Warning: Undefined array key "post_type_share_twitter_account" in /var/www/vhosts/casinonewsblogger.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/cryptocurrency/vslmd/share/share.php on line 24
Posted on: February 4, 2026, 11:44h.
Last updated on: February 4, 2026, 11:44h.
The Las Vegas mini mall where Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal nearly lost his life to a car bomb 43 years ago has been sold, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The bombing, almost certainly an attempted mob hit, became part of popular culture when it was re-enacted in the opening scene of the 1995 Martin Scorsese film “Casino.”
The buyer of the Sixth & Sahara Center is Roi Zalach, former owner of the Gold & Beyond pawn shop in Las Vegas. According to the R-J, Zalach sold Gold & Beyond to FirstCash Holdings, a Texas pawn-shop franchise owner, last year. He then paid $4.95 million for the 2.6-acre property in a sale that closed on December 31.
Who Was Lefty Rosenthal?
Rosenthal was a sports handicapper who launched the first modern race and sportsbook inside a Strip casino at the Stardust, where he initially worked in the 1970s without a Nevada gaming license. (His license application was then rejected twice by the Nevada Gaming Commission after it learned of his long history of arrests as an illegal bookie and sports fixer.)
Rosenthal also ran the illegal skim at the Stardust, and three other Las Vegas casinos, for the Chicago mob from 1974 to 1979. By the time of the bombing, he was no longer in the casino business and made a living as a sports-betting consultant.
Authorities never identified who planted the bomb underneath his car, though there are plenty of theories. Many focus on his turbulent relationship with volatile mob street boss Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro, known to have had an affair with Rosenthal’s wife, Geri.
In addition, though not publicly known until 2008, Rosenthal had been an FBI informant for year by then.
What We Know For Sure
After Rosenthal started the ignition of his 1981 Cadillac Eldorado, flames shot out through the defroster vents.
He is believed to have survived for three reasons:
1) His driver’s side door was still open, so the explosion blew him out of his car and onto the pavement, on which he rolled to extinguish his burning clothes
2) a steel stabilizing plate located beneath the driver’s seat, unique to that model year of Cadillac, deflected most of the blast downward instead of up into the car
3) two bystanders helped pull him away from the car moments before its gas tank ignited, a second explosion that launched the 4,000-pound vehicle several feet into the air, sent flames two stories high, and blew out the rear windows of both Tony Roma’s and Marie Callender’s.
Rosenthal died of a heart attack at his Miami Beach home in October 2008. He was 79.
