The connection between the Stradust in Newport and the Las Vegas Stardust is the Cleveland Syndicate (Dalitz, Rothkopf, Tucker, Kleinman.)
After Jake Factor took over the LV Stardust, he leased the casino to the Desert Inn Operating Co., which brought in an old pal named Johnny Drew.
Johnny Drew's real name was Jacob Stein and he had been a partner in (and president of) Molaska, the powdered molasses company set up in Ohio just before the end of Prohibition. Other partners in the company included the Cleveland Syndicate, Meyer Lansky, Charles Polizzi, Charles Licavoli, Charles "Babe" Baron, Joe Adonis, Frank Costello and Lucky Luciano. Chicago may have had a piece as well.
Johnny Drew had operated various bootlegging-related enterprises in Chicago, Oghio and New York through the 1920s, and had been convicted in Convington, KY, in a liquor case in 1928.
Cheers,
RUss