Joseph Ortell Kingston, whose license for the Lake Elsinore Casino, a California card room, is being challenged due to his ties to a Utah polygamous sect, has died of Covid-19. He was 68.
While the Utah Department of Health did not identify Kingston among three new coronavirus deaths, family members confirmed the death to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Kingston was the brother of Paul E. Kingston, leader of the Davis County Cooperative Society, also known as the Latter-Day Church of Christ and the Kingston Group, or the Order.
Lake Elsinore Casino has been operating under a series of provisional licenses dating back to 1999. While Kingston has attempted to sell the operation to a second cousin, the permanent license has been in dispute since last year, when questions arose concerning Kingston’s family history in the polygamous sect. Regulators have demanded information about Kingston’s family history.
According to the book God’s Brothel, about Mormon fundamentalism, Kingston’s father had 13 wives. The obituary for Kingston’s wife, who died of cancer less than a month ago, listed six sons, five daughters, 116 grandchildren and 60 great-grandchildren as survivors.
Kingston had told gaming regulators in California that he suffered from diabetes and other ailments, which made him more susceptible to the deadly virus.
