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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 December 2018
In Nevada, individuals me excluded from entering licensed casinos when their names have been listed by state regulatory bodies in what is popularly known as the Black Book. As a state regulatory procedure, Nevada's Black Book is officially aimed at excluding organized crime figures from the gaming industry. Beyond its manifest function, however, we believe that the drama of entering persons' names into the Black Book symbolically affirms the legitimacy of gaming and the efficacy of its regulatory body against perceived threats to the industry. Application of the procedure solely to the southern part of the state—Las Vegas— and chiefly to Italians reflects the group interests, culture conflicts, and stereotypes that underlie regulation of gaming. Central issues explored are the relationships of perceived threats to the origin and implementation of the Black Book; the perceptions of threat to the industry as emanating from those most alien to established groups; the sharp distinctions between the ethnic origins of the regulators and of those selected for inclusion in the Book; and the dramatization of the disreputability of those whose names are entered.
1 Emile Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method (New York: Macmillan, 1938); George Herbert Mead, “The Psychology of Punitive Justice,” 23 Am. J. Soc. 577 (1918); Harold Garfinkel, “Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies,” 61 Am. J. Soc. 420 (1956); Kai Erikson, wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1966) (“Erikson, Wayward Puritans”). Google Scholar
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6 Most of the research that has drawn upon Harold Garfinkel's (61 Am. Soc. Rev.) theory has addressed the social-psychological dynamics of status degradation, concerning itself with the impact of the process on the individual rather than with the social dynamics of the process itself. For exceptions see James Richardson, “New Forms of Deviancy in a Fundamentalist Church,” 16 Rev. Relig. Res. 134 (1975); Mike Hepworth & B. Turner, “Confession, Guilt, and Responsibility,” 6 Brit. J.L. & Soc'y 219 (1979); Gerald Cromer, “The Malhi Affair,” 10 Crime & Soc. Dev. 135 (1982); Nachman Ben-Yehuda, “The Politicization of Deviance,” 8 Deviant Behav. 259 (1987); Montgomery Broaded, “China's Lost Generation: The Status Degradation of an Educational Cohort,” 3 J. Contemp. Ethnography 352 (1991); Niko Besnier, “The Demise of the Man Who Would Be King,” 49 J. Anthropological Res. 455 (1993).Google Scholar
7 A page in the book for each person contains the individual's name, “mug shut,” aliases, arrest number, FBI file number, physical description, last known address, and extent of presence in Las Vegas.Google Scholar
8 A detailed treatment of the Black Book within the more general context of gaming regulation and the histories of those excluded and the problems that they presented may be found in R. Farrell & C. Case, The Black Book and the Mob: The Untold Story of the Control of Nevada's Casinos (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995). Much of what is included here draws on that work.Google Scholar
9 Garfinkel (61 Am. Soc. Rev.) explains that successful degradation ceremonies also involve both an elevation of the dignity and visibility of institutional values and the denouncer's claims of speaking for those values. Although these processes seem to occur in the regulatory hearings on the Black Book and are implicit in some of the material we present here, limitations of the data do not allow us to address them specifically.Google Scholar
10 Although the Black Book is said to have derived its name from the fact that it was initially bound in a black cover (Wallace Turner, Gamblers' Money 159–60 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965) (“Turner, Gamblers' Money”); Edward Olsen, “The Black Book Episode,” in E. Bushnell, ed., Sagebrush and Neon (Reno: Bureau of Governmental Research, University of Nevada, 1976)), it is doubtful that the name evolved independently of the similarities that the regulatory procedure has to the practice of “blacklisting.”Google Scholar
11 The idea that the “mafia” as commonly conceived is a myth does not originate with us. Indeed, while those in law enforcement, the public, and some criminologists hold to the mythical conception, a number of social scientists have concluded otherwise. For an overview of the research and arguments surrounding the myth see Dwight Smith, The Mafia Mystique (New York: Basic, 1975) (“Smith, Mafia Mystique”); John Galliher & James Cain, “Citation Support for the Mafia Myth in Criminology Text Books,” 9 Am. Soc. 68 (1974); D. Kenney & J. Finckenauer, Organized Crime in America 230-55 (Belmont, Cal.: Wadsworth, 1995).Google Scholar
Research findings have contradicted the most basic tenets of the myth, including the notions of a hierarchical structure, high level of organization, nationwide scope, conspiratorial nature, primarily Italian composition, and reliance on violence. See Joseph Albini, The American Mafia: Genesis of a Legend (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1971) (“Albini, American Mafia”); Mark Haller, “Illegal Enterprise: A Theoretical and Historical Interpretation,” 28 Criminology 207 (1990); Francis Ianni, A Family Business: Kinship and Social Control in Organized Crime (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1972) (“Ianni, Family Business”); Daniel Bell, “Crime as an American Way of Life,” 13 Antioch Rev. 131 (1953); Smith, Mafia Mystique; Dwight Smith, “Mafia: The Prototypical Alien Conspiracy,” 423 Ann. Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 75 (1976); Mark Haller, “Bootleggers as Businessmen: From City Slums to City Builders” in David Kyvig, ed., Law, Alcohol, and Order (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1985) (“Haller, ‘Bootleggers’”); Peter Reuter, Disorganized Crime: The Economics of the Visible Hand (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1983). Studies also have shown that such notions have derived largely from mob informant testimony, hearsay evidence, and unverified “events.” Alan Block, “History and the Study of Organized Crime,” 6 Urban Life 455 (1978); Alan Block “Contemporary Reports on Organized Crime: Errors of Historical Interpretation,” in id., Perspectives on Organizing Crime (Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991); Jay Albanese, “What Lockheed and La Cosa Nostra Have in Common,” 28 Crime & Delinq. 211 (1982).Google Scholar
12 See W. Moore, The Kefauver Committee and the Politics of Crime (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1974); Merry Morash, “Organized Crime,” in Robert Meier, ed., Major Forms of Crime (Newbury Park, Cal.: Sage Publications, 1984).Google Scholar
13 Donald Cressey, “The Functions and Structure of Criminal Syndicates,” in President's Commission on Law Enforcement & Administration of Justice, Task Force Report: Organized Crime (Washington: GPO, 1967) (“Cressey, ‘Functions and Structure’”).Google Scholar
14 See Block, 6 Urban Life 455; Robert Kelley, “Organized Crime: A Study in the Production of Knowledge by Law Enforcement Specialists” (Ph.D. diss., CUNY, 1978); Albanese, 28 Crime & Delinq. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15 Smith, 423 Ann. Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. Google Scholar
16 See, e.g., R. Salerno & J. Tompkins, The Crime Confederation (New York: Doubleday, 1969); William Roemer, Mobbed Up (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989); William Roemer, War of the Godfathers (New York: Donald I. Fine, 1990).Google Scholar
17 See sources cited in note 11.Google Scholar
18 For a review see Smith, Mafia Mystique (cited in note 11).Google Scholar
19 See, e.g., Cressey, “Functions and Structure” (cited in note 13); Donald Cressey, Theft of the Nation (New York: Harper & Row, 1969); id., Criminal Organization: Its Elementary Forms (New York: Harper & Row, 1972); M. Haskell & L. Yablonsky, Criminology: Crime and Criminality (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983); Howard Abadinsky, Organized Crime (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1994).Google Scholar
20 Reliance on government reports to study organized crime is not unlike the now questionable use of official records to study crime more generally. Galliher & Cain, 9 Am. Sociologist (cited in note 11). Neither practice adequately addresses the issues of selective enforcement and the intended uses of the information, the latter being the accusation and prosecution of crime versus its objective understanding.Google Scholar
21 See M. Bowers & A. Titus, “Nevada's Black Book: The Constitutionality of Exclusion Lists in Casino Gaming Regulation,” 9 Whittier L. Rev. 313 (1987).Google Scholar
22 Nev. Rev. Stat. ch. 463 as amended in 1985.Google Scholar
23 The state also made it clear in 1989 that “race, color, creed, national origin or ancestry, or sex” must not be a basis for inclusion in the Black Book. Nev. Rev. Stat. 463.151.4 (1989).Google Scholar
24 The Nevada Gaming Control Board (GCB) materials we reviewed make no mention of names being submitted to the board by other city police departments (e.g., Reno) in the state.Google Scholar
25 It was not possible to ascertain all who have teen considered for nomination to the Black Book over the years. Nevada regulators consider this information highly confidential and believe that its public knowledge would jeopardize their ongoing investigations. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has also prepared cases for the regulators to consider for inclusion in the Black Book, but it, too, does not release this information to the public. However, on rare occasions, the names of some said to be under consideration for nomination to the Black Book have appeared in the press (Alan Tobin, “Convicted Felons among Nominees for Nevada's Black Book,”Las Vegas Rev. J., 5 June 1988, at 3B; Alan Tobin, “Gamers Face Black Book Backlog,”Las Vegas Rev. J., 5 June 1988, at IB). The coverage listed the names of 10 men who were said to be under consideration, only 2 of whom were later nominated and both of whom had Italian surnames. Of the remaining 8, 5 had Italian surnames, 2 Jewish, and 1 Anglo-Saxon.Google Scholar
26 The official record of all meetings of the GCB (1955-present) and the NGC (1959-present) was nearly complete, although quality and detail varied over time. GCB minutes prior to the 1960s were not recorded verbatim. In a few instances, the minutes of board and commission meetings could not be located or had not been transcribed in their entirety. For these, we relied on the detailed summaries of meetings available on microfiche, summaries that included the regulatory decisions and their rationales.Google Scholar
27 Thomas O'Dea, The Mormons (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957) (“O'Dea, The Mormons”); Gilman Ostrander, Nevada: The Great Rotten Borough, 1859-1964 at 19 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966) (“Ostrander, Nevada”). Google Scholar
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38 Jerome Edwards, “The Americanization of Nevada Gambling,” 14 Halcyon 201, 213 (1992).Google Scholar
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69 Hughes was personally attended by a Mormon entourage. In 1971 a Mormon became second-in-command of the parent company of Hughes's Nevada holdings and appointed other Mormons to positions in the top echelons of the corporation. Phelan, Howard Hughes 10, 99, 117–19; D. Bartlett & J. Steele, Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes 445 (Toronto: George J. McLeod Ltd, 1979) (“Bartlett & Steele, Empire”).Google Scholar
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91 The social characteristics of those who make the choices as to whom to exclude are not nearly as discernible as those of the nominees. Although thorough searches at the Nevada State Library and Archives and the Nevada Historical Society resulted in much information, data on the regulators was largely incomplete. Even gubernatorial records were lacking biographical data on appointees. What information we were able to glean came from newspaper articles, obituaries, and various historical sources, including James Scrugham, ed., 2 Nevada: A Narrative of the Conquest of a Frontier Land (Chicago: American Historical Society, 1935); Capitol's Who's Who for Nevada. 1949-1950 (Portland, Ore.: Capital Publishing Co, 1949); Boyd Moore, Nevadans and Nevada (San Francisco: H. S. Crocker, Inc., 1950); R. Lee & S. Wadsworth, eds., A Century in Meadow Valley, 1864-1964 (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1966); E. Patterson, L. Ulph, & V. Goodman, Nevada's Northeast Frontier (Sparks, Nev.: Western Printing & Publishing Co., 1969); 2 Nevada, the Silver State (Carson City, Nev.: Western States Historical Pub., 1970); R. Lingenfelter & K. Gash, The Newspapers of Nevada. A History and Bibliography 1954-1979 (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1984); Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774-1989. Bicentennial Edition (Washing ton: GPO, 1989); Mead Dixon, Playing the Cards That Are Dealt (Reno: University of Nevada Oral History Program, 1992).Google Scholar
92 Galliher & Cross, Morals Legislation 123–24 (cited in note 2), have observed that such an attitude of suspicion seems to pervade among Nevadans generally and that they tend to see the state's problems as produced by outsiders.Google Scholar
93 GCB transcripts, 5 Oct. 1961, at 23.Google Scholar
94 GCB transcripts, 3 Aug. 1961, at 13–15.Google Scholar
95 See Barney Glaser & Anselm Straw, “Awareness Contexts and Social Interaction,” 29 Am. Soc. Rev. 669 (1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
96 The use of surnames to determine ethnicity is a generally accepted practice in the social sciences. In addition, we have drawn on information available in the transcripts and media accounts that was relevant to the ethnicity of nominees. Because it has been a common practice for members of some ethnic groups, including Italians, to anglicize their surnames, we may actually have underestimated the number of Italians nominated to the Black Book.Google Scholar
97 To compare the percentage of Italians listed in the Black Book with that of Italians identified with organized crime over the same period would of course be misleading, since both the regulatory and law enforcement processes are driven by the mafia myth.Google Scholar
98 In a recently published article, the authors address the ethical difficulties encountered as a result of disciplinary definitions and allegiances regarding the groups dealt with in this research. Carole Case & Ronald Farrell, “Myths, Allegiances, and the Study of Social Control,” 26 Am. Sociologist 60 (1995).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
99 Although depictions of even the more nefarious nominees fighting their entry into the Black Book suggests that the stigma associated with the regulatory action may also have an impact on the individual and his family, our data do not allow us to systematically explore the action's socially isolating effects or influence on personal identity and behavior.Google Scholar
100 The use of a felony record as a basis for nomination and entry into the Black Book has been questioned in regulatory hearings. It has been established in hearings that felons— among them murderers, child molesters, and racketeers—have workcards that permit their employment in the industry, that some felons are licensed as casino owners, and that some in ownership positions have criminal histories like those of Black Book nominees; yet such individuals have not been nominated to the Black Book (NGC transcripts, 17 Dec. 1986, at 79, 94, 163–64). In one case it was established that the co-defendants in the crime for which the nominee had been selected for the Black Book had themselves not been considered, and that one had indeed maintained employment in the industry following his conviction for the crime (NGC transcripts, 18 Aug. 1985, at 35).Google Scholar
101 NGC transcripts, 1 Dec. 1978, at 19–20.Google Scholar
102 Our reading of the aliases, however, suggests that many, if not most, are simply nicknames—possibly acquired as early as childhood or given to the individual by law enforcement—shortened versions of the individual's full name, names prior to having been anglicized, and misspellings of names (largely Italian). If most of the aliases were creations of the men themselves, their remarkable similarity to the original names certainly raises questions about any intent at deception.Google Scholar
103 Turner, Gamblers' Money 75 (cited in note 10); Roemer, War of the Godfathers 324 (cited in note 16).Google Scholar