Don’t Bet on It

Lefty Rosenthal, whose rise and fall as the first bookie to operate within a Las Vegas casino was chronicled in Casino, Martin Scorsese’s attempt to out-Goodfella Goodfellas, has died of a heart attack at the age of 79. Vegas had little interest in sports gambling when he arrived, but at his peak, he was handicapping at four casinos, all illegally as he was blacklisted from obtaining a casino license because of his mob ties, including Tony “The Ant” Spilotro.