They owned various restaurant and casino venues including the now-vanished Hollywood Dinner Club and the Balinese Room.
He trained as a barber and later moved to Galveston in 1910, shortly before World War I, to start a business eventually with his brother Sam.
[3] As Prohibition took hold, the Maceo brothers began to give gifts of wine (low-quality to be sure) that they were able to smuggle to their customers.
Fortuitous arrests of the leaders of the gangs allowed the Maceo brothers to gain control of the island's underworld.
[6] The Maceos gradually invested in numerous clubs and other entertainment ventures in the city involving gambling and bootlegging.
Their other big venture, besides the Hollywood, was a club and casino called Maceo's Grotto (later renamed the Balinese Room) which opened in 1929.
Gambling had been legalized in Nevada in 1931 and this distinct advantage over Galveston gradually lured mob figures such as New York City's Bugsy Siegel to Las Vegas.
Thanks to Sam's dealings the Maceos became major investors in the Desert Inn, which opened in 1950, the largest and most elaborate casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip at the time.