Nevada to Remove Two Kansas City Mobsters from Black Book — Here’s Why They Were Banned for Life
Posted on: June 22, 2026, 03:11h.
Last updated on: June 22, 2026, 03:18h.
- Nevada regulators likely to remove William Cammisano Jr. and Peter Ribaste from the state’s casino exclusion list following their deaths.
- Both men were linked to the Kansas City crime family, which federal prosecutors tied to notorious Las Vegas casino skimming operations.
- Why did Nevada single out two Missouri mobsters for lifetime casino bans decades after the mob’s heyday?
The Nevada Gaming Commission is expected to remove two deceased alleged Kansas City mobsters from the state’s notorious “Black Book” – a list of individuals blackballed from Nevada casinos.
Having fulfilled the conditions of their lifetime bans, William Cammisano Jr. and Peter Ribaste, who died in 2023 and 2021, respectively, will be considered for removal by the regulator at a meeting on Thursday, according to CDC Gaming.
The pair have been in the book – or Nevada’s List of Excluded Persons, as it is more formally known – since the late 1990s.
‘Wille Rats’
Cammisano long denied having ties to the Kansas City Mafia, despite federal prosecutors’ assertions to the contrary. His father, William “Willie Rats” Cammisano Sr., led the crime family during the 1980s, and the younger Cammisano was identified in federal court filings as a trusted lieutenant.
In 1989, Cammisano Jr. was convicted of obstruction of justice for threatening a witness in a federal murder investigation.
FBI agents testified during the trial that he was a made member of the Kansas City mob. He was initially sentenced to five years in prison, later reduced on appeal.
In 2010, he served another prison term for his role in an illegal online sports betting operation that authorities said generated $3.6 million in wagers over three years.
Reputed Soldier
Ribaste, meanwhile, was a reputed soldier in the Kansas City syndicate for decades and once took orders directly from boss Carl Civella and underboss Carl DeLuna, according to court filings.
After moving to Las Vegas’ Spanish Trail community in 1989, Ribaste entered the car dealership business with the help of a $100,000 loan from Horseshoe Club co-owner Ted Binion, a relationship that later drew scrutiny from gaming regulators.
According to The Las Vegas Sun, Ribaste remained connected to organized crime figures and was observed in Las Vegas with a made member of the Kansas City mob less than a year before being placed in Nevada’s Black Book.
But of all the mobsters in all the states of America, why were these two — from a criminal syndicate based more than 1,000 miles from Las Vegas — singled out by Nevada regulators as persona non grata?
Why Them?
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Civella crime family was among several Midwest mob outfits that secretly siphoned cash from Las Vegas casinos before it could be counted or taxed.
Federal prosecutors ultimately tied Kansas City mob figures to skimming operations at Argent Corporation casinos, including the Stardust and Fremont, helping to expose one of the most notorious corruption scandals in Nevada gaming history.
Prosecutors alleged that Cammisano had met with Chicago organized crime figures regarding the Kansas City family’s share of proceeds from the sale of Argent casinos and its share of skimming profits from Las Vegas operations.
Ribaste, meanwhile, remained under scrutiny because of his alleged continued associations with Kansas City crime family members while living in Las Vegas.
Nevada’s Black Book was designed to keep out individuals believed to pose a threat to the integrity of the state’s gaming industry. Regulators viewed Cammisano and Ribaste as members of a crime family with a proven history of infiltrating Las Vegas casinos.
Both men died from complications of COVID-19.
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