Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal

Frank Larry 'Lefty' Rosenthal, born on June 12, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois, is a renowned sports handicapper and a former Las Vegas casino executive. He secretly ran the Stardust, Fremont and Hacienda casinos when they were controlled by the mafia.

He was the first to bring a sports book into the casino, making the Stardust one of the world's leading centers for sports gambling as well as allowing women to be blackjack dealers which doubled the income of the Stardust within a year. Frank is also known as one of the leading sports bettors in the world as he has the ability to predict the outcome of sporting events through his knowledge and statistical analysis of the sports world.

Rosenthal earned the nickname "Lefty" during a Supreme Court hearing where he pleaded the Fifth Amendment 37 times, not even revealing whether or not he was left-handed.
Rosenthal married Geraldine McGee and they had two children. The marriage ultimately ended in divorce, with Rosenthal attributing the failure primarily to McGee's inability to escape her drug addictions. McGee eventually died in the early 1980s following an apparent drug overdose at a motel after leaving Rosenthal and stealing a significant portion of his savings. It was ruled that her death was accidental and that is was from a combination of cocaine, valium, and Jack Daniel's whiskey.

After surviving attempted murder following a car bomb attack and then being forced out of Las Vegas, Rosenthal retired to Laguna Niguel, California, and then to Boca Raton, Florida, where he continues to handicap sports events, marketing his picks to gamblers through his own website.
Rosenthal was put in Nevada's Black Book in 1988, making him persona non grata in the state's casinos since that time.

The 1995 Martin Scorsese film Casino, based on the book by Nicholas Pileggi, was based on Rosenthal's career in Las Vegas. Rosenthal (renamed "Sam 'Ace' Rothstein" in the fictionalized account) was played by Robert De Niro and his associate Anthony Spilotro (renamed "Nicky Santoro") was played by Joe Pesci.