Your host Gary Jenkins tells the little-known story about the time when Nick Civella ordered a moratorium on all skimming activities from the Tropicana casino.  During the fall of 1978, Nick Kansas City Mob boss Civella became obsessed that one of his inside men at the Tropicana was stealing from the skim. A Sicilian immigrant named Joe Agosto had infiltrated the Tropicana and obtained the confidence of the owners and was managing the famous Folies Bergère floor show. Agosto had placed another well-known casino executive named Carl Thomas as the casino manager.  Thomas had come from jobs at Circus Circus, Slots-a-Go-Go, and most recently The Stardust. Thomas was a long-time friend of Alan Dorfman and other Teamsters officials. he had skimmed money from all his casinos for the Chicago Outfit and Dorfman. Thomas put together a trusted team and he brought in several of his old employees to set up an organized approach to skimming from the Tropicana.

What none of these men knew was the FBI was listening to a series of conversations between Carl “Tuffy” DeLuna, the KC Underboss, and Joe Agosto. Nick decided he should order Thomas and Agosto to stop all skimming or declare a moratorium. he wanted Thomas to watch his crew and other casino employees to see if they started stealing from other places. After a few weeks, Nick ordered both of these Tropicana employees to travel o Kansas City for a meeting.

The FBI wiretaps picked up the plans for this meeting. They knew when and where a couple of weeks prior to the date. They were able to plant a listening device and the take from this device would eventually bring down the entire skimming operations at the Tropicana and the Stardust. This story contains some of those clips and tells this story.

Show notes by Gary Jenkins

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