"Goodfellas or Good Public Relations? Rethinking Las Vegas' Past" will be the topic of a Feb. 5 lecture at UNLV.

David Schwartz, coordinator of the UNLV Gaming Research Center, will counter the popular perception that underworld bosses ran "Sin City" until corporate conglomerates took over in the 1970s. He attributes Las Vegas' evolution more to good promotion and solid development than to mob conspiracies.

The presentation will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Blasco Event Wing of the UNLV Foundation Building. It is free and open to the public.

The University Forum lecture series is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and is underwritten by The Jerry Kalafatis Lodge Charitable Foundation and the UNLV Foundation.

For more information on the series, call 895-3401 or send an e-mail to: forum@nevada.edu.