The new Benny Binion book is so much better than that I was expecting, I just can't do this book justice,
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Aces-Bin.../dp/0670026034
Pre-Vegas read much like a lot of gangster stories from NY, only it was in Dallas.
He was a bootlegger, first, then ran numbers and all the dice houses in Dallas.
1930's Texas, was as bad as 1960's Mississippi for blacks, he is on record for killing 2 people, (I think both were black, one was for sure), anyway, 0 jail time...................Later for tax evasion, he got 4 years.
Left town in the 1940's in the middle of the night, w/a million in cash, and 2 cars equipped w/Tommy guns, escorting him.
The first 10 years in Vegas, he spent dealing w/Dallas brass and the taxes from his dice games. So that was actually boring, but the stories about Vegas were great.
* Vegas needed these guys in the 1940's, because essentially if you had casino experience at that time, you had to be a criminal. Plus, they could line up financing that normal companies couldn't get. Benny came to town, and # 1 paid top wages, # 2 gave free drinks to low rollers, and # 3 had a no limit craps table, (the limit was your first bet). At that time free drinks were for high rollers only.
* He was in w/all the big gangsters, including Bugsy Seigel.
In fact, later, Meyer Lanksy was unofficially a part-owner of the horseshoe. He needed cash for his IRS problems, so he sold off parts of the casino, at times he only had 2-3 % of the horseshoe. The main reason Benny was able to buy them all out was because Howard Hughes came to town, the town was going legit, and the gangsters wanted their name off of ownership.
* There is a department at the LVPD, where casinos report thefts. 1986-1996 LV casino's reported an avg of 10 thefts per year, the Binions reported no thefts for those 10 years. They handled them in-house, and w/brute force.
One guy won a 700k civil lawsuit for getting back roomed. But on the criminal side of same case, all the security guards, including one of his grandsons, got a mistrial. When re tried, they all lost, but later the judge threw out the verdicts.
*Doyle went to him for help when Tony Spilotoro (the guy Pesci played in "Casino") was strong arming him into cheating other poker players.
*The oldest daughter was a junkie, had a new BF who they thought was giving her drugs. One day they kick him out of the casino, Ted Binion tells people he is going to kill him, the next day he is found in the desert. No charges,
*A "pit boss" killed a guy who was cheating, they had chased him outside, and per most witnesses it was Ted who fired the gun, but the 24 yr old pit boss took the wrap, (0 jail time of course) and the author thought was well compensated.
I'll repeat, I can't do this book justice, the Binions simply owned Vegas for a time.
If you like gambling stories, mob stories, and old Las Vegas stories, w/ a wild wild west twist, you will not be disappointed. Doyle had some stories about 1960's Texas poker scene, it was rough.
It seems like everyone that met Benny Binion, loved him, though. He was illiterate, he never had a casino license, so he set up camp at the restaurant downstairs, and that became the political hang out. Mayor Oscar Goodman ate lunch there everyday, among other lawyers and judges.
Seemed like if you stayed on his good side, he was great, but you if got on his bad side, got in his way of making money, or threatened him or his family, you died.