even if we simply don't have the evidence to prove it thousands of pages of electronic surveillance of organized crime leaders have been gone through and there's nothing there to suggest their involvement still jfk's death did benefit them there's no doubt about that robert didn't have his brother as a connection anymore and the nevada project died out rfk had been so vehemently against organized crime and though it remained national policy to stamp out the mob the principal driver was gone by the time the NUMBER_TOKENs and NUMBER_TOKENs rolled around the mob extended its power beyond the strip anthony spelautro known as tony the ant came to vegas in NUMBER_TOKEN to run a gift shop however state regulators learned he had been allegedly involved in as many as NUMBER_TOKEN murders tony formed a hole-in-the-wall burglary gang earning its nickname after blowing a hole in the side of a jewelry store during a robbery something like straight out of a cartoon and just like that the mob had been romanticized or at least glamorized in vegas sure the movies and the larger than life characters are fascinating but i'm not so sure i'm really longing for the days when the mob was in control either however it wasn't just mobs supposedly running vegas either one source claims that other casinos in riviera new frontier and strip dunes were developed using illegal money from both wall street banks and even the mormon church ashley hall the church's public affairs director said that quote you can raise the question of how can good mormons be involved indirectly in gaming but to us business is business gaming is not illegal in nevada end quote and it's true the lds community has played a massive role in las vegas despite the church officially opposing gaming still banker perry thomas a mormon whose wife is a direct descendant of the famed brigham young financed dozens of casinos in the NUMBER_TOKENs he apparently worked with teamsters leader jimmy hoffa to finance some casinos using union pension funds in the NUMBER_TOKENs as well as at one point owned the riviera hotel casino when thomas was asked about the apparent conflict between his religious principles and his involvement in gambling he said that before starting to finance the casino industry he struggled with the moral imperative should we extend credit should we do business should we accept deposits should we be in any way involved with gamblers these dirty filthy gamblers thomas recounted in the bbc's NUMBER_TOKEN documentary las vegas and the mormons well it finally dawned on us that in nevada gaming was legal and as bankers we were entitled to support every legal entity but it wasn't just mobsters and criminals that were attracted to vegas nor was it just mormons deciding to separate business from religion either one of those might be a bit strange or interesting instead combine the two the mormon mafia helped shape vegas now that's a sentence i thought i'd never utter and before we dig into this supposed mormon mafia we're just going to take a quick moment to thank today's sponsor it's never too early to start gift shopping
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