LOST VEGAS: The Continental and the Last (Known) Mob Skim

Posted on: January 16, 2025, 08:59h. 

Last updated on: January 17, 2025, 06:46h.

Cook E. Jarr, the beloved lounge singer who died on Tuesday, is the most famous person publicly associated with Las Vegas’ Continental Hotel and Casino. He was such a mainstay, $500 casino chips were once fashioned in his name. But a much more public figure was associated with the puny off-Strip casino — only he was really private about it because he didn’t want his hands caught in the cookie jar.

The Continental Hotel and Casino opened a mile east of the Flamingo Hotel, at Paradise Road, in 1980. It had only 23K square-foot gaming space and 15 slot machines, though 250 more were added the following year. (Image: X/@SilverSevensLV)
Cook E. Jarr’s image appears on his own Continental casino chip. (Image: Las Vegas Locally)

The Continental was built and opened by Ira Levy and his partners, Albert Barouk and Lous Litwin. A minority owner was Anthony Robone, whose son Nicholas worked at the casino.

In 1986, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) received a tip that Nicholas was skimming. (That’s removing money on which taxes haven’t been paid, if you’ve never seen the 1995 movie “Casino.”). Barouk admitted to investigators that the same tipster had made the same accusation to him two months earlier, but he found no evidence to back it up.

The board found the alleged wrongdoing unsubstantiated, though chair Bart Jacks admonished Barouk for not calling the board immediately upon hearing the accusation.

Gambling Gambinos

One year later, a skim was discovered at the Continental — to the tune of $1,000 a day/five days a week — and neither Anthony nor Nicholas Robone were implicated in it.

The crime was tied to none other than John Gotti. The head of New York’s powerful Gambino crime family, Gotti was the most feared mobster in the US at the time, and the public believed there was no stopping him.

John Gotti laughs off his arrest in a 1990 FBI mug shot. Two years later, he was convicted of five counts of murder, including that of former Gambino boss Paul Castellano. Gotti died of throat cancer in June 2002, while serving life without parole. (Image: FBI)

Gotti ascended to power by brutally murdering his predecessor, Paul Castellano, outside a Manhattan steakhouse in December 1985. New York Newsday nicknamed him “the Teflon Don” because criminal charges somehow would never stick to him. (That particular charge finally stuck in 1992.)

According to KSNV-TV/Las Vegas reporter Dan Burns in 1988, two sources close to the Gotti investigation in New York told him that Gotti was taped talking on the phone to “a man named Mikey in Las Vegas.”

NGCB investigators identified this person as Mike DiBari, an assistant slot supervisor at the Continental. They alleged that DiBari skimmed for Gotti, funneling funds to him with help from fellow Gambino associate Alphonse Cuozzo.

According to the investigators, none of the Continental’s owners were hip to the scheme. That’s because DiBari had rigged certain slots to pay out phony jackpots to Cuozzo and others. The coins were then cashed in at the Continental or taken to Sam’s Town. The cash was then sent to Gotti in New York via a courier, reputed Gambino associate John Mascia, who traveled regularly to Las Vegas to meet with DiBari, according to an affidavit based on information from confidential informants.

The Last Roundup

Mike DeBari. (Image: KSNV-TV/Las Vegas)

By the way, this was after the murder of Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro and the convictions of Joey “Doves” Aiuppa and four other alleged mobsters for skimming around $2 million in profits from the Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda, and Marina casinos.

By then, it was (and still is) commonly believed that the mafia had been successfully removed from all casino operations.

Not quite yet.

Patrick Foran, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in Nevada, told gaming regulators in December 1987 that skimming had been reduced in Las Vegas due to increased corporate ownership, better regulatory screening, and more onsite gaming inspections. However, he said, “I do not believe it is totally wiped out. There are still pockets of influence that exist in casinos, unbeknownst to management.”

In September 1988, FBI agents served a federal strike force subpoena on the Continental, seeking bookkeeping records from the slot department. They discovered enough evidence to charge DiBari with interstate transportation of stolen property (cash).

A year later, DiBari was convicted and served just short of four years. No one else was charged in the case. It would be the last time a reputed mafia member was convicted of skimming from a Las Vegas casino.

In September 1998, DiBari’s name became the 32nd added to the list of excluded persons, Nevada’s infamous “Black Book” of individuals banned for life from entering any casino in the state.

Continental Drifts

In February 1998, the Continental declared bankruptcy. Its largest creditor, Crowne Gaming, was set to take over the property. However, Crowne also went bankrupt, so American Realty Trust Inc. foreclosed in April 1998, claiming that Crowne owed it $31.2 million.

Silver Sevens today. (Image: Silver Sevens)

After American Realty and the Continental failed to agree on a new lease, American Realty filed an emergency motion to evict Hotel Continental from the property by Jan. 31, 1999. The two companies agreed to extend the deadline to March 31, 1999, which was the last day of operation for the Continental.

In late 1999, the Continental was purchased for $65 million by the Herbst family, owners of the local Terrible Herbst gas station chain, and reopened as Terrible’s Hotel Casino, their first gaming property, in December 2000.

Herbst Gaming filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and emerged a year later with the Herbst family no longer involved. The company changed its name to Affinity Gaming in 2011. In 2013, Affinity remade Terrible’s into Silver Sevens.

In November 2023, plans were announced to renovate Silver Sevens and rebrand it once again in 2025. The new name would be — cue “Circle of Life” — the Continental!

A year later, however, new Affinity CEO Scott Butera said that the rebrand was being reconsidered, and no mention has been made of it since.

“Lost Vegas” is an occasional Casino.org series spotlighting Las Vegas’ forgotten history. Click here to read other entries in the series. Think you know a good Vegas story lost to history? Email corey@casino.org.