On the afternoon of Oct. 18, 1988, two University of Nevada-Las Vegas basketball players, David Butler and Moses Scurry, walked through the casino at Caesars Palace and out to the pool to have lunch with a man they knew as Sam Perry. As Perry rose to greet the two, he drew a wad of cash from his pocket and peeled off a bill for each of them. "I gave them a hundred bucks, so what?" Perry told Art Ross, a professional coach who was sitting with Perry. "Everybody does it. It keeps them out of trouble."
The man Butler and Scurry know as Sam Perry is really Richard Perry, a gambler who has twice been convicted on federal charges of sports bribery. In 1974 Perry was convicted in connection with a major New York betting scandal at Roosevelt and Yonkers raceways. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and fined $10,000. In 1984 Perry pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit sports bribery as part of the notorious Boston College point-shaving scheme. At the trial, recalls Edward McDonald, head of the Organized Crime Strike Force in Brooklyn, N.Y. Perry was referred to as Richie ("the Fixer") Perry.
During the winter, 43-year-old Perry can often be found at Caesars Palace and other casinos, betting on races, blackjack and sporting events. In the summers, he coaches some of New York City's top inner-city basketball prospects. Scurry says he and Perry have a close relationship as player and former coach, and on about half a dozen occasions Perry gave him small amounts of "tip money" -- no more than $20 -- merely as a token of affection. Ross, a former C.B.A. coach, agrees: "He does have the kids' best interests at heart."
Perry's first contact with UNLV was in the spring of 1986, when he told the university's coaches that Lloyd Daniels, considered by many the top high school player in New York City, was interested in going to the school. Daniels was then an 18-year-old high school dropout who had attended five different high schools in three states. Each school had availed itself of his talents on the court but never managed to solve his profound reading problems.
On April 11, 1986, Daniels signed a letter of intent to attend UNLV. Six months later, UNLV's then assistant coach Mark Warkentien became his legal guardian. It was arranged for Daniels to attend a California junior college to get his grades up and help him with his reading. He then enrolled at UNLV. But on Feb. 9, 1987, Daniels was arrested attempting to buy crack. Perry paid the $1,500 to bail him out.
UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian announced that Daniels would never play for the school. Perry was outraged. "He said if we had treated Daniels right, we would have got a number of New York guys," recalls Tarkanian, who claims to know Perry only as Sam and believes he is in the "commodities" business. Daniels, who left UNLV, has since been in at least two drug-rehabilitation programs. He played for a time in the C.B.A., and is now back in New York City.