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Las Vegas Mob classic ‘Casino’ celebrates 30th anniversary

This month marks 30 years since the debut of the Martin Scorsese film Casino. In this publicity photo, Scorsese, left, chats with Joe Pesci, who played Nicky Santoro, based on Chicago mobster Tony Spilotro. Universal Pictures
October 30, 2025

Three decades after Casino was released in November 1995, screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi says the nearly three-hour film portrays the end of an era in Las Vegas when mobsters controlled casinos. That era ran from the 1940s into the ’80s, but the movie focuses on a period during the ’70s and early ’80s when Chicago’s Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and Tony “The Ant” Spilotro were active in Las Vegas. During a recent telephone interview, Pileggi said the movie and his related book, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas, are “really about the end of the Mob” in Las Vegas and “the taking over of Las Vegas ...

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Las Vegas entertainer Al Martino, second from left in front, became a household name after his casting as singer Johnny Fontane in the 1972 film The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola, second from right, paid a visit to the Desert Inn to help get Martino out of his contract. Alison Martino

Alison Martino recalls her father’s Las Vegas

When singer Al Martino was a showroom headliner performing on the Las Vegas Strip years ago, the mobsters who ran…

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Before John Gotti bricked over the façade, the Ravenite Social Club had a much more welcoming exterior. Crime family boss Carlo Gambino and his underboss Aniello Dellacroce made the Ravenite their headquarters. Getty Images

New film ‘The Alto Knights’ named for one of Mob’s many social clubs

The Alto Knights, the film written by Nicholas Pileggi and directed by Barry Levinson, is named for a once-prominent Manhattan social…

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Nick Pileggi adds a new entry to the extensive library of Mob movies in March with The Alto Knights. Pileggi also wrote Goodfellas and Casino, both mainstays of the organized crime film genre. Courtesy of Kate Henry

New movie ‘The Alto Knights’ revives bitter feud between major mobsters

The newest Mob movie written by journalist and screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, The Alto Knights, is his third major script focused…

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After the indictments, U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani, left, and FBI Director William Webster held a press conference and showed a diagram outlining defendant’s position within the Commission’s hierarchy. Bettmann/Corbis

The bosses of the Mafia Commission were indicted 40 years ago

New York, like other major cities across the United States, faced waves of crime during the 1970s and ’80s. What…

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Inspired by The Godfather films, Mafia: The Old Country is the latest in the Mafia series by Hangar 13 and set in Sicily in the early 1900s. The game is scheduled for release later this year. 2K Games

The top 5 organized crime video games

In the 1980s, video arcades loaded with coin-operated gaming cabinets were a common shopping mall destination for people with quarters…

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New York Post front page story about John Gotti's conviction

Legendary New York tabloid’s heyday included focus on Mafia stories

Beginning in the 1970s, the New York Post’s coverage of the Mob typified tabloid journalism during organized crime’s heyday in…

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Pacino received more leading roles after his success as Michael Corleone in The Godfather. One of those roles, Tony Montana in Scarface, would rival The Godfather as his most famous performance. Universal Pictures / Photofest

‘Scarface’ achieves cult status with Al Pacino in starring role

When Scarface premiered in 1983, starring Al Pacino as a Cuban drug trafficker in South Florida, the movie was regarded…

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