An insistent opposition has dogged the development of a slots machine casino at the former Mount Airy Lodge in Mount Pocono, PA. Among the residents of the area where the resort is located are a contingent of casino opponents who protest just about any mention of the casino in the local newspaper forums. Many consider themselves experts in “organized crime” and tell anecdotal stories which might have been plagiarized from rerun Soprano episodes.
Why the term “organized crime” is tossed about in many of these discussions is because the idea of the Italian mafia occupies a permanent spot in the American imagination. The notion was certainly popularized in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather series of films. Though presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is Italian and had no small role in mafia prosecutions in New York City, the concept of a society being run by an invisible shadow army of fedora wearing outlaw Italians is both tempting and abiding.
Mr. Louis DeNaples, who owns businesses ranging from auto parts, sanitation, and banking and who was the driving force behind the Mount Airy Casino, pleaded “no contest” to falsifying documents related to federal flood recovery efforts in the 1970s.
When Louis DeNaples applied for a gambling license, he was asked whether he had any associations or connections with organized crime. He said “no,” but he might have instead said something like “that depends on what you mean by organized crime and what you mean by connections with.” Or maybe a better answer would have been:
“Sure. I loaned bulldozers to the indicted county commissioners in Wilkes-Barre.”
While Pennsylvania gambling laws prohibit anyone with a felony conviction from holding a gaming license, the law does not apply to convictions more than fifteen years old. The award of the gaming license to DeNaples could be revoked if it is determined that he perjured himself when claiming he had no connections to organized crime. The prosecution team is trying to prove that Louis DeNaples had connections to an alleged mob leader named William D’Elia.
Louis DeNaples’ brother Eugene was asked to testify before a Dauphin County grand jury on December 27 regarding William D’Elia, the reputed Buffalino crime family leader. D’Elia is currently imprisoned on money laundering charges and charges of attempting to kill an informant. The substance of Mr. Eugene DeNaples’ testimony is yet unknown, but the prosecution has a heavy burden in proving that DeNaples’ brother’s contact with Mr. D’Elia would be quite the same as a contact by Louis DeNaples. U.S. Courts have typically frowned upon “guilt by association” though they have granted greater leeway to prosecutors pressing cases against organized crime.
State prosecutors allege that they have videotapes of D’Elia entering an auto parts store managed by Louis DeNaples’ brother, Eugene. The charges against D’Elia are unproven and D’Elia’s attorney, James Swetz of Stroudsburg, PA, declined to comment when asked if his client would cooperate with the DeNaples probe.
Nonetheless, the grand jury investigations of “organized crime” continue, much to the romantic excitement of visitors. Some folks have implied that the insinuations have contributed to traffic at the resort.
On a dreary winter day just recently, I drove to the casino to see if I could indeed rub elbows with “made men” of the type I’d seen in a recent Sopranos episode. While I have played slot machines in Nevada, gambling does not much interest me. I did enjoy the shows, the restaurants, the boxing matches and similar entertainments, however. When gambling was put on a Pennsylvania ballot referendum, I voted against it. My opposition to gambling was motivated more by math skills insufficient to attain profitability than by provincial morality.
Mount Airy Casino occupies almost the whole of Woodland Road, alongside of which is a wide-open area with rolling hills and a shimmering, ice-covered pond. While the casino and hotel buildings loom large against the landscape, the buildings have more the look of an Alpine resort than of Las Vegas glitz. Outside, the atmosphere is peaceful as Our Lady of Victory Retreat, a few hundred yards up Woodland Road.
The foyer and portico are large scale and the ersatz boulders over which the lobby waterfall courses are of reasonable verisimilitude and resemble those real ones at Incline Village on the California-Nevada border. I hurried to the escalator, at the top of which was one of the several security guards posted around the gaming area. He politely discouraged me from shooting photos in the gambling area, a rule that was reinforced three times by other security persons ringed around the gambling area. But what did I care about photographs? Titillated by local rumors, I was there to see mobsters.
The first thing that struck me was how much all casinos look alike. The Mount Airy Casino slots area was large, with smaller areas along the rounded sides where you could play poker or blackjack with a life sized dealer of either sex who appeared on a large video screen and smoothly dealt the cards and awaited your play with a polite but not obsequious patience. I suspected that somewhere behind the trace of the smile, there was a deep knowledge of clandestine mob activity. The female dealer I saw was Asian, pretty, and looked directly at the player. I suspected she had been hired away from one of the Asian Tongs. The other dealers were male, well-heeled, and impervious to any gambler’s entreaties. I thought of that scene in the Godfather where the traitor is discovered and taken “for a ride.”
“Tom… Can you get me off the hook?,,,for old time’s sake?
I did a turn around the casino perimeter looking in on players on slots denominated from a penny to larger dollar amounts. Sitting in front of the gaming machines were an assortment of middle-aged and older women who could have been my Aunt Sadie. She’s Italian, and like my mom, was born in Sicily, the island home of Don Corleone. I smiled to one or two of them knowingly but they were too smart to wink back.
There was a guy in a buckskin jacket with fringe on the sleeves and a cowboy hat playing at the quarter slots. He looked more Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy than Bobby DeNiro in Casino. There were quite a few old boys, cronies, with navy caps bearing the names of ships, and most of them looked like the kind of people you see on summer days in suburban neighborhoods atop Club Cadet lawn and garden tractors.
Eventually, I got a little bored and began to think that I’d never get the chance to “make my bones.” Another security guard spotted my camera and again informed me I couldn’t take pictures of the casino floor or patrons. Not even the patrons! Now that sounded suspicious in spades. I suppose that really tough mob guys and molls didn’t want their pictures all over YouTube, knowing that the new generation of feds is accustomed to spending a lot of time online.
It was time to get a cup of coffee in one of the restaurants lining the casino periphery. The arrangement of possibilities was pleasant, with restaurants arrayed around the oval gaming area. Since it was daytime, the upscale Italian restaurant was not yet opened, nor was the nightclub. Someone told me the nightclub was for the evening crowd. I resolved to get back there one night when I could be sure the Gambinos would show up. But for now, it was the 50s style restaurant which attracted me and I ordered a cup of coffee for $2.25. It was good coffee though, and that was like winning something.
Looking around, I saw more of those cagey and cunning retirees, older men in clean blue jeans or cotton trousers, retired women who smoked and seemed to think they deserved some fun after years in the factory or office. I wasn’t fooled. When you hang out in a mob habitat, you hear things. I’ll let you in on a secret-I talked to some people. Yeah, they were disguised as waiters, or security guards, or restaurant managers. The employees I spoke with seemed pleased to have landed jobs. One person told me that DeNaples seems to “care about us.” Of course, I had to promise not to use their names.
Here are some quick facts I learned about the Mount Airy Casino mob:
· The golf course won’t be open until 2009.
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· A special January promotional rate of 109.00 per night is worth looking into. Other promotional package deals are offered.
· Parking is free and convenient with a free shuttle service and covered waiting stations.
· Rooms are modern and standard features are a 37 inch LCD TV. Check in -check out is 4:00 p.m. checkout is 11:00 a.m.
· The amount of land occupied by the resort is huge and so is Mr. DeNaples $412 million dollar investment in it. Future plans include creating activities and facilities for children.
· Construction of a civic and cultural center which will feature athletic events, orchestras, concerts, and other cultural entertainments.
· The establishment of a foundation to help inner-city kids.
But you may want to check out the most recent information yourself on the Mount Airy Casino website at http://www.mountairycasino.com/
