mobster.
After Lefty moves out to Vegas, he meets Geri McGee (aka Ginger) a well-known casino hustler and escort who works the punters as they come in to Vegas. Lefty fell for her hard and Geri, understanding the potential of a wealthy “sponsor”, let him. This despite her undying love for her ex-boyfriend, baby daddy Lenny.
Tony Spilotro was sent to Vegas to keep an eye on Lefty and to secure their interests in the casino. But Tony, cut free from his leash and keepers in Chicago, became a one crew crime spree. Bringing in his own people, he did burglaries, murders, jewelry heists, armed robbery, loan sharking etc. The town was his for the taking and he took it all – including Geri.
The movie closely followed the book so it will not disappoint film fans. In fact, it will enhance the viewing experience and make you want to watch it all again – twice! show less
One main difference is that the book actually uses all the real names of the individuals. This allows the reader to set off exploring more about the real people online and pull up pictures to match names and faces. Of course, you can always use Pesci, DeNiro and Stone as the faces and still be ok.
This is essentially the story of Las Vegas post Bugsy Siegel and pre-current day corporate Vegas.
Although money to build and show more fund the casino’s initially came through corrupt union bosses and organized crime, it has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. But in the glory days, it was organized crime, primarily out of Los Angeles and Chicago, who owned Vegas.
Lefty Rosenthal was a handicapper, bookmaker and odds man, trusted by the mob to go out to Vegas and run the Stardust and Hacienda Hotels. The first part of the book introduces Lefty and his background as well as his best friend, Tony Spilotro, a well-known Chicago mobster.
After Lefty moves out to Vegas, he meets Geri McGee (aka Ginger) a well-known casino hustler and escort who works the punters as they come in to Vegas. Lefty fell for her hard and Geri, understanding the potential of a wealthy “sponsor”, let him. This despite her undying love for her ex-boyfriend, baby daddy Lenny.
Tony Spilotro was sent to Vegas to keep an eye on Lefty and to secure their interests in the casino. But Tony, cut free from his leash and keepers in Chicago, became a one crew crime spree. Bringing in his own people, he did burglaries, murders, jewelry heists, armed robbery, loan sharking etc. The town was his for the taking and he took it all – including Geri.
The movie closely followed the book so it will not disappoint film fans. In fact, it will enhance the viewing experience and make you want to watch it all again – twice! show less
I was thrilled that my daughter’s boyfriend bought Casino by Nicholas Pileggi for me as a birthday present. This has long been a TBR that I hoped to own one day, and I immediately began reading it, despite the fact that I had five other books going. Pileggi, who collaborated with Martin Scorcese to turn his non-fiction book Wiseguy about mobster Henry Hill into the critically acclaimed film masterpiece Goodfellas, reprises this effort with Casino. Pileggi wrote the screenplay for both films – each directed by Scorcese and casting Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Frank Vincent as various underworld characters – which are among my all-time favorite movies. I read Wiseguy sometime back and I always wanted to read Casino.
Like Wiseguy, show more the book version of Casino is very different from the film. A narrative of actual events heavily dependent upon interviews and transcripts, the dramatic element so essential to the film is largely absent here, most prominently because of the way the story is told. For movie fans, it comes as somewhat of a disappointed that while the majority of the people and events depicted in the film are real, many did not occur in the order or the manner related on the screen. However, for those readers interested in the mob and its inner-workings, the factual components of the book are quite fascinating. Still, there remains a kind of dissonance in that the author of the book and the screenplay are the same individual, and the screenplay is, after all, so much more exciting – at least as Scorcese translates it to celluloid.
I’m not sure that anyone who never saw Casino would be interested in its eponymous book, although I was taken enough by the content to read it in its entirety in just a few days. At the end of the day, it makes a fine complement to the film, which I look forward to screening again very soon so I can compare truth and fiction while it remains fresh in my head. show less
Like Wiseguy, show more the book version of Casino is very different from the film. A narrative of actual events heavily dependent upon interviews and transcripts, the dramatic element so essential to the film is largely absent here, most prominently because of the way the story is told. For movie fans, it comes as somewhat of a disappointed that while the majority of the people and events depicted in the film are real, many did not occur in the order or the manner related on the screen. However, for those readers interested in the mob and its inner-workings, the factual components of the book are quite fascinating. Still, there remains a kind of dissonance in that the author of the book and the screenplay are the same individual, and the screenplay is, after all, so much more exciting – at least as Scorcese translates it to celluloid.
I’m not sure that anyone who never saw Casino would be interested in its eponymous book, although I was taken enough by the content to read it in its entirety in just a few days. At the end of the day, it makes a fine complement to the film, which I look forward to screening again very soon so I can compare truth and fiction while it remains fresh in my head. show less
Scorscese's work is infinitely more interesting, but it's a fictional account based on this book. The best description is that it is bare bones. I kept wanting broader descriptions and background. Perhaps my dissatisfaction stems from my recent reading of various types of Pulitzer Prize winning non-fiction titles. For instance, Pileggi quotes Rosenthal as saying, after Jerry's passing, that lots of folks suspected him of killing her or arranging her death. But he paid a considerable sum to have determined her actual cause of death. That's all that was said. You hear what is missing, too, don't you. The full book was that way.
WOW. This book is fantastic from start to finish. The movie of this book is an all time classic and stuck pretty close to the book. But the book is better (as usual). Nicholas Pileggi does this type of book very well, and this is an instant classic.
I found this on a bench at the convention center at the Gartner Conference hotel. It just goes to show you what passes for entertainment with me. Non-fiction.
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Kasino : rikoksia ja rakkautta Las Vegasissa
- Original title
- Casino : love and honor in Las Vegas
- Alternate titles*
- Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas
- Original publication date
- 1995-10-12
- People/Characters
- Frank Rosenthal (Lefty); Tony Spilotro (The Ant); Frank Vincent (Frank Cullotta)
- Important places
- Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Related movies
- Casino (1995 | IMDb)
- Dedication
- For Nora
- First words
- "Why is my car on fire?" - Introduction
"My pals thought I was the messiah." - Chapter 1 - Quotations
- Las Vegas was a city with no memory. It was the place you went for a second chance. It was the American city where people went after the divorce, after the bankruptcy, even after a short stint in the county jail. It was the f... (show all)inal destination for those willing to drive halfway across America in search of the nation’s only morality car wash.
A million dollars in $100 bills weighs 20½ pounds; a million in $20s, 102 pounds; and a million in $5 bills, 408 pounds... A million dollars in quarter slot machine winnings weighs twenty-one tons.
the legal action allowed federal agents access to his tax records. They wasted no time before bringing charges that Spilotro had filed a false mortgage loan application for his house when he said he had been employed by a cem... (show all)ent company. The IRS agents showed that he had claimed that his sole income that year, $9,000, had been derived from gambling wins only. There was no income reported from a cement company. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)It would be the last time street guys were ever given anything that valuable again.
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 364.1060973135
- Canonical LCC
- HV6248.R683
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 364.1060973135 — Society, Government, and Culture Social problems and social services Crime Criminal offenses Organized Crime Standard subdivisions History, geographic treatment, biography
- LCC
- HV6248 .R683 — Social sciences Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Criminal classes
- BISAC
Statistics
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- 568
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- 51,761
- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (3.75)
- Languages
- 9 — Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 31
- ASINs
- 4
