I have been asked if Sinatra was really involved in the casino and in what way.

I'll tell you about how he was instrumental in setting up the first Chemin De Fer game in any Las Vegas casino. We at the Sands was the first to have it. This is the game that later became Barracat, which is now played in every large casino.

It's the early 60's and we are looking to bring in players that go to Europe a lot to play. We decide to try Chemin De Fer, a game played at Monte Carlo. We start setting up a pit at the end of the 21 pit. We are setting a separate spot for it. But remember, were Casino people, not decorators, so the first set up is not really great. Sinatra comes by and looks at it all and starts laughing at us. He is laughing at Tommy Ronsoni, our guy who going to run the game.

"Jesus, you guys, this looks like a cat house." He's laughing and yelling, at Carl Cohen "What are you going to do, put up a plaque - Decorated by the Mob." I stay at a distance, watching Frank laugh at what we did.

But Frank realized he needed to help us. After all he is an owner and the main draw here. So he starts telling us about drapes and stuff to put on the wall and gold ropes around the pit, etc. Remember he's the only one of us who has ever been to Monte Carlo or any place in Europe. So we listen to him.

It turned out beautiful. It was the first in Vegas and it looked great.

It caused a lot of talk around town.

Even after it opened, he wanted little changes made. He made sure that is had a look of class. He was right, we started pulling in a lot of foreign players.

He wanted the dealers to wear tuxedos. We laughed at this but he turned out to be right.

This game is played with all cash. At the time, we dealt all $100 bills for every bet. It is an exiting game to play and the public loved watching all that cash go back and forth.

And it was a real worry for us. Remember, we had no real experience with it. So every joint was watching what this experiment would do.

I worked in the Pit for a year, with Tommy Ronsoni and Johnnie NoGame and others. We had a lot of pressure on us.

And my man, Frank, helped us at times too. I'll tell you about one. It's late at night, early morning. We are losing about 75-80 thousand to a player that night. That's a lot of cash. It's about 2am and it looks like we ain't going to get our money back. 70-80 Large is a lot of money in the 60's. This guy is there with his wife who adores Sinatra, she came from Europe to see him perform.

I call Carl, wake him up. Tell him the situation. He says call Frank, see if he will come down and play. Keep the wife there and we keep the guy.

I tell Carl I can't call Frank, I'm not a big boss (then) and he won't listen to me. Carl says to not be afraid of Sinatra. He will call Sinatra and ask him to come to the Pit and help me. I was to tell Sinatra the situation and try and get his help. Sinatra does show up, I talk to him outside the Pit and describe the situation. We got a lot of cash out etc.

He tells me "Stop worrying, let me handle it. Tell the dealers to pick up the speed and let's get keep the action going."

He goes around the table and sits down in the chair right next to the couple and asks for 2 large and he starts playing. (I just remembered, the chairs we used were the ones ordered by him.)

In about 2 hours, we had won all our money back and then some. Everyone had a good time. The couple loved playing with Sinatra and have talked about it many times since.

At around 4am, the game breaks up and everyone is leaving. The couple is leaving with Mr. S. As he walks out of the pit through the gold ropes, he also ordered, he winks at me and says "You owe me, kid."

I do and have never forgotten it. He has come to our aid, many, many times. He is a pro.