Moe Dalitz
Casino power and civic influence
The Desert Inn and Stardust operator whose development partnerships reached into hospitals, neighborhoods and philanthropy, alongside a documented bootlegging past.
Before Las Vegas
Dalitz’s early business history ran through laundries and Prohibition-era bootlegging. UNLV dates his move to Las Vegas to 1949. His Cleveland investor group helped complete Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn, which opened in 1950. [1]
The hospital connection
Dalitz joined Molasky, Adelson and Allard Roen in development ventures. The Mob Museum describes his role in arranging a $1 million Teamsters pension loan for Sunrise Hospital. Hospital history belongs beside casino financing when tracing how money shaped the city. [2] [3]
Civic honors and the Jewish community
His philanthropy included support for local Jewish institutions. The Review-Journal records a 1982 Torch of Liberty award from the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. This is the award-and-hospital connection that helps identify him among the city’s better-known civic figures. [1] [5]
Read the full record
The Mob Museum documents his organized-crime associations as well as his charitable work. UNLV and the museum differ on the number and dates of early indictments, so this profile does not turn the absence of a cited conviction into a finding of innocence. Read his own oral history alongside those independent accounts. [2] [1] [6]
Key dates
People in the same story
Irwin Molasky
Development partner in the Sunrise group. [3]
Read the profileMerv Adelson
Another member of the hospital’s development partnership. [3]
Read the profileHoward Hughes
Bought the Desert Inn in 1967. [2]
Read the profileIn the archive
9 matching entries in the saved collection.
Dalitz, Kleinman, Tucker Seek Stardust Option
Indexed press reference · View the bibliography. The original report has not been independently read for this entry.
Subscription or access restrictions may apply. Access check: Oct 4, 2026. Search for this source (search results)
Cuba’s revolution and the changing fortunes of Las Vegas
The Mob Museum traces the connections between Cuban casinos and Las Vegas operators, including Moe Dalitz, Wilbur Clark and Ed Levinson. Its account considers how the collapse of the Cuban casino market redirected investment and entertainment toward Nevada.
A famous Moe Dalitz quotation fails the transcript test
The Mob Museum checks a much-repeated story about Dalitz’s testimony against the official Kefauver hearing transcript. Part of the celebrated exchange is missing from that record: a useful reminder to separate documented testimony from a good story repeated for decades.
Following the Stardust’s ownership through the paper trail
Vintage Las Vegas assembles an independent chronology of the Stardust, citing specific Review-Journal issues, photographs and an oral history with Moe Dalitz. Its references follow construction, financing, management changes and the later sign and showroom alterations.
Grit, Guts, & Vision
Publisher page and article metadata checked · Oct 4, 2026
Hank Greenspun, the Sun and the men behind the casinos
The Sun’s founder challenged political power while maintaining complicated relationships with casino operators. The Mob Museum revisits Greenspun’s dealings with figures including Moe Dalitz and his fight against an advertising boycott in the early 1950s.
Go deeper into the record.
Sources for this profile and starting points for further research. Access notes mark links we could not open directly during the October 3–4, 2026 checks. Historical accounts describe their own period; they do not necessarily describe current operations.
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Ann Lynch oral history, October 17, 1985
The catalog describes a hospital worker’s account of Sunrise and nursing. Digital audio is available; no transcript is listed.
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Las Vegas’ Sunrise Hospital still spreading its wings at 60
Includes a 1958 opening advertisement. The retrospective dates the ribbon-cutting and open house to December 14, 1958.
Subscription or access restrictions may apply. Access check: Oct 4, 2026. Search for this source (search results)
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Moe Dalitz
Documents the 1982 Torch of Liberty award from the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. Subscription may be required.
Subscription or access restrictions may apply. Access check: Oct 4, 2026. Search for this source (search results)
- 6
Interview with Moe Dalitz, 1977–1978
A retrospective first-person account, to be read alongside independent reporting and institutional histories.