Former state senator, Gaming Commission chairman, dies at 82

RENO - Pete Echeverria, who worked to keep the mob out of Nevada casinos during a four-year stint as chairman of the powerful state Gaming Commission, died Wednesday after a lengthy illness. He was 82.

Echeverria, who had been in failing health for several years, also was a state senator and a top trial lawyer - and twice the head of the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates.

The son of a Basque sheepherder, Echeverria was born in Shoshone, Idaho, and raised in Ely. He worked his way through the University of Nevada as a butcher, and graduated from Stanford Law School after returning from World War II as a decorated U.S. Army infantry captain.

He served in the state Senate from 1959 to 1963, and had been on the state Planning Board for 10 years when then-Gov. Mike O'Callaghan named him Gaming Commission chairman in 1973.

While on the commission, he opposed licensing of Frank ''Lefty'' Rosenthal in Nevada's casino industry. That led to a major court battle while eventually resulted in affirmation of Nevada's strict gambling laws.

Rosenthal wound up being listed in Nevada's ''black book'' of unsavory types banned from the state's casinos.

In an interview after leaving the commission in 1977, Echeverria said he had to ''stand up strong and hard'' as chairman.

''If you show any weakness at all in this job, they would run right through you. You can't be a namby-pamby about it.''

Echeverria returned to private law practice and also served as a director for gambling and banking interests. He also chaired the state Wild Horse Committee.

Echeverria is survived by four children. A funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Therese Church of the Little Flower in Reno. A rosary is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at Walton Funeral Home in Reno.