Meyer Lansky's Colonial Inn in Hallandale Beach wasn't a back-room operation. It had neon signs, a restaurant, a stage. Frank Sinatra performed there. The Broward County Sheriff's deputies directed traffic in the parking lot — not to shut it down, but to make sure you found a space.

The Colonial Inn ran because the right people were comfortable there. Politicians. Judges. Men whose names appeared in the newspapers in other contexts. They came on Saturday nights and lost money in a room that asked nothing of them except that they keep coming back.

A dealer who made the wrong person uncomfortable was a problem the house solved quietly.

"Make Her Look White"

by Roz Stevens