Nevada Gaming Commission Added a Name to Its Black Book and Refused to Remove Another — What the Black Book Actually Is

On April 23, 2026, the Nevada Gaming Commission took two significant actions involving the state’s List of Excluded Persons — more commonly known as the Black Book. The Commission unanimously voted to add Matthew Bowyer, the illegal bookmaker at the center of the Shohei Ohtani betting scandal, to the list. In a separate matter, commissioners rejected a request from Francis “Frankie” Citro Jr., an 80-year-old Las Vegas entertainer, to be granted a hearing for his removal from the list. Both decisions made national news, and they raised a question that most bettors have never thought to ask: what exactly is the Black Book, and why does it matter?

What the Black Book Actually Is

Nevada’s List of Excluded Persons is a formal registry maintained by the Nevada Gaming Control Board of individuals who are permanently banned from every licensed gaming establishment in the state. The name “Black Book” is colloquial, derived from the small black binders in which early editions of the list were kept. The list has no official expiration mechanism — once a person is added, they remain on it unless they die or successfully petition for removal. Removal is extraordinarily rare; before Citro’s petition in late 2025, no living person had ever successfully been removed.

The legal basis for the Black Book sits in Nevada Revised Statutes and Nevada Gaming Commission regulations. The criteria for inclusion require that an individual be a convicted felon of crimes of moral turpitude or violations of gaming law, and that their presence in a Nevada casino would threaten the public confidence in the integrity of the gaming industry. That second prong is deliberately broad, giving regulators significant discretion in determining who meets the standard. The exclusion order is absolute — a person on the list cannot legally enter any licensed casino, racetrack, or gaming facility in Nevada, even as a non-gambling guest.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board investigates potential candidates and makes formal recommendations to the Gaming Commission, which holds the final authority to add names. Once the Board recommends someone, the Commission schedules a hearing. The subject of the proceeding has the right to appear and contest the recommendation, though in many cases — including Bowyer’s — subjects have chosen not to appear.

A Brief History of the List

The Black Book was established in 1960, when Nevada gaming regulators identified eleven individuals — most of them organized crime figures — whose presence in casinos was considered a threat to the industry’s credibility. The initial members included names from prominent mob families, and the list became a symbol of Nevada’s effort to distance the gaming industry from its historically shadowy origins. In the decades that followed, additions were made only rarely and typically involved either organized crime connections or serious gaming fraud.

For most of its history, the list functioned as a mechanism for keeping mob influence out of casinos. By the 1990s, with the rise of corporate gaming and the decline of mob-controlled properties, the nature of nominations began to shift. More recent additions have included professional athletes who wagered on their own sports, individuals involved in cheating schemes, and illegal bookmakers. The list had grown to 37 individuals before Bowyer’s addition on April 23, making him the 39th person ever placed on it.

The Bowyer Addition: The Ohtani Connection

Matthew Bowyer is a Southern California resident who operated an illegal gambling business for at least five years until October 2023. At its peak, his operation handled more than 700 active bettors. Among his clients was Ippei Mizuhara, the Japanese-language interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani. Mizuhara used Bowyer’s illegal bookmaking service and accumulated substantial gambling debts, which he paid off by stealing money from Ohtani’s bank account without Ohtani’s knowledge. Mizuhara was subsequently convicted and sentenced to federal prison.

Bowyer pleaded guilty to operating an illegal gambling business and to money laundering charges. He was sentenced in August to 12 months in prison and began serving his sentence in October, with an estimated release date in August 2026, to be followed by two years of supervised release. Major Las Vegas casinos — including Caesars, where Bowyer had been a patron from 2017 until the FBI executed a search warrant on his home in early 2024 — paid more than $30 million in money-laundering fines related to his activities.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board recommended Bowyer’s addition to the Black Book in January 2026. At the April 23 Commission meeting, Bowyer did not appear and did not request a hearing. Commissioners noted that his absence did nothing to diminish the seriousness of his conduct. The unanimous vote made him the 39th person ever placed on the list.

The Citro Denial: A Different Kind of Case

Francis “Frankie” Citro Jr. has been on the Black Book since 1991, when the Gaming Commission placed him there based on his criminal history and what regulators described as a “notorious and unsavory reputation.” Citro’s record includes a guilty plea to extortion in 1980, a guilty plea to conspiracy to use counterfeit credit cards in 1987, and a 1986 conviction under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in California. He has been convicted of four felonies.

Citro is now 80 years old and has spent the decades since his exclusion building a career as a lounge singer and entertainer at the Italian American Club in Las Vegas, performing Italian folk songs and comedy. His attorney submitted a petition for removal in November 2025, arguing that Citro’s former associates are long dead, that his character has been transformed, and that his removal from the list would allow him to perform in casinos — venues where his act would find a natural audience. It was the first petition for removal filed by a living person in the history of the list.

The Commission rejected the request to even hold a hearing on Citro’s petition. Commissioner Abbi Silver, a former judge, said Citro’s past conduct still meets the statutory threshold for exclusion and that being on the Black Book does not prevent him from performing at the thousands of restricted-license venues across Nevada that fall outside the Commission’s exclusion jurisdiction.

Why It Matters for the Industry

The Black Book’s practical significance extends beyond the individuals it names. For operators across the country — not just in Nevada — it serves as a signal that regulators take the integrity of licensed gaming seriously and will use their most severe enforcement mechanisms when warranted. The inclusion of an illegal bookmaker whose operation intersected with one of the most high-profile sports gambling scandals in recent history sends a message to both casual bettors and licensed operators about where the boundaries of the regulated market lie. For anyone interested in sports betting regulation across the United States, the legal sports betting landscape is built on the same foundational principle Nevada codified in 1960: that the integrity of the game and the gaming industry are inseparable and must be actively protected.