FROM THE KC STAR TODAY

RICK ALM GAMBLING & TOURISM
GAMBLING & TOURISM

The Stardust was a key setting two decades ago in the Tropicana and Argent casino skimming cases that sent nine Midwest mobsters to federal prison.

When the fabled Stardust is imploded next year to make way for a new mega-casino on the Las Vegas Strip, a door will close on an unsavory chapter in Kansas City history.

The Stardust was a key setting two decades ago in the Tropicana and Argent casino skimming cases that were tried in Kansas City and eventually sent nine Midwest mobsters to federal prison, among them locals Carl “Cork” Civella, Carl “Tuffy” DeLuna and Charles D. Moretina.

The tangled skimming scam has been retold often, including in the 1995 Martin Scorsese film “Casino” and more recently by John L. Smith, a columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, in his 2003 book Of Rats and Men.

The Argent Corp., which included the Stardust, was tied to loans from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund that had been orchestrated by then-Kansas City mob boss Nick Civella through longtime Kansas City labor boss Roy L. Williams. When the dust settled, federal authorities boasted that convictions in their “Operation Strawman” prosecution effectively eliminated mob control of Las Vegas casinos and broke the back of the Kansas City outfit.

Boyd Gaming Corp. bought the Stardust in 1983 to save it and thousands of jobs from the scandal and has operated it since. Boyd also operated the former Sam’s Town Casino in Kansas City.

The Stardust will close Nov. 1 to clear the site for redevelopment by Boyd as Echelon Place, a previously announced, $4 billion casino project planned to open in 2010 with five hotels, retail and more. A subsidiary of AEG, which will operate Kansas City’s Sprint Center, has been chosen by Boyd to produce shows at Echelon’s two live theaters.

High-roller rail?

They might be gambling on trains in Maine if Barbara Merrill, independent candidate for governor, has her way.

CIBC World Markets analyst David Katz recently alerted gambling industry investors to the possibility after Merrill proposed adding casino cars to rail service running between Portland and Montreal.

Merrill may be a reader of this column, which has long advocated gambling cars on daily Amtrak service between Kansas City and St. Louis that annually must beg for subsidies from Jefferson City and Washington.