Danielle Gomes and Jay Bonansinga. Hit Me: Fighting the Las Vegas Mob by the Numbers. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 2013. 301 pages. One of the most-asked questions for people who study Las Vegas history is “How did the mob get kicked out of the casino industry?” This book tells you a major part of […]
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book reviewsThere is no Green Felt Journal in this week’s Vegas Seven. But I did write the cover story, a historical dissection of the notorious Green Felt Jungle: When Trident Press released The Green Felt Jungle on December 13, 1963, it promised to tell the real story of Las Vegas. Most residents winced; this could only be bad
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Vegas SevenAuthor David G. Schwartz summarizes chapter 13, “The Burger King Revolution: Las Vegas bounces back for the first time,” of Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling (Casino Edition).
If you don’t see a video above, go here: http://youtu.be/SlyHlAfgxqM
This chapter covers the changes that tranformed Las Vegas in the 1980s. First, it deals with the forces that led to the mob’s decline and eventual exit from the ownership of casinos in Las Vegas. Then, it discusses the trends that led to a crisis for Las Vegas in the early 1980s, and how Las Vegas rebounded by remaking itself to appeal to mass-market and family vacationers.
Some casinos discussed include the Stardust, Riviera, Circus Circus, and Tropicana.
Author David G. Schwartz summarizes chapter 13, “The… Read More »
life in vegas, videoA few weeks ago, I visited the Las Vegas Mob Experience at the Tropicana. I shared some of my thoughts here, and then thought about it some more. The result is a feature piece Vegas Seven magazine: With fedora-wearing ticket-takers and an almost-Technicolor presentation, it’s clear that the Mob Experience isn’t a dry, academic colloquium
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Vegas Seven, writingMichael Franzese. I’ll Make You an Offer You Can’t Refuse: Insider Tips from a Former Mob Boss. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009. 152 pages. Books on how to success in business are plentiful and, I suspect, not that helpful. Most businesses probably don’t fail because of lack of motivation, but because they are undercapitalized. Time management
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book reviewsIf you can make it, we’re hosting a provocative talk at UNLV in two weeks. Here’s the info: January 29, 2009 Gaming Research Colloquium Series: Leslie Nino Fidance William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV “The Mob Never Ran Vegas” Thursday, January, 12:15 pm UNLV Special Collections Download flyer (pdf) Center for Gaming Research: Special
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what's newWhile shopping at a local outlet mall, I noticed this wonderful chapeau offered for sale: I’ve got a few problems with this. The chief one is that only a fool would advertise that they were part of a continuing criminal enterprise. The whole point of the mafia is that it’s supposed to be a shadowy
Tim Donaghy, the NBA ref accused of gambling on games that he refereed, has plead guilty. From USA Today: The Boston Celtics, favored by four points, faced the 76ers in Philadelphia on Dec. 13 and won 101-81 in what seemed to be just another NBA blowout featuring bad Atlantic Division teams. On or about the
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news about gamblingThis might put the kabosh on plans to bring an NBA franchise to Las Vegas…or not. An NBA ref has reportedly used his position to influence the outcome of games he had action on. From UPI: An NBA referee is reportedly under investigation by U.S. authorities for allegedly fixing games over the past two seasons,
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gambling & cultureOne question I get a lot is, “When did the mob leave Las Vegas?” I usually answer that organized crime is present in every major American city (and probably every major city in the world), so it is still here. As I’ve said before, the idea of the mob “controlling” Las Vegas was and is
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news about gamblingYou’ve got to love the subhead for this Guardian look at Macau: “With mobsters jailed and foreign investors pouring money into its gaming industry, Macau is enjoying a spectacular boom .”
I always tell my students that history has three components: source documents, without which we would have nothing to write about; historical writing, which puts the raw material of the past into context and makes it relevant; and readers, without whom the whole exercise would be fruitless. You write books because you want people to
I think that was the name of an Archie Shepp album in the 1960s. Anyway, today I’m talking about Newport, Kentucky. Once a major stop on the national “flourishing illegal casinos and vice” circuit, the city has cleaned up its image. The city became a vice center in the 19th century, and remained so until
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