Joel Jacobson; Former New Jersey Casino Regulator

Joel Jacobson, 71, a former casino regulator who once called Frank Sinatra “an obnoxious bully� and was later appointed court trustee of a scandal-ridden Teamsters local in New Jersey. Jacobson, a longtime labor union official, joined the state Casino Control Commission in 1981. His comment about Sinatra came in 1984 after the singer and fellow entertainer Dean Martin forced a blackjack dealer at the former Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City to deal from her hand instead of the plastic “shoe,� which holds the cards. Jacobson’s remark so angered Sinatra that he refused to perform in the state for a time. Jacobson resigned from the commission in June, 1986, and was appointed by a federal judge to run Union City-based Teamsters Local 560 until May, 1987. In Livingston, N.J., on Tuesday of undisclosed causes.