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Gambino capo Nicholas (Little Nick) Corozzo, who made millions in the gambling business over the last three decades, looked like he had won the $30 million jackpot in last week's New York state lottery.

The one-time heir apparent to jailed boss John Gotti was grinning from ear to ear and glad handing his lawyers, nephew Joseph Corozzo and Gerald Shargel, as he stood in the dock in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Little Nick had just been sentenced to eight years in prison. But everybody, especially his smiling friends and relatives, knew the lifetime racketeer could have become, and  probably should have become, a lifetime convict.

During a day-long sentencing hearing, prosecutors had used videotapes, audio tapes and testimony from FBI agents from New York and Florida to try to convince a federal judge that Corozzo, 58, deserved a much longer stretch.

Former FBI supervisor Bruce Mouw (right) said Corozzo was part of a three-capo committee that helped John A. (Junior) Gotti run the Gambino family for his imprisoned father and that in 1994 Corozzo had approved the killing of a mobster who had fallen out of favor with Gotti.

Agent Tami Jo Kayworth testified that on Apr. 9, 1996 she was monitoring a conversation Corozzo was having in a Ft. Lauderdale hotel with a cooperating witness and heard Corozzo explain how he was picked to succeed Gotti with help from the Dapper Don's brothers, Gene and Peter.

"Corozzo describes how he originally was put up to be the Gambino boss to take over after John Gotti by the family capos," said Kayworth, reading from a report prepared from her notes and a follow-up interview with the   witness. Because of an equipment malfunction, she said, the conversation was not recorded.

"Corozzo indicated at first he did not want the job, but Gene Gotti (right) got in touch with John Gotti, telling him, 'What are you waiting for? He (Corozzo) deserves it, give it to him.' Corozzo relates how he accepted the position only (after) Peter Gotti (left) came with him, supported him. Corozzo says, 'I don't know if I even want it,'" she said.

Mouw testified that Corozzo's ascension was scotched when he was hit with back to back racketeering indictments in December, 1996 in Florida and the following month in New York.

Prosecutor David Hennessy cited Corozzo's 26-year-criminal history, the FBI testimony, videos of him  walking and talking with Gotti, and a recording of Little Nick terrorizing a loan shark victim and asked the judge to give Corozzo a stiffer than normal sentence, as the law allows, for high ranked mobsters. (In one Brooklyn racketeering case, for example, Genovese underboss Venero Mangano and Colombo consigliere Benedetto Aloi received 12 and 13 years more than called for by the sentencing guidelines.)

Hennessy also asked Judge Frederic Block to make the prison term consecutive to the 70 month sentence that Corozzo had gotten for his Florida case.

But Block heeded pleas from Shargel, who said Corozzo was not a violent man but basically a gambler all his life, and gave him eight years, ruling that it be served concurrently, or at the same time as the Florida sentence. He's due out in about six years.

Ironically, Corozzo had agreed to accept 10 years and pay $500,000 in restitution at the time of sentence - originally set for many months ago. That deal fell through when Corozzo and two codefendants didn't come up with the cash. Little Nick obviously felt pretty good about his chances with Block, pleaded guilty, threw himself on the mercy of the court, and won the sentencing lotto.

As we announced last week, we're spicing up the dog days of August with our third Gang Land contest. It's got five questions, each worth 20 points. The rules and prizes are similar to those of Gang Land's first two contests. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON. The deadline for submitting an entry is midnight Sept. 1.

We've got an autographed copy of "Murder Machine" and a copy of "Gotti: Rise & Fall" - as prizes. The first place winner  gets to choose the book of his/her choice.

My co-author, Gene Mustain, has also accepted an offer he couldn't refuse to autograph both books.

Winners will be announced Sept. 14, or as soon after as possible, depending on the number of entries and how quickly the Gang Land staff can sort through them. In the result of ties, the winners will be determined at random.

Previous contest winners are ineligible, but can submit an entry for the hell of it.

1. Name the St. Louis Cosa Nostra Boss who was found guilty of having a hidden ownership in the Frontier Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas.

2. Name the first Mafia Boss to make Nevada's "Black Book" of persons excluded from the state's gaming establishments.

3. Name John Gotti's three official underbosses.

4. Name the Mafia Boss with the most years as a member of the Commission.

5. Name the Gambino Capo who had his picture taken with Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter.

ASK ANDY

After a week's respite, Andy, Gang Land's organized crime historian, seen posing with one of his all time favorite books, "Mob Star,"returns with a report about the national scene in response to a query from Bill Montgomery about the number of Mafia families across the country.

At one time there were 28 separate U.S. based Mafia families operating in North America. Today, I'd say there are about 10 Cosa Nostra Families that can be classified as major threats, and all of them are shadows of their former selves. These are the five New York families and those in Chicago, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Tampa. The rest of the onetime Mafia families are basically a few mobsters running around with fancy titles and one or two guns. (Editor's note: Boss man Capeci would say Detroit and New England have real families, but this is the Ask Andy feature and I research and answer the questions.)

There has always been controversy and confusion about the exact number of Cosa Nostra Families. The numbers depend on the era, but here is a list of families that most authorities agree have existed in this century.

In 1960, there were 28 Families, including the five in New York -- the Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese,Genovese and Colombo families. In addition, there were families based in Buffalo, Chicago,  Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, San Francisco, Tampa, Cleveland, New England (Providence/Boston), San Jose, Kansas City, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Denver/Pueblo, Pittston/Wilkes Barrie/Cranston, Pennsylvania and Newark, N.J.

There were also families in Rockford, Ill., Springfield, Ill., Dallas, Rochester, NY, and Madison Wisconsin. For a time, some experts believed these groups  were branches of other larger families in the same section of the country, but I believe, they were separate organizations. For whatever it's worth, so does the FBI.

By 1980, Dallas and Springfield had stopped operating.

For a time, the FBI listed Tucson as a city with a Mafia family, but that was merely to enhance the importance of the FBI's investigation and a federal obstruction of justice prosecution in the late 1970's of Joseph Bonanno, (right) the onetime head of the Bonanno family who was deposed by the Mafia Commission in the mid-1960's.

It is important to realize that our knowledge about the early history of Cosa Nostra is a little sketchy. It may very well be that there were formal families operating early in the century that went out of existence long before the revelations by Joe Valachi in 1962. A Chicago group headed by Joe Aiello fits into this category. Aiello was an Al Capone rival, but after Aiello's death, the Capone mob was formally recognized by other Cosa Nostra powers as the sole legitimate Family in the Windy City.

Books, by Andy