by John L. Smith
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Product Description
The story of the evolution of the gambling racket from mobbed-up vice to corporate success story as told through the biographies of the men who made it happen.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Sharks in the Desert, 2008-08-31
Everything you ever wanted to know about Vegas -- from the Mafia days to the current town. Well written and puts you there!!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Episodic, Fragmented, but Mildly Fascinating , 2008-08-10
I love Las Vegas; I am fascinated by the procession of hotels - each more interesting than its neighbor, in at least some way. Las Vegas absolutely feeds the human needs for release and occasional excess. This book traces the excesses of the people who built the city. The writer, John L. Smith, is one of the most widely read reporters on the Las Vegas scene, and that actually sets up one of my two biggest complaints. First, writing a book is not the same as a newspaper column or a magazine article. Smith's style is as if he was writing a series on countless newspaper columns. The writing is too glib, it's too vernacular, and just too "hip" and tries too had to be "tough" and "street wise." Smith really needed an editor to make this a well written book.
My second complaint is the format. This is a history written through the stories of people who came to Las Vegas and built the city. I would much rather have seen a history of each hotel, in proper chronological order. The problem with the approach Smith takes is that people moved in and out of the city, jumped ownership of hotels and corporations, and in many cases, ended up at the bottom of a river. It is a highly fragmented story that in the end, does a poor job of creating a narrative of the city.
All that said, there is still much to learn from the book. Perhaps it will just be a jumping off point for further study. I learned volumes from the book, in spite of the shortcomings. It is worth a read, but the episodic approach may frustrate you. If you know Las Vegas fairly well, you can create the necessary context; if you are not familiar with the city, you may have trouble constructing a useful portrait..
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
 Sloppy, Fragmented and Unfocused, 2007-03-21
This is a book that appeals to no one. If you're not already familiar with Vegas history, it is not a good place to start. And if you already know something about Vegas, it will not teach you anything new.
In theory, the structure of this book seems like a good idea -- devote a chapter each on the movers and shakers who built Las Vegas. The problem is that they all influenced each other, so separating them results in an arbitrary, fragmented, sometimes difficult-to-follow, narrative. Even the chapters themselves tend to jump back and forth in time and place. Structurally, the book just doesn't work.
Then there's the problem of sketchy information. Smith doesn't go into great detail explaining the why's and how's of events, leaving the reader with a great longing to know more about the individual characters of these men and what makes them tick. If you're looking for some good dish on Vegas -- which is what the snappy title promises -- there are better choices.
Compounding the reader's frustration are the numerous typos, spelling, and grammatical errors. Smith either had no editor or edited this himself. It feels like a first draft in serious need of a major rewrite and fact checking. It's difficult to believe Smith makes a living as a journalist. He must have a good editor at the Review/Journal.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
The Real McCoy., 2007-03-04
This book gives you the real story behind the Vegas gaming legends. Nobody does justice to this topic like John L. Smith. His research is impeccable.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
It delivers on the title but in a less than thrilling way, 2006-10-30
This book is a fun read if you are someone who is familiar with Las Vegas. The book indeed delivers on what the subtitle, "..The Founding Fathers and Current Kings of Las Vegas" states. Each chapter is more or less devoted to discussing a specific person and the impact they had on setting the stage for the evolution of Las Vegas. I imagine those of you who have never been infatuated with Las Vegas will want to pass on this one.
Based on some of the anecdotes, it seems amazing that some of the Vegas hotels are still open today. The mobsters and the so called "straight laced" owners who ran (or still run) the hotels come off as either extremely brilliant or totally incompetent. It is no wonder that most of the Strip hotels have all been swallowed up by one or two companies. The author also seems to question if some hotels are completely honest when it comes to gaming.
The problem I had with the book was perhaps I was expecting something more chronological and dramatic. Instead, the book is like a compilation of old newpaper columns that are all put together in one place(of course, maybe that is not a surprise since the author is a newspaper reporter). Much like other books of that nature, the reading becomes almost repetitive and seems easier to take over a long haul rather than a week or two of reading cover to cover. Also note that there are a few typos and errors that make it seem like someone did a spellcheck with a computer rather than really proofreading it.
If you can stick with this type of book, you will probably enjoy it. Now this is the first book about Las Vegas I have read so I can not compare it to anything but I've got to believe there is probably something a bit more compelling.
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