1. Oral History Archive
  2. Mike Mangarella

Mike Mangarella

Coney Island, Las Vegas, poker, scams, and prison: a life on the edge

Interviewer:
Interviewee:
Mike Mangarella

Languages

English

Interview Highlight Bookmarks

  • Intro
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  • Coney Island
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  • West 16th Street
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  • Eddie's Fascination, Crown Bar, Gregory and Paul's
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  • San Gennaro festival midway
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  • Winning $25,000 in lottery
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  • Taking test for transit police
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  • Working Greek diners
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  • West 15th Italian social clubs
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  • Dealing poker all over Brooklyn
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  • Hustling Fascination
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  • Crown Bar, Armato's Deli
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  • Working the Bowery and Bub's balloon joint
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  • Family
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  • Whether to be a transit cop or a made guy
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  • Leaving Coney for Vegas
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  • Tony's Hotel on West 15th Street
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  • Rough family life
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  • Working as a premier poker dealer in Las Vegas
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  • $17 million scam leads to 50-year prison sentence
  • Prison life
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  • Greed: how scams work
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  • "I grew up like Henry Hill in Goodfellas"
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    This is an interview that unexpectedly went in many different directions. Mike Mangarella lived life on the edge. Growing up on West 16th Street in Coney Island he had to decide whether to be a cop or a made guy in the mafia. "I got myself stuck in the middle," he says, "I grew up like Henry Hill in Goodfellas." He went on to be one of the premier poker dealers in Las Vegas and wrote a classic book called "The Art of Dealing Poker."  In the end he wound up getting a 50-year prison sentence and served 19 years in federal prison before being released in 2025.