Winner Takes All

January 7, 2008
Former Wall Street Journal
reporter Binkley offers this story of the “trio of tycoons” who took over Las Vegas and transformed it from a “crushed-velvet world” with a “libidinous frontier air” into a place where, increasingly and sometimes surprisingly, “entertainment and good taste go hand in hand.” Binkley provides an inside look at deal-maker Kerkorian, casino visionary Wynn and professor-turned-mogul Loveman and their lavishly competitive lives: their exclusive and “aggressive” tennis games, the one-way conveyor belt created to transport customers away from a competing casino, the battle to build the biggest and the best. The author shares intriguing details about these power players—Wynn has a secret entrance, behind some fake books on a shelf, to a sprawling closet—and is also adept at portraying a seedier Vegas, where aged Mafia barons dined “on the osso buco at Piero’s Italian restaurant, their canes hanging from their chairs.” Sometimes her chronology gets a little murky. Still, Binkley offers plenty of nuggets mined from her years on the beat, producing a full, flashy tale of powerful men and their pride, vanity, envy, greed—and all the other cardinal no-nos that earned Vegas the name “Sin City.”

February 1, 2008
What is it about Las Vegas that draws millions of people each year willing to spend billions of dollars? In her first book "Wall Street Journal" columnist Binkley tries to explain the city's allure by focusing on three of its more successful casino tycoons, all of whom she believes to be responsible for Las Vegas's transformation from a gaudy gambling town into a gigantic theme park. These men themselves could have made a pretty amazing story (she had personal access to all three), but Binkley chooses instead to devote the majority of the book to chronicling how the new generation of casinos was designed and built, which unfortunately makes for rather lackluster reading. In one of the more insightful sections, she does divulge how these casinos actually make their money, revealing that "casinos do not gamblethe odds are always fixed on their side." Ultimately, the appeal of the "sin capital of the U.S." is neither about art nor culture, but simply fantasy. As Binkley observes, "people don't come to Las Vegas for good taste." Suitable for larger public libraries.Richard Drezen, "Washington Post", NYC Bureau

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.