Coin Slot

Coin Slot Magazine - #057 - 1979 - November [International Arcade Museum]
combined efforts of the U.S. Attorney General's
$6,513,000 was financed by Tony and his partner
Office, Coast Guard, Customs Office, U.S. Marshall,
James Bradley through the sale of stock.
and the Justice Department to defeat his gambling
ship.
Cornero's
Cornero might have avoided the seizure had
he cancelled his coastwise shipping license, a pre
for a Nevada gambling
Governor and Nevada Tax Commission, so he with
caution which lead to his downfall.
drew it
In
application
license immediately brought opposition from the
its brief life, the LUX showed a profit of
hotel
before
it was denied.
license, however.
He did obtain a
Cornero owned 50% of
about $200,000, but the loss of the ship and
the stock and he was to head the Stardust Hotel,
equipment made it a financial disater
scheduled to open in August of 1955, as president
and general
a
manager.
To control the gambling
A year and a half later, President Truman signed
in the hotel, the over 2800 stockholders voted to
bill
lease the casino to a group of eight men headed
sponsored by Senator Knowland
gambling
ships
United States.
in
the
territorial
waters
banning
of
the
This ended Admiral Cornero's high
by Cornero, for the enormous sum of six million
dollars a year.
seas gambling career.
The Federal Securities and Exchange Commis
sion was suspicious of how the sale of stock in
AFTER THE LUX
the Stardust enterprise was handled as their approv
After losing the
LUX, Cornero went back to
the coastal shipping trade.
In
1947 his second
al
had
not been obtained, and they took legal
action
to
have Cornero produce his books and
records.
and last wife, Barbara Land, divorced him.
Tony still desired to return to the casino gamb-
While the Stardust was being constructed, Cor
Irng business and began to investigate the idea of
nero and
opening a casino in Mexico, just across the Cali
Las Vegas on weekends.
fornia border.
where Tony
One February night in 1948, two
his
partner lived at the
Cornero
Desert Inn in
It was at the Desert Inn,
suddenly
died of a heart
Mexican associates visited Cornero at his home
attack, after an all night crap game, just a couple
in Beverly Hills (where Tony lived with his mother)
of weeks before the Stardust was to open.
to discuss his plan for a south of the border gamb
ling casino.
The meeting was interrupted by a
On Sunday morning, July 31, 1955, Tony had
deliveryman at the door who said he had an im
lost over $10,000 in the dice game and was striving
portant package for Mr. Cornero. As Tony opened
to break even.
the door the man pulled out a gun from behind
roll of the dice.
He was betting $25 chips on every
the package and shot him.
line"
accidentally
A chip he tossed at the "come
fell
short.
The
stick
man,
believing it was meant to be placed on a specific
The assassination attempt was unsuccessful and
Tony recovered.
The police never determined the
gunman's identity or motive.
They theorized that
number, began pushing it a half inch to be fully
on the number.
Tony, speaking quickly to beat
the roll of the dice, said "No, No!
Leave it there!"
it was an associate of Cornero's who lost heavily
after
the
after investing in the LUX and who was out for
slumped to the floor.
which
he
collapsed
onto
table
and
com
.
He was pronounced dead by his personal phys
m
:
m
eu ician,
o
s
r
u
f
matter after he recovered.
and the Las Vegas coroner traced his death
ded cade-m
a
to natural causes stemming from a four-year heart
o
l
n plan w. never
ar developed, and ailment. Funeral services were held in Los Angeles
The Mexican
Dow casino
w
/w once again to Las Vegas. and he was laid to rest in Inglewood. Cornero
Tony turned his interests
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h
About 1954 he began his final and most ambitious
was survived by his mother, two sisters, a brother,
revenge.
holdup
Cornero maintained it was just a bungled
attempt,
and
kept
silent
on the whole
project, creating the Stardust Hotel and Casino in
and his old foe,
Las
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Vegas.
The
1502
room
© The International Arcade Museum
resort,
costing
Earl Warren, who had become
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