Super Casino: Inside the "New" Las Vegas [Mass Market Paperback]

Pete Earley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2001

In this lively and probing book, award-winning author Pete Earley traces the extraordinary evolution of Las Vegas -- from the gaudy Mecca of the Rat Pack era to one of the country's top family vacation spots. He revisits the city's checkered history of moguls, mobsters, and entertainers, reveals the real stories of well-known power brokers like Steve Wynn and legends like Howard Hughes and Bugsy Siegel, and offers a fascinating portrait of the life, death, and fantastic rebirth of the Las Vegas Strip.

Earley also documents the gripping tale of the entrepreneurs behind the rise and fall and rise again of one of the largest gaming corporations in the nation, Circus Circus -- to which he was given unique access. In his trademark you-are-there style, he takes us behind the scenes to meet the blackjack dealers and hookers, the heavy hitters and bit players, the security officers, cabbies, and showgirls who are caught up in the mercurial pace that pulses at the heart of this astounding city.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley, whose several books include a study of Leavenworth Prison, turns his meticulous journalistic eye on yet another notorious venue: Las Vegas. Don't expect him to unearth a spate of scandalous doings, though: Sin City isn't quite what it used to be. "Howard Hughes is now only a historical footnote," Earley writes. "Liberace's trademark candelabra sits in a museum. Elvis has been gone so long that tourists often think his impersonators look more like the King than he did. The old Las Vegas is dead."

The new Vegas, however, is very much alive. In two years of visits, with particular access to the Egyptian-themed Luxor Hotel, Earley gathers a comprehensive history of the city's "gaming" industry, including the biographies of such important figures as the Bellagio's Steve Wynn. He also takes a firsthand look into the lives of several Vegas residents and regulars. The book's chapters, often dense with historical fact, are neatly interrupted by fascinating first-person accounts: an old-time dealer talks about being threatened by Frank Sinatra, a hotel manager at a casino gets chewed out by her boss for renting out a $5,000 room to movie stars, and a cab driver talks about falling out of love with this high-rolling town, though he still tries to get his cut of the money. "The money," he says. "There is so much of it in this town that you learn to close your eyes. I hate it but I can't walk away. Who can?" Perhaps the readers of Super Casino will be able to restrain themselves after they read Earley's explanation of how clearly casino odds are stacked against them. --Maria Dolan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

For a portrait of razzle-dazzle Las Vegas, this is a curiously sober book. Earley, an Edgar and Robert F. Kennedy Award winner (Circumstantial Evidence), gained the cooperation of Circus Circus Enterprises, owners of the new pyramid-shaped Luxor super casino, to write an awkward hybrid of a work: part business history, part vignettes of life in Las Vegas. The first segment, more than one third of the book, tells the history of Circus Circus. It's a solid account of the rise of corporate casinos by Earley, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, but as Vegas tales go, there's nothing hugely dramatic in the Circus Circus story. The book's sprightlier but diffuse second part describes episodes inside the Luxor and the individual characters who populate it: a casino boss, a showgirl, a security guard, etc. Earley showcases some unflattering scenes, such as a security guard's beating of a homeless man, and picks up some only-in-Vegas anecdotes, like the many ways casino dealers have tried to hide stolen chips (e.g., in a brassiere). But only one of these characters is compelling: a young prostitute who opens up to the author to a remarkable degree; surviving the Las Vegas jungle, she trains as a blackjack dealer and ultimately leaves town. Earley does not comment directly on the broader moral issues of gambling: halfway through the book, he quotes a cabbie who says the city is based on greed, but near the end, he cites a Luxor manager who asserts that it's a place "where people come to forget their problems." Andres Martinez's 24/7 (Forecasts, Oct. 25) goes further in conveying the manic energy of Las Vegas, but the city still awaits a stylish chronicler who can fully capture its uniqueness. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Printing edition (January 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553573497
• ISBN-13: 978-0553573497
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #170,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Popular Culture
  • #26 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > History > Americas > United States > State & Local

More About the Author

Pete Earley is a former Washington Post reporter and a New York Times bestselling author. His book Circumstantial Evidence helped release an unfairly sentenced man and won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Social Justice and an Edgar(r) Award.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On the Inside, January 30, 2000

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Super Casino: Inside the "New" Las Vegas (Hardcover)

Earley has combined two books in one. In the first, as a cultural anthropologist, he examines the creation and evolution of what has become one of the world's most fascinating communities. In the second, as a journalist, he focuses on The Luxor to which he was given almost complete access. We are thus provided with an abundance of historical information which creates a frame-of-reference within which to examine virtually every component of a single casino. In so saying, I do NOT in any way want to suggest that Super Casino is in any sense dry, dull, etc. On the contrary, it is a page-turner. There are so many colorful "characters" ("players"?) portrayed, so many spell-binding plots and subplots, so many memorable moments. We tag along with Earley as he observes and interacts with a veritable "feast" of humanity and inhumanity. They're all here. Pioneers. Con artists. Celebrity entertainers. Pinstriped Samurai. Mobsters. Visionaries. Pimps and prostitutes. Bottom feeders. Victims. Victimizers. Perhaps not since ancient Rome was most glorious and most decadent has there been another community on this planet in which the best and worst qualities of the human race have been more in evidence than within the gaming segment of Las Vegas.

Those who read this book may incorrectly conclude that the Strip and Las Vegas are the same. They are not. It has been my great privilege and pleasure to explore the metropolitan area and, in terms of its (non-casino) business climate and quality of life, I would rate it very highly. Indeed, superior to almost all other metropolitan areas. But that is not the subject of Earley's book.

Who will most enjoy reading it? My guess is that they would include those who have already experienced Las Vegas and perhaps have asked "How did all this happen? What really occurs behind the scene? What is the inside story on all the changes which have occurred?" Also those who have never been to Las Vegas but have seen the movies (eg Ocean's Eleven and Casino), have heard about the antics of celebrities (eg Howard Hughes, Elvis, Sinatra and his Rat Pack, Liberace, Wayne Newton), have read about the extravagances (Steve Wynn's art collection), and ask "How much of this is true? Is it really like that?"

This is a "great read."

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Books on "Inside" Las Vegas, January 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Super Casino: Inside the "New" Las Vegas (Hardcover)

Fabulous book on the inner workings of the casino industry. The first half of the book is a short history of the city, detailing the exploits of such Vegas characters as Jay Sarno, Howard Hughes, and of course, Bugsy Siegel.

The second half focuses strictly on Luxor. The author was granted complete access to meetings and was able to interview anyone he wished. He talked with everyone from management to dealers to cab drivers to prostitutes.

If you want to read about the inner workings of a casino and how decisions are made, this is the book to read. Very entertaining from cover to cover.

There has been a little criticism on why this book focuses on Circus Circus and not Steve Wynn and his Mirage Resorts. Wynn has been a bit "gun shy" in dealing with the press since the litigation over his biography a couple of years ago.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT HISTORY AND TASTE OF THE "NEW" LAS VEGAS, January 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Super Casino: Inside the "New" Las Vegas (Hardcover)

This book is fascinating. It really lives up to that old saying about "hard to put down." I especially like the author's concise re-creation of the "early Vegas" and his explanation of how the "new" Strip was born. I'd never heard of Jay Sarno, the mastermind behind Caesars Palace and Circus Circus who apparently spent millions bedding showgirls and gambling on golf games. Nor had I ever read anything before about Bill Bennett and Bill Pennington, who each made some $650 million and really were responsible for making the Strip "kid friendly." I thought the author also really captured Steve Wynn, who developed the Mirage and Bellagio, and is always making headlines. He is more interesting and appaarently more colorful than the old mob guys who used to control Vegas. The second half of the book proved to be even more exciting than the first because it really takes you inside the Luxor casino. Without giving his opinion about gambling, the author shows through the lives of several characters the good, bad, and ugly of Las Vegas. I found the chapters about Shawna Gray who is a teenage prostitute especially touching and I liked how the book described both a gambling addict and also Philip Freidman who is a senior citizen who plays poker every day at the Luxor and considers it his second home. When Freidman's wife gets ill, it is his poker playing crowd who comes to his rescue. What a twist. Usually these books only tell one side. This one tells it all and does it fairly. It is the most balanced, inside account that I've ever read and I would enthusiastically endorse it to anyone who wants to know why Las Vegas is the most popular vacation spot in America.