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jhp000222-002
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University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

Why were there so many people of Jewish ancestry involved in the casino business. If you look at the history of gaming outside of Las Vegas, gaming in New York, Chicago, Cleveland and Florida, it was all Jews and Italians. The Italians ran the games and the Jews were the brains behind them; they were the accountants. So when gaming moved to Las Vegas, the Jews came with it. Although there were a lot of Italians besides because had you had a lot of the families were still represented at the time, it seemed like it was Jews and Mormons. There were a lot of Mormons here in town and a lot of them involved in gaming and a lot of them involved in the liquor business. It was just totally against everything people thought about the Mormons. They wouldn't touch that; they would have nothing to do with booze; they'd have nothing to do with prostitution. Bullshit. They were all involved. Most of the attorneys in town and the judges were all Jewish. There was a predominance of Jews in high places in the casinos, certainly from a percentage standpoint. We had more than our fair share of good positions. Were you aware of that or did it just happen? It was kind of like when you met somebody for the first time, particularly if you had a name like Rosen or whatever, ""Oh, he's Jewish; he's okay."" It was like an automatic okay.