Frank Rosenthal | Casino executive, 79

Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, 79, the sports handicapper, Las Vegas gaming executive, and inspiration for the blockbuster movie

Casino

, died Monday from a heart attack in his Miami Beach condo.

Mr. Rosenthal, who once survived a car bomb, ran the Chicago mob-owned Stardust, Fremont, Hacienda and Marina casinos through the 1970s and into the mid-'80s.

Sports Illustrated once crowned him the greatest living expert on sports handicapping. But eventually Mr. Rosenthal was listed in Nevada's "black book" of unsavory types banned from the state's casinos because of his ties to the Mafia. He ended up in South Florida. - AP