Las Vegas, 1970s—a golden age of Glitter Gulch corruption. Dennis Gomes–the youngest division chief in Gaming Control Board history–whipped a ragtag group of auditors into hardened, gun-slinging investigators, and shattered clichés about milquetoast accountant cops. Coming within a hair’s breadth of death more than once, Gomes capped off his tenure with the famous bust of the Stardust skim, portrayed in the book and movie Casino.
In Hit Me!, there’s action to fill a dozen Scorsese films—midnight raids, heart-rending showgirl romances, and deadly double-crosses. And the cast of characters reads like a roll call of gangster lore. But no matter how much evidence Gomes uncovered, or how many witnesses and informants were bloodied, Gomes was swept aside by a political system that was dirty to its core. It took nearly three decades, but in 2007, Gomes made a date with destiny at The Family Secrets Trial–the justice system finally taking out a “hit” on the mob. In a Chicago courtroom on July 30, 2007, Gomes–a key prosecutorial witness–finally settled all scores.
Dennis Gomes, who passed away in February 2012, will be posthumously inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame in Las Vegas in October 2012.
“Dennis Gomes . . . began his gaming career as the youngest-ever chief of the Audit Division for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, and he ended it as the co-owner of Resorts Casino and Hotel in Atlantic City, NJ—grabbing headlines from start to finish. As a gaming regulator Gomes uncovered the Stardust skim, the largest casino skim in gaming history. After this bust, Gomes decided to clean up the gaming industry from the inside.”
—from The Gaming Hall of Fame’s profile of Dennis Gomes, 2012 Inductee
This was an incredibly good and fun read.
It tells the story of Dennis Gomes, an accountant by trade, but whose goal was law enforcement. He was on the verge of joining the FBI when he got an offer to work on the Nevada Gaming Commission in Las Vegas. As the youngest head of the Audit Divison ever (only 26 years old!), his job was to monitor the casinos and make sure that their counts were on the up-and-up. Since this was Las Vegas in the ’70s, he obviously encountered plenty of illegal activities and Mob involvement.
–Beth, Amazon verified review