Man who stole casino chips added to Nevada Black Book
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A North Las Vegas man who was convicted of stealing casino chips has been added to the Nevada Black Book — officially called the “List of Excluded Persons” maintained by state gaming officials.
Neal Ahmed Hearne, 43, was convicted in 2018 in separate incidents involving theft and attempted theft of casino chips. Both are felonies. Documents filed by the Nevada Gaming Control Board indicate the state agreed not to pursue 13 additional cases concerning the theft of casino chips as part of the plea agreements for the two felony convictions.
The Nevada Gaming Commission on Wednesday to put Hearne into the Black Book in an order signed by Chair Jennifer P. Togliatti.
The Black Book now includes 37 names of people who are not allowed to go into Nevada casinos. It’s a fascinating collection of people convicted of crimes as simple as Hearne’s act of stealing chips to slot cheaters to notorious names from Las Vegas’s gaming past including Richard Mark “Richie the Fixer” Perry, who was at the center of a scandal involving players on UNLV’s championship basketball team, and convicted racketeer Joey Cusumano, co-producer of the movie, “The Cotton Club.”
The names and faces are a trip down memory lane when Las Vegas was an “open city” for major crime families in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. But many of the names have come off the list as major figures in Las Vegas history including Tony “The Ant” Spilotro disappeared or died.
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