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Frank Sinatra Land Based Casino To Close (2010)
A Nevada casino once owned by legend Frank Sinatra and patronised by Hollywood stars and mobsters has closed due to plunging gambling rates and competition from the Vegas strip.
Media Man and Gambling911 investigate, as we mix it up with Hollywooders, journos, academics and mobsters...
Associations with the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Junior has not been enough to save the Cal Neva Lodge Casino from the distressed US land based casino industry.
The casino, situated on Lake Tahoe near the California border, last year saw its revenues fall to approximately 50% of what they enjoyed in 1992 allowing for inflation, tipped Mr William Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada.
Other local casinos continue to close or have downsized, unable to compete with Las Vegas, not in good shape itself – and the growing number of gambling resorts on Native American Indian reservations.
"The realities are when you have that kind of decline the weakest operators typically get pushed out," advised Mr Eadington. "The older, tired casinos and the Cal Neva is a great example, don't have much to offer for gaming."
Understood to be America's oldest licensed casino, the Cal Neva opened for business in 1926. The Cal Veva enjoyed its peak in the early 1960s when it was bought by Sinatra, reportedly in partnership with Sam Giancana, a Chicago mobster.
Adding a 35-seat celebrity showroom and rooftop helicopter pad, Samy and Frank ensured film stars, singers and Mafiosi enjoyed its blackjack games and roulette tables.
A network of underground tunnels, built to smuggle alcohol during Prohibition, allowed the VIP guests to move around the establishment without being seen by the general public.
Monroe actually spent the last weekend of her colourful life at The Cal in 1962 as a guest of the infamous 'Rat Pack' actor Peter Lawford and his wife.
Various stories circulate as to why the blond goddess was there. One story goes on to say she discussed making a film with Dean Martin and to patch things up with her second husband, baseball icon Joe DiMaggio, yet another Cal Neva regular. The other side of the story we learn is that a 1999 biography claimed Monroe was brought there to be threatened not to reveal her Mafia links, drugged in her cabin and photographed in compromising positions! Another Cal Neva rumour claims she used the resort for a tryst with John F Kennedy.
Staff concede the resort has traded off its colourful history but Guy Rocha, a former Nevada state archivist, said it would not register with younger gamblers. The hotel and restaurant remain open, but the tables, slots and other gambling activity are history.
"The Cal Neva doesn't capture people's imagination the way it once did," he said.
The Sinatra name is however alive and strong on the internet.
