history

Fallout: New Vegas screenshot of Old Mormon Fort

Upcoming Talk: Fallout: New Vegas and Reclaimed  Memories at the Old  Mormon Fort

Want to talk about a future post-apocalyptic vision of Las Vegas in a historic setting? On May 4, and 6pm, I am giving a talk at the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park called “Rebuild and Reeducate: Fallout: New Vegas, Freeside, the Old Mormon Fort, and the Meanings of Memory:” The land we […]

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events

What Happened Here | Nevada Public Radio

I was asked to pen some reflections about what the shutdown/lockdown means to Las Vegas, so I waxed somewhat more philosophical than usual and drew on some history: However, our city and state have historically offered service on a higher level. We’ve always prided ourselves on contributing to the national mission, whether it be winning

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writing

Upcoming Event – An Evening with Frank Leone at the Clark County Library

Before you know it, I’ll be interviewing a Las Vegas musical legend in the Paul Blau Theater at the Clark County Library: In this conversation facilitated by UNLV gaming historian and author David G. Schwartz, former Musicians Union President and legendary pianist/director/conductor Frank Leone will talk about his experiences in Las Vegas entertainment over the

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events

Rediscovering The Equation That Made Las Vegas Famous | Forbes

My latest for Forbes tries to crack the Vegas equation: There were many factors that put Las Vegas on the map as an international destination and have kept it there, but essentially the Las Vegas equation for success comes down to the balance of two forces: novelty and access. This was true in 1950, 1990,

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forbes

The Past Is Still With Us: A Look Behind and Forward at Las Vegas’ history

In my latest at Vegas Seven, I muse about the shame of the recent past, which seems to be a perpetual thing in Las Vegas: There’s always been the perception in Las Vegas that the old days weren’t good, but the older days were great. Of course, here, the past is all relative. When I

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Vegas Seven

The Las Vegas Strip of the Future – Vegas Seven

I have a big feature in this week’s Vegas Seven: The Las Vegas Strip of the Future. Fittingly, I approached the future by taking in the past: Looking at how the Las Vegas Strip has evolved over the past 60 years can give us an idea of where it is headed. We’ll survey what’s popular

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Vegas Seven

Visiting the Island at UNLV Special Collections

The last of my trilogy of Tropicana birthday/anniversary pieces is this blog post from UNLV Special Collections that looks at a different era of the Strip mainstay that is celebrating its 60th: For research into the Tropicana, one of the best resources is the Tropicana Promotional and Publicity Material Collection, nine boxes of press clippings,

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gambling & culture

Sixty years ago, the Tropicana opened under Mob’s hidden control | The Mob Museum

To commemorate the April 4, 1957 opening of the Tropicana, I wrote a guest blog post for the Mob Museum: It just so happened that Conquistador’s owner, “Dandy” Phil Kastel, had a long and fruitful partnership with Frank Costello, perhaps the nation’s most infamous gangster in the spring of 1957. For years, Kastel had run

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author

The NFL used to shun Las Vegas. Why is it moving a team there? – The Washington Post

I’ve written up a few thoughts for the Washington Posts’s Post Everything on why Las Vegas is suddenly acceptable to the NFL: The gambling industry here and football have been seeing each other secretly since the 1960s. But Monday’s 31-to-1 vote by league owners to permit the Oakland Raiders to move to Las Vegas with

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washington post

A Look Back at Caesars Palace in Vegas Seven

In this week’s Vegas Seven, I’ve got a cover feature on the 50 years of Caesars Palace: Caesars Palace has always been more than the sum of its parts. Yes, it’s just a place where people pay for rooms, eat dinner, watch shows and gamble. But there remains something compelling about the property. It may

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Vegas Seven

The NHL is coming to Las Vegas because America is now a casino nation – The Washington Post

I got the opportunity to write a piece about how the NHL’s announcement it is coming to Las Vegas fits in with the history of gambling for the Washington Post. Here is a small sample: In that atmosphere, professional sports — whose legitimacy has at times been tainted by gambling-related scandals from the infamous 1919

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writing

Casinos in Canada

Casinos evolved quite differently in Canada from the United States, following a mix of the European statist model and the U.S. free enterprise one. Most casinos in Canada are owned by either a provincial government or run for charitable organizations.

Most of the charitable casinos are in Western Canada. The first provincially-owned casino in Eastern Canada, Quebec’s Casino de Montreal, opened in 1993, followed the following year by Ontario’s Casino Windsor, right across the border from downtown Detroit.

There is much more interesting material about casinos in Canada and everywhere else in Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling

Go here to read an excerpt from the book, or learn where to buy your copy.

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canada, fromthebook

What is Grandissimo?

This is a book project that I’ve been working on for several years. It’s the story of the man who I believe to be the single most influential figure in Las Vegas casinos in the 1960s and 1970s, but who unfortunately not many people know about.

I’m substantially finished the book, and hope to publish it later this year.

Until then, I’m using this space to let people know about the book.

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book

Three excerpts from Roll the Bones


Today I’ve added three excerpts from Roll the Bones to the site to give you a little flavor of the book if you haven’t picked up a copy already. Enjoy!

1. Author’s Note/Prologue

This is the introductory overview to the book, giving an idea of its scope—and the changes in the Casino Edition.

2. Why the Mob won Vegas

This excerpt, from chapter 10, “A Place in the Sun,” explains how the Mob carved out influence on the Las Vegas Strip in the 1950s and 1960s, and why it was so dominant.


3. The Rise of Atlantic City

The opening pages of chapter 12, “America’s Playground…Again” discuss the rebirth and rise to (brief) dominance of Atlantic City’s casinos in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

To learn where you can buy Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling, please visit here

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atlantic city, author, gambling & culture, life in vegas

My Boardwalk Homecoming in Vegas Seven

I’ve got a very special Green Felt Journal out in today’s Vegas Seven. No, it’s not like a “very special episode” of Diff’rent Strokes or The Fact of Life that’s going to pontificate on a current social issue. Instead, I’m talking about the usual stuff I talk about in that space–gambling, casinos, and tourism–but in a

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atlantic city, Vegas Seven, writing

Alfred Heston in Casino Connection

This month in Casino Connection, I take a look back at one of Atlantic City’s most honest public officials, and its first noteworthy historian, Alfred Heston: Atlantic City has seen generations of public officials and interested citizens, but few residents have left a legacy as monumental as Alfred Miller Heston, a newspaper publisher, historian and

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atlantic city, writing

Trump Plaza History

This has been up for a while, but I haven’t linked it yet and, with the news that Donald Trump and Carl Icahn are dueling over Trump casino empire, it’s relatively timely: my piece on the early history of Trump Plaza in Casino Connection: Trump was leery of the Casino Control Commission. It had forced

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atlantic city, news about gambling, writing

Bugsy unearthed at UNLV!

We’re having a great talk next Thursday night down at the library. It’s been on the gaming.unlv.edu schedule for a while, but I thought it would be nice to offer a friendly reminder: "There Were Few Solid Facts to Get in the Way": Popular Perceptions of Bugsy Siegel as Founding Father of Las Vegas A

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life in vegas, news about gambling