Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Winner!, March 11, 2008
Fascinating and well-researched book on three of the biggest names in the Las Vegas casino business. The author picks up the Vegas story in the mid-90s, and gives a play-by-play on the MGM buyout of Mirage Resorts. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in details about how the deals took place and how the casinos were built. Nice breezy writing style. My only two small complaints are the author incessantly brings up cosmetic surgery that some of the people got, which I think only needs to be mentioned once. And I think she doesn't give Wynn enough credit for building the Mirage, she glosses over that fact as if it was incidental when it was a seminal event in Vegas history. Great coverage of three men: Wynn, Loveman, and Kerkorian. The elephant in the room is almost no detail on Abelson. If she had included the same level of detail on him, this would be a nearly perfect book on the business of Las Vegas. Fantastic read nonetheless, I admire her level of research. Highly recommended.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Five-star narrative cheapened by gratuitous slams of Sheldon Adelson, August 8, 2008
The Wall Street Journal reporter Christina Binkley was that paper's lead reporter in Las Vegas for 10 years. In "Winner Takes All" she pulls together that experience - both the knowledge and her contacts - and delivers a compelling, enthralling narrative of Vegas' transformation over that period.
The book's sub-title says "Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman and the Race to Own Las Vegas." Binkley posits that a series of mega-deals have apportioned Vegas into three controlling companies: MGM Mirage (headed by Kirkorian); Wynn (Steve Wynn's eponymous new post-Mirage venture); and Harrah's (helmed by ex-Harvard prof Loveman). Binkley appears to have had little access to Kerkorian, (no one does, but read Bill Vlasic's classic Taken for a Ride: How Daimler-Benz Drove Off With Chrysler for a better peek at him) but ample access to his lieutenants. She obviously had developed a cordial relationship with Loveman. What stands out is her relationship with Wynn and wife Elaine. It's extensive, to say the least. She's clearly enchanted with the guy.
In fact, that relationship leads me to my major problem with the book - it simply lacks credibility to leave Sheldon Adelson - Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sand Corporation (Venetian, Sands Convention Center, Palazzo) - out of the story. He, as much as anyone, set the pace for Vegas during Binkley's years of coverage. And, he made the leap to Macao ahead of any of his Vegas peers. It's blatantly obvious from the text that Ms. Binkley has a history with Adelson. Yes, he's famously dyspeptic and probably has little use for her. But Adelson has also feuded publicly and nastily with Steve Wynn. Wynn uses Binkley here quite transparently to take a number of gratuitous slams at Adelson. She's little more than a water-carrier in that regard. That's sad because it detracts from the overall excellence of the book in a very distracting way.
A tale of the tape:
p. 89 - Adelson described as a "would-be mogul" who "irked Wynn"
p. 93 - Adelson is "warring with Wynn"
p. 209 - Adelson described as Wynn's "nemesis and neighbor"
p. 250 - The "eccentric" Adelson takes Sands public and is "catapulted from obscurity to number 19 on the Forbes 400" (Hello?? COMDEX, anyone? This guy was hardly obscure pre-Sands; his success was far from the luck and accident implied here).
p. 271 - 272 - Wynn takes a moment to "pity" Adelson...'It's too bad he's not in better health and able to enjoy it more. He's in a wheelchair.' That's cold, man.
p. 276 - "Loveman lost the Singapore bid to Sheldon Adelson." Adelson didn't win it, right? Loveman lost it. It's like Adelson and team had no role and won by default. Hardly.
I've not cherry-picked the negative references - those are the ONLY references! Juvenile stuff. What a shame.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great peek inside Corporate Vegas, March 21, 2008
In Winner Takes All, Binkley examines a few of the major players in the Strip consolidation sweepstakes. She parlays her access (she's the former lead Vegas reporter for the Wall Street Journal) into a truly insightful book. Unless you've spent the past few years sitting in the executive offices of MGM Mirage, Wynn, and Harrah's, you'll definitely learn something from reading this. Binkley does a solid job of pulling back the curtain on the motivations and rivalries that unite and divide the movers and shakers on the Strip.
Binkley goes beyond petty corporate politics, though, and discusses the underlying business strategies that differentiate Wynn, Kerkorian (and his executives), and Loveman. Wynn believes in luxury above all; Kerkorian thinks that size matters (he's opened the world's biggest casino hotel three times) and is a consummate deal-maker' and Loveman brings scientific management to the wild west of the casino floor. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, you might learn a few lessons from each of these three approaches. If you're just a person who likes to come to Vegas, you'll get an insider's peek into some of your favorite resorts.
As a historian, I've got to grouse at a few historical inaccuracies. Suffice it to say that Binkley is an outstanding source for the material that she personally reported on, but might have relied on lesser sources for some of the background.
Although (or maybe because) the book is about Las Vegas, 1999-2007, it is dominated by Steve Wynn. Even when he's not there, he's there, haunting the thoughts of the author and the principals. In simple terms, MGM Grand, Inc. wants to be like Wynn, so the company buys Mirage Resorts. Harrah's realizes it can't compete with Wynn, so it relies on "propeller heads" (management wonks) rather than exploding volcanoes to better its bottom line. Las Vegas, it seems, is divided into wanna-be Wynns and anti-Wynns, but there is no one who is unaffected by Wynn.
Which leads to the big question: does she treat Wynn? Like the people she writes about, Binkley is hardly agnostic when it comes to Wynn. I'm not giving much away here: the prologue features Wynn, apoplectic with rage, screaming at Binkley that the MGM Grand buyout of Mirage was a friendly deal. So it's obvious that Binkley isn't going to be disinterested. But she veers into caricature at times ("His capped teeth gleam white, white, white."), which paradoxically makes Wynn even more of a larger-than-life character. Wynn-haters will glory in the chronicles of corporate extravagance; Wynn-lovers will say, "So he likes plastic surgery-he still knows how to build the best casinos in the world."
Winner Takes All is a valuable look inside the boardrooms of Las Vegas during one of its most explosive eras. I recommend it to those interested in a behind-the-scenes look at the titans who have rebuilt the Las Vegas Strip.
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