Customer Reviews

Winner Takes All: Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman, and the Race to Own Las Vegas

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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 Adelson (Chairman of Las Vegas Sands). 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.

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.

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.

Christina Binkley's Winner Takes All book starts her tale of Vegas about ten years ago with the city transcending its role as the place for gamblers to become a travel destination for the world. It's understandable to start there. Binkley started reporting on Vegas for the Wall Street Journal, and a rush of consolidation begins.

For the knowledgeable Vegas fan, it is disorienting. Telling the story of the Rio as being the place identified with gourmet food and wine overlooks that Jean-Louise Palladin (Napa restaurant) and the Rio's expensive wine cellar were part of the Masquerade Village expansion. The Rio did not drop onto the desert in 1997 with Jean-Louis holding bottles of Chateau Petrus. The book talks about Harrah's as not having a decent property in Vegas into the 1990's, only the old Holiday Casino, but Harrah's renamed and renovated the Holiday casino about a decade before the start of the book. Anything and everything that happens before 1997 is treated as a single cotemporaneous event.

It seems to me this book is a good description of four recent events:
The loss of the Mirage properties by Steve Wynn (the most compelling and best covered story of the four)
The acquisition of Mirage and Mandalay Bay by MGM
Harrah's growth based on analytics and the acquisition of Caesars
The building of Wynn (the casino)


Things I like:
Being a former writer for the Wall Street Journal, the business aspects should be well covered, and they are. Beyond the three featured corporate players, the book also features many other chief officers of the Mirage, MGM, Harrahs and other corporations. There is also a good account of the transformation of Harrah's using customer based competing analytics.

I liked the book's focus on recent (last decade) history of Vegas.

I liked the well documented account of Kerkorian's buyout of Wynn's Mirage Corporation and of Steven Wynn's failures that led to the buyout. This is where the story is most compelling. When Wynn's vision becomes the only vision for the Mirage and there is no questioning or vetting of that vision, the Mirage Corporation flounders. People who disagree are fired (for example, the financial officer). The sycophants are given free range (for example, in Mississippi where a project spins wildly out of control). Wynn's arrogance, extravagance, and misplaced focus (worrying more about creating a new American musical than the over spending of hundreds of millions) drags the business down. Contrast that to Kerkorian who relies upon the skills of the people he hires, and the team beats the individual.

Things I didn't like:
What is it about Vegas that make journalists go gonzo? At times this book reads like a combination of Hunter Thompson and John Madden doing his color commentary. I do enjoy an informal, conversational, breezy style, but this is, at times, more like a hurricane. Do smart, educated people really need to be referred to as "propeller heads"?

It's always easy to trace a linear trail back from the point of success to recreate the obvious outcome. I would have preferred to see successes juxtaposed with the many failed attempts in Vegas (other than just Wynn's loss of Mirage).

In contradiction to the subtitle of the book, this is a story of the Strip, not Vegas (well, except for the above mentioned Rio). The Maloofs (Palms) and Fretittas (Stations) are barely mentioned. As story of the Strip, it's still not thorough. Sheldon Adelson is described, it seems, more as a disabled Macao casino owner than as a significant Strip casino owner. Donald Trump is more prominent than all the above named combined.

The book is uneven. Some events, many dates and many details are missing, leaving a superficial feeling. Other times, the details are thick. We are told of the attire of individuals at some meetings. We get plenty of details on Steve Wynn's obsession with entertainment and his extravagant failures. Yet, we only get passing mentions of what Steve did with restaurants. The problems that Harrah's had in taking over the Rio are left to just a couple of vague sentences with no conclusion.

Overall:
A very good addition to the history of Vegas covering the most recent developments. I enjoy reading about Vegas, including the business of Vegas, so I enjoyed the book, and it was worth the purchase. If I'm looking for an even and thorough treatment of Sin City with single consistent point of view, I'm a little disappointed.

Las Vegas changed so much, so quickly over the past fifteen years, that it makes sense to take a step back and see how it all got started and played out so far. Binkley does just that in this well-researched and well-written chronicle of a frenzied period in Las Vegas' history filled with big buildings and even bigger personalities. You'll learn a lot reading this book, but it's also a truly fun read.

Starting the book, I worried when Binkley mentioned the "greed" of the major casino owners in Las Vegas. Books about business that view the desire to improve profits as "greed" tend to not offer much insight, because they can't understand the diverse forces that drive the people running the companies. This book avoids that fate beautifully, really digging into the differences in character and personality amongst the different people who run the different companies that dominate the Vegas landscape.

The most interesting thing about this book is getting behind the scenes with Steve Wynn, who comes across as the person who looks down the road five or ten years to what Las Vegas will need to become next in order to continue building on its own success and popularity. When everyone else copies his latest idea, he moves onto the next one, constantly pushing everyone, and the city, ahead with him. As the visionary of the bunch, he is the most fascinating character to follow, both for his successes, and for the troubles he has with people who minds are a little too stuck in the here-and-now for his taste.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes business, Las Vegas, big personalities, or would just like to know a little more about how Las Vegas became the place it is today.

I think my library somehow acquired an advance copy...the book I read had to be a first draft. It certainly was not edited. On top of that, it was basically just notes on paper. No insight, though there were a couple of sentences that insinuated cosmetic surgery, and one sentence implied that somebody in the book, at some point, might've had sex.

The rest was a cornucopia of editorial opportunity:

"...giggly with anticipation..." where she meant "giddy"

"...ooogling..." where she meant "ogling"

"...changed tracks..." instead of "...changed tacks..."

She points out that Loveman wants to keep his Boston suburb out of the book, but apparently outs it (without any explanation that I saw) toward the end.

As an example of the text, Elaine Wynn said something bland about the staff (I think), and the reporter just added "...she said, motherly" to the quote. Everything is just vanilla commentary, with the author merely adding adjectives to the verbatims. A lot of substance (such as Lisa Bonder, Kirk Kerkorian's girlfriend/wife) was glossed over. There was no investigation here...the content depended entirely on whatever quotes or public information she possessed.

Even the sound bites at the start of each chapter were ill conceived. One guy does a (mostly) friendly takeover, and she quotes him the equivalent of "I don't think I'm a predator". What the 'predator' label was doing anywhere near him is beyond me. Actually, contrived drama is a recurring theme.

Winner Takes All is the wrong title, too. Everybody wins, and everything between them is entirely cordial (and bland...again...including meetings between the book's subjects where the attendees admit that nothing of substance was discussed).

This book provides a very interesting up-close look at a number of casino titans that will go down in history. However, I found the composition of it distractingly disjointed. It jumps backward and forward in time and between characters and their story lines, then does a poor job of bringing them together. I've read more congruous civil war histories, and the events in this book only took place in the last two decades.

The audio recording detracts from the book even further. The reading is slow and tedious, as if the narrator is mentally sounding out each word as she comes to it. (A little like William Shatner, but far less entertaining.) She also frequently mispronounces words, as if there was no production over-sight at all. The worse single example, in my opinion, was when she pronounced the "bow" of a ship as a "bow" on a christmas present.

Very interesting take on an historic period of corporate consolidation in Las Vegas.
Easy read with lots on insight into the various personalities and egos involved. Well researched and a nice job of conveying the tension inherent in deals of this magnitude. In some respects reads more like a novel than non-ficton. Definetely not another dry financial book.

A great summation of the last 15 years of Las Vegas, the influences that made it what it is, and the big personalities that rule the land. One negative comment I have is the movie is really two stories in one, Wynn/Kerkorian their deal and influence, and how Loveman/Harrahs elbowed its way from a smalltime operator to major player.

The majority of the book is about Wynn and his influence in Las Vegas and how it developed from the Mirage to the Bellagio to the Wynn. And of course the big occurrence is the buyout of Wynn's operation by Kerkorian when he senses the stock weakness caused by Wynn's lack of management skills. A very fascinating story!

After completing the acquisition the book slows down somewhat as it tells the tale of middle market Harrah's and how it busts into the big time by acquiring Ceasar's. This book explores the mathematical focus at Harrah's and how it increases profitablity. While it's interesting reading how a glorified math professor rises to casino president while retaining his old lifestyle, this section is the least interesting at least for me.

In summary this is a fascinating read of a fascinating city. Just a walk down the strip let's anyone see every part of American culture good and bad as Las Vegas is the mecca of most Americans at some point in their lives.

Once I started this book, it was really hard to put down. Very relevant to this Las Vegas resident. The author gives each power player in the Las Vegas scene sufficient description to humanize them and give their experiences context. The book does not read like a Valentine to any party, nor does it make anybody seem like a villain. Portrayals perhaps not so complimentary to some, but seem fair and factual. Informative and entertaining.