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Racing & Racketeers - The History of F1 in Las Vegas · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Brake Fix's History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part
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by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the
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Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of
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Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.
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The Caesar's Palace Grand Prix by Randy Cannon.
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Randall Cannon is a freelance journalist and author.
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His first book, Stardust International Raceway, explored the convergence
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of organized crime and influences and motorsports interests in the
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international capital of legalized gambling, Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Cannon's current offering, Caesar's Palace Grand Prix, drills even more
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deeply into that nexus while also tracing the threads of history that
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culminated in the only Formula One events to date in that unique city.
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Mr.
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Cannon will present from that research as well as the incremental steps
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forward from Caesar's Palace that will result in the return of Formula One
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to the destination mecca of gambling in the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
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All right, we're starting off with Caesar's Palace Grand Prix
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by Randy Cannon, who's joining us.
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via zoom from Reno, Nevada.
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Good morning attendees.
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It's my honor to be here for the sixth Michael R.
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R.
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Getzinger symposium for international motor racing history.
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I'm going to talk to you this morning about my current book, Caesar's
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palace Grand Prix, as Bob introduced the subtitle is Las Vegas organized
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crime and the pinnacle of motor sport.
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I'm going to walk you through my approach to the research, some of the
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threads of history that culminated in the Caesar's palace Grand Prix.
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And then we'll connect a few dots forward to the return of Formula One to Las
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Vegas next year after a 40 year absence for the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
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I jumped into this project by going back to my original programs.
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I did get to attend the 81 82 Formula One events and the 1983 HART IndyCar event.
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I kind of wanted to see what players, what actors I had to work with for
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the thesis as I wanted to develop it.
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I started with Cliff Perlman.
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I remember him from my youth in Las Vegas.
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He certainly had alleged organized crime connections, most notably to
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the, uh, financial kingpin of the organized crime syndicate at the time,
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Meyer Lansky and alleged heir apparent to Meyer Lansky, a fellow named Alvin
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Melnick, who was actually still with us.
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He was mentioned on the infamous Abscam reportings of the late 70s, as were
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Lansky and Melnick and Caesars Palace.
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He was the chairman of the board of Caesars Palace at the time of the 1981
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Formula One event, and was the CEO of the parent corporation Caesars World.
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Next I saw Harry World.
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He was an original 1966 investor in the development and setup of the
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Caesars Palace Resort, a gambling licensee, a very shadowy background.
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At the time of the first Formula One event, he was the CEO of Caesars Palace.
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He was a fixture on the Caesars Palace campus for nearly two decades.
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This one caught me off guard.
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I had no recollection of this from the time period, but Chris Pook is
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there in the program, the founder of the Long Beach Grand Prix Association
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and the Long Beach Grand Prix itself.
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He was the Grand Prix consultant for the Caesars Palace events, first
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three at least, and was very involved in the development of the program
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and the operations of the event.
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Now at the bottom here, really an interesting aside, Dr.
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Jeffrey MacDonald, convicted fatal vision murderer for those who remember
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the book and movie of the same name.
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He was the Caesars Palace Grand Prix medical consultant.
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He had the same role for the Long Reef Shroud Creek.
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I had a chance to meet William D.
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Weinberger, Bill Weinberger, the son of William S.
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Weinberger, a very prominent Cleveland family, came out to Las
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Vegas to work at Gambling Operations.
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I got to meet Bill, interviewed him extensively, and he was extremely
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generous, sharing his recollections of the events, including his
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interactions with Bernie Egglestone, just a very nice, honorable man.
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He was the vice president of casino marketing.
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The Formula One Grand Prix events were organized by Bill and
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flowed completely from his desk.
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I kind of focused on Cliff Perlman and Harry Walden.
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I wanted to see just how visible they were at the, uh, Formula One events.
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And they were very visible right there on the podium.
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Cliff Perlman kind of front and center along with his Meyer Lansky
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and Alvin Malinick connections.
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And there's Harry Walden with his shadowy background up there.
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Along with Alan Jones, the winner of the 1981 Cedars Palace Grand Prix.
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He was the departing Formula One World Champion, driving
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for the Frank Williams team.
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Alain Prost was second for Romeau.
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Bruno Giacomelli kind of tucked back in there.
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I enjoyed researching Bruno.
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He finished third, the only podium of his Formula One career.
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He was strided for the Alfa Romeo team alongside Mario Andretti in 1981.
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And Mario's Wimbledon kind of forms his own thread of history.
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True.
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As Formula One travels through America and on to the Caesar's Palace Grand Prix.
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From there, I kind of took three overlapping circles, Venn
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diagram approach to the research.
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I knew I had a Las Vegas story.
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I did not yet know what the national and international connections of this
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story would be, but there were many.
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I knew I was dealing with aspects of organized crime.
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Certainly in the Backstory of the development of the Caesars Palace
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property, but there were many and they ran all the way through to
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the writing of the events by way of Click Perlman and his connections.
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And ultimately I knew I had an F1 story, the pinnacle of motorsport, and so
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at the sweet spot, the overlap of the circles, that's where I developed the
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story of the Caesars Palace Grand Prix.
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Both the organized crime thread and the Formula One thread start in the
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immediate post World War II period.
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This photo should be somewhat familiar to this audience,
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certainly the symposium organizers.
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The October 1948 American Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.
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I call it the American Grand Prix because the press called
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it the American Grand Prix.
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Also known as the Watkins Glen Grand Prix, the history of Formula One blows
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forward from this day, the history of Formula One in America, and I thank the
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IMRRC for the use of this image as well as several others throughout the book.
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On the organized crimes side of the show, the story starts out similarly in
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the immediate post World War II period.
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This is Meyer Lansky.
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He was roughly number three in the strata of the National Organized
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Crime Syndicate after Charles Lucky Mucciano and Don Vito Genovese.
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His alleged heir apparent was Alvin Melnick, who we will
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visit a little bit later.
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Very close alleged connections to Cliff Perlman.
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It was the foot soldiers of Meyer Lansky and of Don Vito Genovese that
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developed and financed Caesar's Palace.
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The quote here is instructive.
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I took it to further my research into gambling operations around the world,
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including where Bernie Ecclestone applied his gambling pensions, at
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Crockford's in the major gambling district of London, and indeed Meyer
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Lansky had his hands in all of them.
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I really enjoyed following the path of Formula One through
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America and the early influencers.
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Alec Holman was the organizer of the 1959 1960 Formula One Grand Prix in
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America, here at Sebring the 1st, 1959, a very young where Bruce McLaren,
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Jack Brabham, was the world champion.
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Moving on to 1960 in Riverside, Alec Ullman was once again the organizer,
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Jack Brabham in the lead here.
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A bet was won by Sterling Moss.
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I started to find organized crime connections in places I
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did not think I would find them.
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The then owner of Riverside Raceway owner, President Roy Jean Lewis, prominent
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Mercedes dealer in the Southland.
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He had organized crime connections and got involved in Teamsters, financed
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property development, brought in that property development, sent him to prison.
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He also had gambling connections in Nevada.
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Connections that would lead directly to Caesar's Palace.
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Pretty fascinating bit of research for me there.
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Alan Goldman organized the first two Formula One Grands Prix in America.
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The next 20 were organized and presented by the Watkins
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Glen Grand Prix Corporation.
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I really enjoyed this body of research.
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This is the 1961 event won by Ennis Ireland.
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I believe it was his only one of his Formula One career.
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Here we see Sterling Moss in the number seven vehicle, the
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Lotus Climax and beyond him.
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We see Bruce McLaren in the number two Cooper Climax.
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A long time honored run of Formula One, but the 20 year run of
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Formula One at Watkins Glen also spelled the transition to Caesars
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Palace, which is an integral part
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of the early safety and security director Charles Kress, that turned into an
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organized crime thread if you will.
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In 1957 there was a very famous, infamous I should say, mafia
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gathering at Appalachian, at the home of Joseph Barbera.
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And Charles Kress, the safety director for the Watkins Glouros Precorporation,
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had investigated Joseph Barbera for murder back in Kress's law enforcement career.
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And at the time of that 1957 Mafia gathering in Appalachian, he became
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extremely vocal about the rise of Mafia in the eastern states.
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Very vocal in his concerns to Governor Ehrman at the time.
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Formula 1 at Watkins Glen came to an end in 1980.
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Here's Mario Andretti, his last year with the Lotus team.
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Just beyond him is the eccentric and somewhat criminal himself, David
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Thieme, the Essex sponsor of the Lotus team, cheering Mario Andretti on.
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And beyond him, you can see Colin Chapman.
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Again, Mario Andretti kind of forms his own thread throughout the story.
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And I'll talk about him a little bit later.
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Part of my research, I dug deeply into the files of the
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Federal Bureau of Investigation, Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Every organized crime commission I could get my hands on.
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This was a really instructive document here.
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The FBI documents, one of the Meyer Lansky foot soldiers, Jerome
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Zerowitz, and his positioning in the development of Caesar's palace.
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He mentions a couple of other fellows, Vincent, Jimmy blue eyes,
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Aloe, and Anthony fat, Tony Solero.
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Of the Don Vito Genovese crime family.
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One of the five New York families, they are entrenched in the financing of
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Caesar's palace, buying hidden concealed ownership points in Caesar's palace.
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Very instructive document.
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And the essential rub here is that they're all complaining that the public
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development fronts, Jay Saru and Nate Jacobson have not put in any money yet.
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Yet they are being credited publicly with bringing everything
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together at Caesar's palace.
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Interesting farewell from probably late 1965, the underground construction, the
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foundation construction of Caesars Palace.
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There's our friend Harry Wald, who we saw 15 years later on the podium
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of the Caesars Palace Grand Prix.
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Harry is joined by Nate Jacobson and Jay Sarno.
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Jacobson and Sarno had a vast series of organized crime connections and were
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both very prolific borrowers from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund.
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Basement construction that we see there also contained the somewhat infamous
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bunker board room of Caesar's Palace where Bernie Ecclestone signed the
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contract for the 81 Formula One event with Clippard Perlman and Bill Weinberger.
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Caesars was unabashed and were teased to their resort.
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An orgy of excitement.
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This is advertising the grand opening of Caesars on August 5th, 1966.
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Here we see Nate Jacobson, and he asked for this photo with
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none other than Jimmy Hoffa, the president of the Teamsters Union.
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By now, Jimmy Hoffa had been convicted in his federal fraud trial and was
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about four months away from reporting to prison after the discharge of prison.
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We all know how that turned out for Jimmy Hoffa, but he was front
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and center at the table of honor at the Caesars Palace Resort.
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I shouldn't say it's a very telling image of just what Caesar was made of.
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The book includes some period picture postcard views of the Las Vegas Valley
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for anyone who has been there of late.
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All of this property has been developed over the dunes that we
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see here, demolished in the 1990s to make way for Steve Wynn's Bellagio.
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Bellagio stands there now.
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That'll be one of the fixture resorts at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
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They're one of the promotional partners.
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Just beyond that dune sign is where Caesar's Palace was developed.
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The Caesars Palace Grau Pre Consultant, he had a fair and mere deal.
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He was terminated prior to the 84 cart IndyCar event at Caesars.
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The quote at the bottom was telling.
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It was from his early run at Long Beach when he was still
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promoting Formula One there.
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As he rubbed the opinion makers of Long Beach somewhere between dynamic
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and brilliant, conman and thief.
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That's kind of what he left town with.
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As the uh, Long Beach Grau Pre Association transitioned to Jim McAlee
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and very controversial individual.
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I was able to touch base with Chris about some aspects of the book.
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Very interesting thread there.
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I want to mention that as Chris Pook, in the very week that Chris Pook was
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seeking approval from the Long Beach City Council for the Grand Prix concept,
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Caesars Palace influencers were also in town seeking leases aboard the
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retail properties on the Queen Mary.
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Both of those overtures in Long Beach invited the attention of the
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Department of Justice Order as crime task force, both the Grand Prix
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and the Caesars Palace influencers.
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Back to Mario, I enjoyed putting as much Mario in the book as I could, this is
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the 1975, Formula 5000 event, the first, Long Beach Grand Prix, and the, preamble
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event to the, first Formula 1 Long Beach Grand Prix, I enjoyed, following Formula
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1 through America, It was interesting to see the rud between Long Beach and Watkins
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Glen and how Borty Ecclestone leveraged both the bills off of each other.
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Mario Andretti won the 1977 Long Beach Grand Prix, here he is
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leading Nicky Lauda in the Ferrari.
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I believe they finished about that close.
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Mario Andretti's win, believe it to this date, is still the only win by an American
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in a Formula One event on American soil, I believe that to be true, and it completely
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entrenched the presence, the awareness of Formula One in the American consciousness.
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I found it interesting that as the Caesars Palace Grand Prix transitioned
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between 82 and 83 from Formula 1 to IndyCar, a year later so did Long Beach
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transitioned from Formula 1 to IndyCar.
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These were big stories of the time.
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And they also pointed out the splits between USAC and CART and also FOCA
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and FISA on the Formula 1 side.
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And also pointed out the influence of Bernie Ecclesfield.
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In driving the licensing fees, the promotional fees for Formula One event
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at the time is fees were about three times the fee of a kart IndyCar event.
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Whereas the kart IndyCar drivers became much more well known.
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They were much easier to advertise on TV than most of the F1 drivers.
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This is the groundbreaking ceremony at the Caesars Palace Grand Prix.
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We're now into 81, and once again, the white haired gentleman in the center of
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the image, none other than Harry Wald and his deep shadowy background, just
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left of Harry is Bill Weinberger, who I got to interview extensively again.
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Very interesting image.
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Image of construction.
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This is probably July of 1981 temperatures to probably 110 to 115 degrees.
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This is taken from the 27 story fantasy tower of Caesar's palace,
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which was built about 1979, 1980.
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It still stands today as the Caesar's palace boring tower.
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Contrary to popular belief, Formula One cars did not race on parking lot asphalt.
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As you can see, the construction crews excavated a section of
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FIA spec base and asphalt.
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All of the turns were profiled FIA specifications.
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It was constructed through the parking lot.
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The dirt property beyond was actually owned by the former Howard Hughes Tool
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Company and was leased to Caesars Palace for the running of the Grand Prix events.
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This is an image looking east, pretty much opposite from where we were.
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This is also taken from the Fantasy Tower.
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The hairpin turn left center of the image is turn 1 of the Formula 1 circuit.
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It was also turn 1 of the IndyCar circuit as the twisting Formula 1 circuit was
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converted to a 5 turn oval for IndyCars.
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Got some interesting period reserve properties here at the right of the image.
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It's the left end of the Flamingo Hilton, originally opened as the Fabulous
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Flamingo by Bugsy Siegel in 1948.
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It transitioned through a few owners including, uh, a bit of Meyer Lansky
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along the way, but those are the retail shops of the then Flamingo Hilton.
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Next is the Imperial Palace developed by the very controversial Ralph Engelstad.
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The Holiday Inn, going vertical, it later became a Harrah's.
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Over at the left side of the image is the round tower of the
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world famous Sands Hotel Casino.
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That is the Sands as it appeared during the 1950s, 1960s Rat Pack era,
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where Frank, Dean, Sammy, and the boys played in the Copa showroom.
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Beyond that is the, uh, Las Vegas Hilton, originally developed by Kirk Kerkorian
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as the international that contained the showroom where Elvis used to play.
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The Caesars Palace Grand Prix was a star studded event, much as the
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2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix will be.
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This is actor Morgan Fairchild visiting with Leroy Neiman, the
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great American impressionist.
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Mr.
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Neiman painted the program art and poster art for the first three
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Caesars Palace Grand Prix events.
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In the mid 1970s, Caesars World, the parent corporation, sold some honeymoon
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resorts in the Poconos to none other than Alvin Melnick, the alleged heir apparent
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to the mob financial kingpin Meyer Lansky.
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Caesars sold the resorts to Melnick, retained the Caesars branding, and
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then leased them back from Melnick.
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As Bill Weinberger explained it to me many times, Caesars needed the liquidity
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of the sale at the time, and needed to protract operating costs of the resorts.
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It was very instructive to me that Alvin Malick got a 100 percent
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Teamsters mortgage for those resorts.
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So, once again, Caesars was paying down a Teamsters mortgage just as
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they had on the original resort.
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Here's Alvin Malick's Caesars owned properties.
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This signage ran through the four years of the Caesars Palace Grand Prix.
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At the left of the images and signage of the Caesars Palace Boardwalk Regency in
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Atlantic City, Le Perlman got in deep with the New Jersey Casino Control Commission
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for his dalliances with Malnick and his alleged association with Meyer Lansky.
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The New Jersey Casino Control Commission eventually led to his
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removal from Caesars World and his Las Vegas position at Caesars Palace.
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It was quite the story of the time.
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The events themselves, I enjoyed reliving them as I got to attend them.
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This is Alan Jones, the winner of the 1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix,
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driving for the Frank Williams team.
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Again, he was the departing Formula One World Champion.
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The Saudi sponsorships on the Williams team are noteworthy.
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These were the companies of the Saudi royal family and their proxies
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and thus began a four year walk through the desert from this point
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in history to the emergence of the Saudi Arabian ground tree in 2021.
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Thanks so much to start a research project on that 40 year run right there.
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The 1982 event, the last of the Formula One events, Caesar's Palace, was very
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popularly won by a very young Michele Alboreto driving for Ken Tyrrell's squad.
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First Formula One win by a Tyrrell in quite some time, a few years.
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In 83, the Caesars Palace Grand Prix transitioned from Formula 1 to IndyCar.
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Mario Andretti was DNF'd at the Formula 1 events.
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Not a fan of that twisting circuit.
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I believe he said the turbo Ferrari he drove in 82 was
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pushing a thousand horsepower.
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He suffered a driveline failure in almost the same spot in both those events.
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But in 83, Mario won the Kart IndyCar event.
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He was a big fan of the IndyCar roval at Caesar's Palace, as one might imagine.
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In this image we see Tao Fabi at the front, the late John Paul Jr.
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in second place, Derek Daly third, and there's Mario in
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his Newman Haas Lola in fourth.
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This was the first year of the Neumann Haas team, and as Mario
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described it to me, he's the one who brought the parties together.
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It was a match made in heaven, and history certainly supports that.
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In 84, last of the run, another kart IndyCar event.
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In this one, Mario finished second.
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Tom Seneva won the event.
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Mario claimed his first IndyCar championship in 15 years, since 1969,
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the year that he also won the Indy 500.
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In this image we see Mario Andretti on the point, Danny Sullivan, Bobby Rahal,
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Emerson Fittipaldi, Tom Sneva at the back there in the red and white, or
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Millercore, I'm sorry, that's Allenser Jr.
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There are, uh, nine Indy 500 victories and three Formula One World
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Championships captured in this image.
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Quite an image.
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And that was the end of the run.
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I then moved on in the last chapter of the book to ponder the many overtures
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to bring Formula One back to Las Vegas in the, over the last 40 years.
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This one appeared in the 1995 Indy 500 program.
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It pitched a Formula One season finale for 96, racing down the Las Vegas strip.
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The host property would have been the MGM Grand.
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The starting grid is right there in the foreground of the photo on Cobalt Lane.
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The 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix will race down the Las Vegas Strip and
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Cobalt Lane, kind of off to the right of where this is pictured.
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This event obviously did not happen.
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In the last chapter, I also identified this fellow, Fouad Shafar.
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This photo is the only one of the photos up to this point that's not in the book.
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In the early 2010s, he was alleged to have a contract with Bernie Ecclestone
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to return Formula One to Las Vegas.
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He did sign a Non disclosure agreement with the Las Vegas Convention
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and Visitors Authority and their ad agency and basically locked
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down Formula One in Las Vegas.
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It went nowhere.
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Obviously, no Formula One events happened in that time frame,
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but it did produce a lawsuit.
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This lawsuit was somewhat famously filed in March of last year and
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the plaintiff was Formula One.
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Liberty Media of America of the U.
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2017.
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They wanted badly to return Formula One to Las Vegas.
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And they sued for a chip bar at his P2M Motorsports Company to break through
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their non disclosure agreements with the Las Vegas Convention of Visitors
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Authority and their ad agency and wound up holding Harless the LVCBA
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and then LVCBA joined the lawsuit.
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One of the gems from the lawsuit was this piece of writing.
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This was in the discovery between Bernie Ecclestone and Borat Shapur, which
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does everything but sign a contract.
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Bernie Ecclestone dangles out the prospect of a contract, and as Bill Weinberger
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explained to me, Bernie did that many, many, many times throughout history.
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He would let anyone think that they were the would be promoter of a Formula
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One event, unless and until it was time to come up with the money, and
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then he would be gone in a flash.
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It's a very interesting piece of writing, and here in 2013, Bernie Ecclestone
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Badly wants Formula 1 to return to Las Vegas and he definitely wants
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it to run down the Las Vegas strip.
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The lawsuit was settled in July of 2022.
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An interesting Las Vegas story arose.
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Las Vegas investigative journalist Jeff German wrote for the largest
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alien town Broke in July of 2022 that the lawsuit had settled.
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One month later, Jeff German is stabbed to death in front of his home in Las Vegas.
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The prime suspect is a local politician.
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Just one of many, many such Las Vegas stories in the lore of Las Vegas.
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And here's one added to it.
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It becomes part of the lead into the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
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We'll see how it goes a year before the event, they're thrown around
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big, huge numbers, ticket prices are tenfold over the most expensive ticket
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at the Caesars Palace Grand Prix.
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It will be interesting to see if the event moves the needle in the casino.
21:47
Uh, the Caesars Palace Grand Prix did not.
21:49
It's a nice image that was put together by track designer Herman Tilke.
21:53
The current Caesars Palace campus is in the kind of in the beyond there.
21:56
And at the left of the images, the Bellagio, they're both
21:59
sponsorship partners for the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
22:03
I'm going to do a quick read from Chapter 8.
22:05
After I'd submitted the manuscript to the publisher, I sent
22:08
Chapter 8 to Duke Argettsinger.
22:10
I wanted to get his read on it.
22:12
He and J.
22:12
C.
22:13
turned it into a very nice editorial review that made
22:15
it on the back of the book.
22:16
Chapter 8 is roughly the events of 1980.
22:19
And there was supposed to be a Caesar's Palace Grand Prix in 1980.
22:22
It did not happen.
22:23
The title's Tropitzin Tribunals, the Caesars Palace Grand
22:26
Prix that wasn't the final U.
22:28
S.
22:28
Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, and many stains upon Caesar.
22:31
The announcement by the Shaw of Formula One racing Bernard Ecclestone that
22:35
Watkins Glen should be replaced by Las Vegas, Ranger reports, has raised quite
22:39
a storm of protest in the colonies.
22:41
Indeed, international efforts to scuttle the U.
22:43
S.
22:43
Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in favor of an event at Las Vegas dominated the
22:47
Formula One winter break headed into 1980.
22:49
The global gambit also pointed up the futility of the ACUS
22:52
delegation to FISA, certainly with respect to the fortunes of the U.
22:55
S.
22:56
Grand Prix.
22:56
Further, the potential loss of Watkins Glen as the East Coast outpost
22:59
to Formula One incited one of the most acerbic voices in the annals
23:03
of American automotive journalism.
23:05
This pathetic urge for approval by our European peers has reached the
23:09
point of absurdity, wrote Brock Yates.
23:11
We seem prepared to flagellate ourselves with a lunatic frenzy in
23:14
order to receive the benediction from a chin hoard like Ecclestone.
23:18
At the same time, Yates, the incendiary editor of Car and Driver, saves some
23:22
flame for the split state of affairs in Homeland Open Wheel Racing.
23:26
In our so called ruling authority, the ACUS, continued Yates, stands back in
23:30
helpless disregard while USAC and CART render out the most prestigious form
23:34
of domestic motorsport into small bits.
23:36
An armada of stateside support that rallied the Watkins Glen cause.
23:40
The gathering impetus also included the considerable influence of Mario Andretti.
23:44
I'd like to see both Watkins Glen and Las Vegas happen,
23:47
reckoned the Formula 1 champion.
23:48
But not one at the expense of the other.
23:51
That shouldn't be.
23:52
Andretti was also tasked to consider a boycott of the emerging Las Vegas
23:55
event and exercise the Lotus contract the drivers simply could not entertain.
23:59
An American delegation of Mario Andretti, Tom Binford of Alcas, and Malcolm
24:03
Currie of the Watkins Bland Grand Prix Corporation then traveled to Paris on
24:07
December 13, 1979 for a rear audience with the Executive Committee of PISA.
24:11
There, the American emissaries awaited the final decree of the International
24:15
Motorsport body on the fate of the U.
24:17
S.
24:17
Grand Prix and the bucolic idol of upstate New York.
24:19
Clifford Perlman, William McElnay, and William D.
24:22
Weinberg of Caesar's Palace also awaited worse from Paris on their own
24:26
Formula One ambitions, while Perlman also awaited his fate with the New
24:29
Jersey Casino Control Commission.
24:31
Caesars World then closed the year trading above 18 per share, an
24:35
80 percent increase in 18 months.
24:37
Investors, perhaps trafficking on whispers of aging mob kingpin Meyer Lansky,
24:41
alleged share apparent Alden Malenik, and the Caesars Palace Grand Prix.
24:45
Thank you very much for the opportunity to present.
24:47
Bob, I will turn it back over to you.
24:49
Thank you, Randy.
24:50
Thank you.
24:50
Do we have any questions?
24:52
Am I assuming now that you've got a third book on the way?
24:56
Add to your, your chapters on the Stardust and now the, uh, Caesar's
24:59
Palace and the upcoming race as well?
25:01
I have a third and a fourth that I'm working on.
25:03
Yeah.
25:03
I'm not as surprised.
25:04
Very good presentation.
25:06
Appreciate it.
25:06
Thank you.
25:07
Randy, where can we purchase a copy of this book?
25:10
The book is available from the publisher McFarlandbooks.
25:12
com.
25:13
I always like to mention autobooks, aerobooks.
25:15
com.
25:15
Out in Burbank, Tina and Chuck there have a, just a wonderful automotive
25:20
and aerospace mom and pop bookstore.
25:22
Their collection is amazing.
25:23
It's available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, most online booksellers.
25:27
Some people have had some nice thing to say about it.
25:29
Appreciate that very much.
25:30
It won a nifty little award.
25:32
So it's out there and it's available.
25:34
To what extent do you think organized crime has played a role in Formula
25:39
One globally over the years?
25:40
Wherever there is tax free liquidity to be gathered, I think organized
25:44
crime probably has their hooks in it.
25:46
Wherever there is organized gambling, whether it's legal
25:49
or illegal, I found a few
25:53
convergences of the subject matter along the way.
25:56
Bernie Ecclestone was and is an inveterate gambler, and so organized
26:00
crime could have played Followed him by way of wherever he, uh, placed his bets.
26:04
One of the quotes that I found pretty early on was, when casinos became
26:08
owned by publicly traded companies, people assumed that organized crime
26:11
actors just had proxies placed their stakes in the casino companies.
26:15
And they got their scum out of, from the, uh, casino count rooms
26:17
the same way they always did.
26:19
Yes, it's digital now.
26:20
Yes, there's online gambling now.
26:22
I don't think organized crime has ever left the subject to the extent
26:25
that Formula One is a sport churning billions of dollars around the globe.
26:30
I believe that wherever organized crime can find a tap into a
26:33
liquidity, they are prone to do so.
26:35
Again, I thank you very much for the opportunity to present.
26:38
I appreciate your time very much.
26:40
All right.
26:40
Thank you, Randy.
26:41
My pleasure.
26:42
Thanks, Randy.
26:44
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