Like Elvis, Lefty Rosenthal Generates Money From the Grave
The ghost of Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal lives on.
The Mob-connected Las Vegas sportsbook operator, whose life was made into the movie "Casino" and who died in 2008, still has a website that's up and running--despite being dead for four years!
The site, at www.frankrosenthal.com (it also directs from www.frankleftyrosenthal.com and www.frank777.com), contains sportsbook and handicapper reviews, news articles about frank, gambling tutorials and other gambling-related material.
There's also current poker news, updated daily.
Since it's unlikely that Frank, as innovative as he was, is running the website from his grave, just who is behind the day-to-day operation of the site now?
Gambling911.com investigated and here's what was learned:
Using the domain registration search site whois.com,, it was discovered that Frank's website is now registed to a company in San Jose, Costa Rica called E-Desarollo Web S.A. ("desarollo" is the Spanish word for "development").
According to the search info, that registration info was updated on June 14, 2012, just two weeks ago.
Frank's website, online since 1998, now has only one offshore sportsbook advertiser with a click-through banner ad, Jazz Sports, which is based in Costa Rica.
Frank, who created the prototype for the modern Las Vegas casino sportsbook when he ran the Stardust sportsbook, was portrayed in "Casino" as the character Ace Rothstein, played by Robert DeNiro.
As was shown in the movie, Frank survived a car bombing--fellow mobster Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, who was having an affair with Frank's wife, was suspected of placing the bomb but it was never proven.
Later, after being banned from the casino business in Nevada because of his association with mobsters, Frank moved to South Beach in Miami and retired--at least from the casino biz (he ran his website til his death and sold sports picks on it).
Despite the fact that many of the mobsters he'd associated with went to prison, Frank was never arrested, never charged with a crime, never spent a day in jail.
People thought he was lucky--or smart.
Upon his death, however, it was revealed that he had been a Federal informant, a stool pigeon, a rat, whatever you want to call it--and that's how he kept out of trouble, informing on others.
Now his corpse is being used to promote a website.
He would be so proud.
By Tom Somach
Gambling911.com Staff Writer
