Edward Levinson (March 2, 1898 to December 26, 1981) was an American criminal and gambling operator.
He was raised in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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then joined the underworld in
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
in the 1920s and became an associate of
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Lucky Luciano, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the deve ...
.
Levinson and his brothers moved to
Newport, Kentucky
Newport is a home rule-class city at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking rivers in Campbell County, Kentucky. The population was 15,273 at the 2010 census. Historically, it was one of four county seats of Campbell County. Newport is a major ...
, in the 1930s, where they dominated illegal gambling. In the 1940s he moved to Miami, then in 1952 to Las Vegas, where he became a part owner and operator of various legitimate hotels and casinos. For several years he ran the
Fremont Hotel and Casino. Illegal FBI tapes seemed to show that Levinson was involved in skimming profits for delivery to hidden underworld partners. In the 1960s he became involved in enterprises in which he was associated with senior politicians of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
.
Early career
Edward Levinson was born on March 2, 1898 to a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
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, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
, Illinois.
His mother, Mary Goodman Levinson, was the aunt of Edward M. Gertz, who was involved in the liquor business in Chicago during the
Prohibition Era
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic be ...
.
Ed and his brothers Mike and "Sleepout" Louis grew up in Chicago, then moved to Detroit where they joined the underworld, ran two casinos and were active in the 1920s newspaper circulation wars.
Ed Levinson was a prominent member of the Detroit illegal gambling fraternity and collaborated with Samuel Garfield, a friend of
Moe Dalitz
Morris Barney Dalitz (December 25, 1899 – August 31, 1989) was an American gangster, businessman, casino owner, and philanthropist. He was one of the major figures who shaped Las Vegas in the 20th century. He was often referred to as "Mr. Las V ...
.
He was arrested occasionally, but usually the charges were dismissed.
Levinson became an associate of
Bugsy Siegel
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (February 28, 1906 – June 20, 1947) was an American mobster who was a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Siegel was not only influential within the Jewish Mob, but along with his childhood fri ...
(1906–47), the partner of
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Lucky Luciano, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the deve ...
.
Newport, Kentucky
The Levinson brothers moved to
Newport, Kentucky
Newport is a home rule-class city at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking rivers in Campbell County, Kentucky. The population was 15,273 at the 2010 census. Historically, it was one of four county seats of Campbell County. Newport is a major ...
in the 1930s as representatives of Lansky's national organized crime syndicate.
Newport was on the other side of the
Ohio River from
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...
.
The Levinsons became key players in the flashy casino gambling scene in Newport, as did the "Cleveland Four", of which Moe Dalitz was a leader.
At one time Levinson controlled the illegal gambling in Newport.
The 633/Flamingo Club at 633 York Street was opened in the late 1930s by Arthur Dennert.
The Levinsons forced Dennert out of control and turned the Flamingo into one of the most popular casinos in Newport.
They let Dennert retain his share.
Pete Schmidt, who had been forced out of his Newport, Kentucky club Beverley Hills Country Club by the syndicate, remodeled his Glenn Hotel in Newport in 1943 and expanded the casino, renaming it the Glenn Rendezvous.
Dennert also had interests in the Glenn Rendezvous.
The syndicate did not accept the competition from Schmidt, and their associates began a campaign of urinating publicly in the lobby.
Schmidt gave in to the pressure.
In 1948 the Levinson brothers and Arthur Dennert bought the Glenn Rendezvous.
Dennert opened the Club Alexandria in 1949, a casino that could hold hundreds of gamblers.
Dennert was killed in an auto crash in 1952, in which foul play was suspected.
The Cleveland Four claimed his share in the Flamingo.
In the late 1940s Levinson partnered with Gil "the Brain" Beckley in running the Bobben Realty layoff bank, which would become the largest layoff bank in the country.
Miami
Ed Levinson started gambling operations in south Florida in the late 1940s.
Routine operations in Newport were handled by his brother Louis and others such as Ed Whitfield, Red Masterson and the Bermans.
Mike and Louis Levinson ran gambling places in
Covington, Kentucky
Covington is a home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, United States, located at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking Rivers. Cincinnati, Ohio, lies to its immediate north across the Ohio and Newport, to its east across the Licki ...
, until stopped by a reform in 1960.
In 1950 and again in 1951 Ed Levinson was arrested in Miami for offenses related to gambling, but was not convicted.
Las Vegas

Levinson was one of the investors in the
Sands Hotel and Casino, which opened on December 15, 1952.
There were many other investors, including the oilman Jake Freedman of Texas,
Sid Wyman,
Hyman Abrams and
Jack Entratter.
The performers
Frank Sinatra and
Dean Martin
Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...
both bought minor interests in the hotel.
Although Jake Freedman was ostensibly the main shareholder, it was really controlled by
Frank Costello.
In May 1953 the Nevada Tax Commission said it was well aware of the backgrounds of gamblers and hoodlums that the final report of the California Crime Commission had named as trying to become established in the legal gambling industry in Nevada.
These included Levinson,
Joseph Stacher
Joseph Stacher (c. 1902 – 1977) (alias Doc Stacher, Joseph Rosen, Doc Harris el al)Joseph Stacher, Appellant, v. United States of America, Appellee, 258 F.2d 112 (9th Cir. 195/ref> was a Jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together the J ...
, Mack Kufferman, Meyer Lansky, Malcolm Clarke and William Bischoff.
Levinson was described as a bookmaker in Florida, Kentucky and elsewhere.
The Nevada commission secretary pointed out that unlike other states Nevada distinguished between gamblers, who were legal and licensed, and racketeers, who were not. He said both Levinson and Clarke, licensed in the Sands Hotel, had gambling backgrounds which were studied minutely before they were granted casino permits.
In September 1953 Levinson, described as "Sands casino boss", was quoted extolling the value provided by Las Vegas hotels with their low prices, swimming pools, plush casinos and high-quality entertainment.
A newspaper report in September 1954 said the
Flamingo Hotel was being sold for between $9 and $10 million to a Chicago syndicate of mid-west bookies and gamblers.
Ed Levinson would be connected with the Flamingo after the sale.
The Nevada Tax Commission said it knew nothing about the deal.
The
Dunes
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...
opened on 23 May 1955 and soon ran into financial difficulty.
The Sands management agreed to take over operation of the Dunes, and the Nevada Tax Commission agreed to an arrangement where Ed Levinson would run the casino and Jack Entratter would be Entertainment Director for both hotels.
The Sands team could not turn the Dunes around, and it was sold to new owners in 1956.

Levinson partnered with Lou Lurie, a San Francisco financier who had experience with hotels in Miami, to build the 15-story Fremont, the first refined hotel in downtown Las Vegas.
The
Fremont Hotel and Casino opened on May 18, 1956 in downtown Las Vegas.
Levinson had a 20% share of the Fremont, which had been built using loans from the Teamsters.
Levinson brought in Chef Shillig, formerly of the Ritz Hotel in Paris and the Savoy in London, and made Ed Torres the food and beverage manager.
Torres and Levinson arranged high-class entertainers like
Wayne Newton
Carson Wayne Newton (born April 3, 1942) is an American singer and actor. One of the most popular singers in the nation from the mid-to-late 20th-century, Newton remains one of the best-known entertainers in Las Vegas. He is known by the nicknam ...
,
Kay Starr
Katherine Laverne Starks (July 21, 1922 – November 3, 2016), known professionally as Kay Starr, was an American singer who enjoyed considerable success in the late 1940s and 1950s. She was of Iroquois and Irish heritage. Starr performed multip ...
,
Pat Boone
Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer and actor. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He sold more than 45 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and appeared in mo ...
and
Helen Reddy
Helen Maxine Reddy (25 October 194129 September 2020) was an Australian-American singer, actress, television host, and activist. Born in Melbourne to a showbusiness family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on rad ...
to draw the crowds.
Levinson managed Meyer Lansky's
Havana Riviera before
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2 ...
took over
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
in January 1959 and closed it down.
Levinson moved back to Las Vegas in 1959 to run the Fremont.
In 1959 Levinson,
Carl Cohen and Jack Entratter headed a group that bought the
Riviera hotel and casino
Riviera (colloquially, "the Riv") was a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada, which operated from April 1955 to May 2015. It was last owned by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which decided to demolish it ...
in Las Vegas.

Levinson bought a 27% share of
Binion's Horseshoe.
The Horseshoe reopened in June 1961 after a construction project costing more than $2 million had combined it with the former Boulder club. Levinson, president of the Horseshoe as well as the Fremont, came up with the concept of the Horseshoe's exterior with its huge marquee.
In 1964
Benny Binion bought back the shares that Levinson and his associates held in the Horseshoe and took back control of the operation.
In February 1962 Levinson applied for approval of a sale of one third of his share in the Fremont to local businessman
Jerome D. Mack for a maximum price of $370,000.
Levinson would keep a 20% share in the Fremont.
The hotel was going through a massive expansion at the time in which more than a block would be filled with new facilities.
In 1966 the Parvin-Dohrman Company of Los Angeles bought the Fremont.
Albert Parvin, head of the company, was connected to Levinson and to the Teamsters.
His Parvin Foundation owned a share of the mortgage on the Flamingo.
Alleged Skimming
The
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
(FBI) placed a "bug" (hidden microphone) in Levinson's Fremont office in 1961.
The bug recorded Levinson saying of profit skimming, "You can't steal $100,000 a month and pay dividends. If you steal $50,000? Well, maybe ...".
An FBI report on the gambling industry recorded an informant's account of a conversation on January 21, 1963, between Levinson and Torres, vice-president of the Fremont, who were counting money and determining how much would be skimmed. Levinson said Meyer was getting the New Jersey money. Torres said he thought Meyer only handled the Florida area.
Levinson answered that "it all goes to Florida, then to New York and New Jersey".
The FBI bug recorded Benjamin B. Siegelbaum, a friend of Lansky, telling Levinson, "Meyer wants a breakdown".
They took this to mean Lansky wanted to know how the skim was to be divided up.
They thought the recording showed Levinson was counting out skim money from the Sands, Fremont, Flamingo and Horseshoe into shares that would be taken by courier to the hidden partners in the mob.
From the bug the FBI estimated that Lansky had an investment in the casinos of about $2.2 million, and earned $1 million per year from the combined skim.
In April 1963 FBI listeners heard Levinson reading aloud from a report on the skimming operation the FBI had just written.
He said, "My God, they even know about Ida
evine
ShopHQ (formerly ValueVision, ShopNBC, Evine Live, and Evine) is an American cable, satellite and broadcast home shopping television network and multi-channel video retailer owned by iMedia Brands Inc., in which Comcast holds a 12.5% stake ...
"
The casino operators at once searched their premises for bugs, and found microphones planted by the FBI in Levinson's office, the Dunes and the Horseshoe.
There was even a bug in Levinson's bedroom. Levinson brought a lawsuit against the FBI for the bugging.
Bobby Baker Scandal
Bobby Baker, a protege of
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
, and Fred Black, a lobbyist for
North American Aviation
North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included: the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the ...
, met Levinson at a pre-inauguration party in
Washington, D.C. in January 1961 before
John F. Kennedy took office.
They were probably introduced by Benny Sigelbaum, who was a friend of Baker.
The District of Columbia National bank was chartered in 1962 with Bobby Baker, Fred Black, Levinson and Sigelbaum as stockholders, as well as various senior Democrat politicians or their relatives.
Levinson, Baker and Jack Cooper, a Miami businessman and arms dealer, tried to arrange deals in the
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
.
Baker tried to use his influence to obtain a casino license there for Levinson, but did not succeed.
In November 1962 the bugs in Levinson's office at the Fremont picked up references to Baker. The FBI agent notified FBI chief
J. Edgar Hoover of the references early in 1963 because, "I thought it was important for Washington to be aware of the possible political influence of Ed Levinson."
Senator Kerr arranged financing to set up to Serv-U Corporation, which obtained a near-monopoly on machines selling soft drinks, candy and cigarettes on sites where companies were working on government defense contracts.
These included North American Aviation,
Northrop Corporation
Northrop Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1939 until its 1994 merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman. The company is known for its development of the flying wing design, most successfully the B-2 Spiri ...
and Space Technologies.
George Simon of Miami, chief accountant of the International Hotel chain, invested $80,000 and apparently arranged investments by Levinson, Torres and Sigelbaum.
Ernest Tucker, Bobby Baker's lawyer, also invested in the business.
Levinson and Seigelbaum arranged with an Oklahoma City bank for a $400,000 start-up loan for the Serve-U Corporation to buy equipment and supplies.
The alleged labor racketeer Mike Singer was on the payroll.
By 1963 Serv-U was making millions of dollars annually.
The Senate launched a two-year investigation in 1963.
In December 1963 Fred Black told senators investigating Baker's role in the vending machine affair, "I go along as far as Levinson is concerned with gambling, but he is far from being a racketeer."
Levinson appeared before the Senate Rules Committee on March 2, 1964, and was asked who else had gone on the trips he made the Dominican Republic with Bobby Baker.
They were probing to find out if Lyndon Johnson had been involved in attempts by the mob to open gambling concessions in the Dominican Republic.
Levinson refused to answer any questions.
The Senate eventually found that Baker did nothing illegal but was guilty of improper conduct.
Later the government charged Baker with larceny, fraud and income tax evasion.
Later career
In 1965 the
Federal Bureau of Narcotics suspected that Levinson was involved in
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Lucky Luciano, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the deve ...
's drug smuggling business.
In September 1966 it was reported that Ed Levinson and nine other Fremont Hotel executives had been served a subpoena to give information to US attorneys related to a suit against the FBI over the wiretapping. The Nevada Gaming commission wanted to call Levinson as a witness.
In May 1973 Levinson, 74, was resident in Las Vegas, and was reportedly involved with Lansky in investments in oil wells.
He died peacefully after a long life in the County of Los Angeles, California.
An FBI recording of Black's hotel suite in April 1963 recorded him saying of Levinson to columnist
Jack Anderson, "Jack, some day when Eddie comes here for dinner or something, I want you to meet him. He's a little hard to describe. I know his whole background. He was probably the biggest bookmaker Detroit ever had. I know he was the biggest gambler Miami ever had. Then he went to Las Vegas. He came under the granddaddy law; it excused him for anything he ever did as long as he stayed working in Nevada. He told us all those things."
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Levinson, Ed
1898 births
1981 deaths
Businesspeople from Chicago
Businesspeople from Las Vegas
American casino industry businesspeople
20th-century American businesspeople