- Prosecuted New Jersey Mafia figures linked to Richie “The Boot” Boiardo
- First director of New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement
- Guided Foxwoods to become America’s most profitable casino
G. Michael Brown, who battled the Mafia in New Jersey as a state prosecutor and gaming regulator before leading Foxwoods Resort Casino, has died at 82, The New York Times reports.
In 1979, Brown was instrumental in defanging the Mob in New Jersey, building a case against Ruggiero “Richie the Boot” Boiardo, an underboss of the Genovese crime family who had ruled the Newark and New Jersey underworld for decades.
While the then-89-year-old Boiardo never actually stood trial because of frailty and ill-health, Brown spearheaded the successful prosecution of four high-ranking members of his crew, Anthony DeVingo, Andrew Gerardo, Angelo Sica, and James Vito Montemarano.
The 35-count indictment charged the men with conspiracy to operate a criminal syndicate that engaged in extortion, loansharking, bookmaking, armed robbery, and fraud.
Casino Watchdog
Earlier, in 1978, as deputy director of operations for the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, Brown had been chief trial counsel in the state’s first casino license application hearing – for Resorts International.
Brown warned the company it would have to prove that its links to organized crime were severed after raising concerns about alleged historical ties with the Mob.
In 1980, he became the first director of the newly formed New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE), an agency devoted, among other things, to protecting the state’s new casino industry from Mafia infiltration.
Brown left the division in 1982 to practice private law. Seven casinos had opened in Atlantic City under his watch.
In 1993, he was general counsel and founding chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Gaming Commission and president of the tribe’s Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut. Brown negotiated a gaming compact with the state that allowed the casino to offer slot machines and secured a $60 million loan from Genting International for expansion.
Rise of Foxwoods
Under his oversight, Foxwoods became the then-biggest and then-most profitable casino in the US. Richard “Skip” Hayward, Mashantucket Pequot tribal chairman at the time, described him as “the finest chief executive officer in the gaming business.”
But Brown quit abruptly in 1998, apparently due to differences with the tribe. After an ill-fated stint as the president and part owner of New York City’s first licensed gambling cruise ship, he became the president and CEO of the Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino in Niagara Falls, N.Y. until his retirement in 2006.
Brown’s daughter, Kristin Brown, told the NYT her father had been suffering from cancer. He is survived by two other daughters, a brother, and two grandchildren.
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