Word: diced
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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INVESTIGATIONS Dice Dawson's Luck Ask any dedicated crapshooter in a garbage-strewn alley or a carpeted casino and he will admit it: sooner or later the cubes turn cold and hostile in the most gifted fist. The streak of Donald ("Dice") Dawson, versatile gambler and fashionable bookmaker, lasted for many years. When his luck finally sank as a result of a federal investigation centered in Detroit, the ensuing ripples knocked over 13 other gamblers and threatened to implicate a number of prominent athletes around the country...
Craps, of course, was an early accomplishment. He often won; he sometimes used loaded dice. He gained a reputation as a "mechanic," or dealer of stacked decks in card games. His skill with golf clubs opened up a sideline as a links hustler. As a bookie, he cultivated the country-club set around Detroit and Miami Beach...
...Supply. To prosper in such a trade requires the proper sort of acquaintances, and Dice Dawson made them. The Fox & Hounds Inn, an expensive restaurant he operated until last October in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., attracted prominent representatives of the sports world as well as the flush, sedentary set. While Jerome Cavanagh was mayor of Detroit, Dice occasionally dined at the mayoral residence. All the while, he seemed impervious to the normal hazards of his line of work. Local authorities were no problem, explained one federal official. "A policeman would see the people around Dawson-sports celebrities, the mayor, millionaires...
...investigators did not learn what was said in any of these calls, though they requested authorization to tap Dice Dawson's telephone. The Justice Department sought and obtained court permission for taps in other gambling cases last year, but the department's top echelon pigeonholed the request in the Dice Dawson investigation...
...strike force in Detroit pressed its inquiry anyway. On New Year's Day, federal agents arrested Dice Dawson and eight others in Michigan. The haul included $450,000 worth of checks in Dice's possession and $171,000 in cash held by an associate. Subsequent arrests in Las Vegas, New York and Biloxi, Miss., brought the catch to 14. All were charged with violating interstate gambling laws. Said U.S. Attorney James Ritchie: "Statements made by some of those arrested and seized records indicate a national scheme involving famous figures in baseball and football and hundreds of trainers...