Born in Palermo on August 24, 1900, Carlo arrived in the United States (an illegal alien) in 1921. He resided in Brooklyn, assisted by numerous relatives who had arrived earlier. In turn, he helped his brothers Paolo (Paul), born 1904, and Giuseppe (Joseph), born 1908, when they arrived in the US. His boyhood friend from Palermo, Gaetano Lucchese, was already in the US and rising in the ranks of OC, first under Masseria and then, as a defector, under Maranzano. Gambino, who was nominally on the side of "Joe the Boss," appears not to have actively participated in the Castellammarese War. He followed Lucchese into the Maranzano camp and after Maranzano's death moved into the ranks of the Mineo Family, eventually becoming a caporegime under Vincent Mangano.

After Prohibition, Gambino continued in the bootlegging business and in 1939 received a twenty-two month sentence for conspiracy to defraud the United States of liquor taxes. Eight months later, the conviction was thrown out because the evidence had been based on illegal wiretaps. The Second World War made Gambino a millionaire; it also prevented him from being deported to Italy. Valachi testified before a Senate committee that Gambino "made over a million dollars from ration stamps during the war. The stamps came out of the O.P.A.'s offices. First Carlo's boys would steal them. Then, when the government started hiding them in banks, Carlo made contact and the O.P.A. men sold him the stamps" (Gage 1975:26). Paul Meskil (1973:58) states:

"The wartime rationing of gasoline, meat, and groceries opened a nationwide black market that the American public patronized as eagerly as it had once bought bootleg booze...
Carlo went into the stamp-collecting business with his brother Paul and New Jersey mobster Settimo (Big Sam) Accardi. At first, they sent teams of safe-crackers to steal ration stamps from the vaults of the Office of Price Administration. They purchased the stamps directly from dishonest OPA officials."

When Albert Anastasia became Family boss, he made Gambino the sottocapo. When Anastasia was murdered in 1957, Gambino became the boss of reputedly the largest and most influential crime Family in the country. A strong family man, Gambino had one daughter, married to the son of Lucchese, and three sons, who operate trucking firms in the garment center. Gambino's wife died in 1971. In 1970 he was indicted for conspiracy to hijack an armored car carrying over $3 million, but the case was never brought to trial because of his poor health. In that same year, the Supreme Court upheld a 1967 deportation order, but once again ill health prevented any action.

In addition to his Family's illegal activities, from which he received an income, Gambino owned (directly or through fronts) many legitimate businesses, including meat markets, bakeries, nightclubs, linen-supply companies, and restaurants. His "SGS Associates Public and Labor Relations" firm had an uncanny knack for resolving labor disputes for its impressive list of clients, including Wellington Associates (real estate including the Chrysler Building), builder William Levitt, Bond Clothes, and the Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospital. The firm closed after an investigation by state and federal authorities (Meskil 1973).
On October 15, 1975, Gambino died of natural causes in his Massapequa, Long Island, home. The Family he headed is still referred to as the Gambino Family.

From the book "Organized Crime" by Howard Abadinsky