The Nevada Gaming Commission is expected to rule Thursday on whether it will consider an unprecedented removal of a living person from the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s list of excluded persons.
Commissioners will consider whether a hearing is in order for Francis Citro, 80, a Las Vegas man who was placed on the list, also known as Nevada’s “black book,” on Nov. 21, 1991.
Usually, commissioners don’t remove someone’s name from the list until after they’ve died.
Citros’ lawyer, Michael Lasher, formally requested in November that Citros be removed from the list.
A popular entertainer at Las Vegas’ Italian American Club, Citro hopes his delisting would allow him to perform his collection of bebop music, Italian folk songs, jokes and stories about Las Vegas’ past mobsters in a casino lounge one day.
Citro recently performed for a private party at a New Year’s Eve celebration in Arizona.
In his 10-page petition to the commission, Lasher explains how Citro is a changed man from the one who stood before commissioners in a tuxedo in 1991 and heard the commission’s five members vote unanimously to ban him from the state’s casinos.
“There is good cause to grant the petitioner a hearing and to remove him from the list of excluded persons,” Lasher’s petition states. “The petitioner was placed on the list because of four felony convictions and his alleged reprehensible character gleaned from media accounts and government crime reports. Over the decades, the petitioner’s character and reputation have become stellar. He is a reformed man, doing good for his community by raising money for charity as an entertainer. And the media has not responded.
Citro is now one of 37 people on the list of people banned from entering any of the state’s largest casinos.
According to the state’s 3½-page Regulation 28, which describes how the list works, people who are excluded “may apply in writing to the commission and request that his or her name be removed from such list.”
Lasher’s petition states: “The petitioner has done extensive fundraising for various local charities. As just a few examples, he hosted a Christmas dance party to benefit the children at Child Haven, for which he received letters of appreciation. He also assisted with another charity drive, which collected 3,000 socks for the homeless.”
Citro said he intends to attend Thursday’s commission meeting where commissioners can either agree to consider a hearing at a later date or deny the request.
Two more nominees
At their December and January meetings, Nevada Gaming Control Board members nominated two more people to the list.
In December, the board nominated former baseball player Wayne Nix, who pleaded guilty in April 2022 in federal court to conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business and to filing a false tax return. His sentencing has been delayed several times and is now scheduled for March.
In January, it nominated Mathew Bowyer, the illegal bookie who raked in millions of dollars by taking sports bets from Los Angeles Dodger baseball star Shohei Ohtani’s former translator and de facto manager, who was sentenced Aug. 29 to 12 months and a day in prison.
Bowyer pleaded guilty in 2023 to federal charges of operating an illegal gambling operation, money laundering and filing a false tax return. He took sports bets from an estimated 700 players, including translator Ippei Mizuhara, who was sentenced to four years in prison in February for stealing an estimated $17 million from Ohtani, a superstar designated hitter and pitcher for the Dodgers.
It is unclear when the commission would take up the nominations of Nix and Bowyer or a hearing for Citro if it chooses to consider the petition.
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