Rating: 
Summary: If you're interested in one of two things, read this book
Review: 1. The rags-to-riches tale of a true-life David Copperfield: but one who was and is ruthless, positively scary in his determination.2. The story of what -- or who -- makes the casinos -- money machines for the corporations that own them -- run. This is a clearly written, dramatic, true-life thriller. If you're not pre-disposed, as many are, to admiring people in power -- just because they're in power -- you'll find much to confirm your worst suspicions here. Smith did his work carefully, whatever those other reviewers say. I can't believe we read the same book. Read this; it's better than a million novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Guilt By Association
Review: A recent pleasure trip to Las Vegas turned into a business adventure. A walk down the strip suddenly became a research project to analyze the 'Vegas Experience'. In the midst of gathering artifacts, casual conversations with long-time locals (a construction traffic director and a security guard -- both over 15 year residents) revealed a theme central to their blue collar perspective of the city: a great respect for a man by the name of Steve Wynn. Even his employees were faultlessly loyal to him. The curator of his art collection, a retired professor of art history, willingly suggested that Steve knew far more about art than even he. These things I discovered all in less than 6 hours. I bought this book in the hopes of learning more about the man. Rare instances of Wynn-specific information could be found (only by skipping large chunks of irrelevant stories). This book smacks of irresponsible journalism. It seems as if Mr. Smith became a journalist in Las Vegas because of a penchant for sensational stories. Akin to the phenomena of the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, this was the 2 degrees of Steve Wynn. John Smith took a number of sensational stories about events in Las Vegas and 'used' (also to be taken in a pejorative context) Steve Wynn as the thread to tie them together: guilt by association. This was a thinly veiled attempt to write 'yet another' collection of mob stories (and other notable local mysterious events) while extorting Steve Wynn's name to secure new interest and sales. I picture Mr. Smith being able to pull off a story portraying Mother Teresa as a devious opportunist. Mr. Smith's preposterous suppositions, called a book, might have been more appropriately titled: Running Scarred. To find the story about Steve Wynn that I was looking for I may have to research and write it myself.
Rating:
Summary: Critical to understanding First Amendment issues, publishing
Review: As a friend of the legendary publishing icon, Barney Rosset, I was fascinated to see how a suggestions from Scotland Yard -- that Wynn certainly had mob friends -- could severely damage Rosset. Wynn has hurt him by tying up his inventory -- by tying up the inventory of Rosset's distributor, the cankanerous Lyle Stuart. Is a Las Vegas casino owner like Wynn mob-connected? Is the Pope Catholic? How can such obvious truth stated in this really, really good book wind up with someone as good and great as BARVEY ROSSET in bankruptcy? Did Rosset survive the trials of "Lady Chatterly's Lover", "Howl" "Naked Lunch" and the great books of Samuel Beckett to be damaged by a mobbed-up court?
Rating: 
Summary: Save your money
Review: Be warned. If you're looking for the exciting true story about how one man revitalized a city in decline and truly modernized Las Vegas through vision and guts (as I was), you won't find it here.
This is not a book about Steve Wynn transforming Las Vegas. This is a tabloid hit job written by a hostile author who has only one objective: link Steve Wynn to the mob.
As a Vegas history buff and as someone who's interested in Wynn, let me concede the author's objective up front: okay sure. Of course Wynn knows mafia wiseguys. How could he not? How could Wynn arrive as a young man in Vegas in the 60s and climb the ladder of influence without making mob contacts? The mob ran the town! The only real surprise as far as I'm concerned is how little Wynn seems to be involved with the mafia.
It's not that I'm a huge fan of Wynn, and all of Smith's secondhand accounts of Wynn behaving like a spoiled brat in private seem plausable, but since it's so obvious that the author is laser-focused on smearing Wynn, who's to say I'm getting a balanced account?
Whole chapters are devoted to little more than proving that Wynn is friends with this particular mob middleman, and on this particular day in 1982, they were SEEN HAVING LUNCH at this particular bistro. Though Wynn would always deny that the lunch took place, that's not the recollection of this busboy, who we've tracked down, who was ACTUALLY THERE. etc. etc. This is the book.
I was most looking forward to a retelling of the story of how Wynn built the Mirage. Where did he get the inspiration? How was it financed? How did he pitch it to investors? How did it get built? What were the expectations? How was it received when it opened? How did it change the texture of the strip? We get none of that. Instead, around two-thirds of the way through the book, I turn the page, and the Mirage is suddenly there, no discussion, and we're hearing about how one of the casino hosts may have had mob ties. Weak sauce.
Look, maybe what Smith needed was an opening chapter stating what he was trying to achieve. He could have made a case that although Wynn has transformed the city and done some great things, he's not completely squeaky-clean and has gone to great lengths to hide his association to organized crime. He could have made the moral case about taking money from the mob, and then said explicitly that the purpose of the book was to air out Wynn's dirty laundry and to take the man down a notch. What we get instead is an account of Wynn that purports to be evenhanded and journalistic but is truly only interested in smearing the man.
If the popular positive image of Wynn as humanitarian and brilliant entrepeneur who saved Vegas isn't wholly correct, then Smith's problem is that he goes directly to the opposite extreme, painting Wynn as a greedy, slimy criminal. Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle? Maybe that's a book I would want to read.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: Collection of conjecture that was at times painful to read. The recent Mirage annual report gives a better perspective of Wynn's gaming empire and how it was built.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best researched gaming books I've read.
Review: Contrary to your notice, this book is in print and has been
since early October 1995.
The book is a quick read and tells a compelling story about
the rise of Wynn in the gaming industry. It's tought but fair
in its description of him as a creative guy who also is a ruthless business man capable of overcoming many law enforcement
investigations of his business and personal life.
The author also is under fire in Las Vegas for daring to write about the most powerful man in Nevada.
Rating:
Summary: Very poorly written; no real facts
Review: Having stayed at the Bellagio, I was intrigued to learn more about Steve Wynn and bought this book. Unfortunately, it is very poorly written, lacking organization, and even more lacking in factual citations. Granted Steve Wynn is not an angel. But I thought that the allegations in this book should be backed up by adequate citations. Finally, the book is so poorly written in terms of sentence structure that I just groaned every time I turned the page.
Rating:
Summary: Inaccurate and biased
Review: I have always had a fascination with Steve Wynn's hotels and was looking to learn more about him when I came across this book. However, after reading Mr. Smith's depictions of Steve Wynn, the only thing I know for sure is that Smith REALLY doesn't like Steve Wynn. He criticized his every move, looking only at the negative "hidden agendas" associated with things such as the Mirage Dolphins and the Bellagio Art Gallery that the rest of the world is grateful that Steve Wynn brought to us. He repeatedly tries to link Wynn to the mob, but can never make a convincing arguement. He only briefly touches on the building of the hotels, their success, and fails to mention how the Mirage, Treasure Island, and the Bellagio were innovators in three different generations of Vegas theme hotels. Despite the books 2001 copyright date, is now about 9 years out of date. It pre-dates the MGM-Mirage merger, and even cites the Fremont Street Experience as being "set to open in late 1995." A postscript to the paperback edition attempts to bring it up to date, but it feels rushed, with misspelled words and inaccurate details. Smith seems to have about 100 pages of relevant information, and 254 pages of stories that are so loosely linked to Wynn that at times I forgot who I was reading about. Smith goes so far as to imply that the deterioration of the UNLV basketball program is due to Steve Wynn deciding that Jerry Tarkanian projected the wrong image for the university and that he had to go. In addition to the anti-Wynn take on every story, Smith illustrates some stories with details that aren't even accurate. He implies that opening the Bellagio was a huge risk because of the increased competition for the "well-heeled gambler market" with the opening of the Venetian, Paris and Mandalay Bay in the ensuing years since the Mirage opening, implying that the market Wynn was seeking was already captured by these hotels. This seems to be a viable argument, until you realize that those three hotels opened AFTER the Bellagio's October 1998 opening. Smith's writing is often biased. He frequently quotes his employer, the Las Vegas Review-Journal positively, and their rival newspaper, the Las Vegas Sun, negatively. Smith apparantly is not interested in providing an accurate portrayal of Wynn. Rather, he seems content try to pull every skeleton out of his closet, no matter how big of a stretch it is, to bring down Wynn's image. No wonder Wynn didn't want this book published. If you are a Las Vegas history buff like me, there are a couple of interesting tidbits, but if you are looking for an accurate biography of Steve Wynn, this is not it.
Rating:
Summary: The Pictures say it all
Review: I have read the book several times and I have still yet to see any evidence of the treachery that took place or said there of to have taken place. The book introduces the world to a place of destination, that being of Las Vegas, for many americans who spend hard earned dollars there every year. I agree with other columns written. The man is demanding and quite curt with honest people whom he has developed far stretching relationships with and I feel that be trying to expose his wit through the loopholes that the babyboomer generation has setforth through government that logic is in line with my generation forthcoming, however, I think that a sense of jealousy and zealousness in pride on the behalf of the entities herein are just as Daffy Duck and his ity bitty committee II would say. I want a trade for this despicable draft. However, there is hope and definitely a market for your kind of material and that would be more with the likes of the generation behind my own. This definitely is the real first family...... The baby boomer generation is just simply and plainly ashamed to admit it.
Rating: 
Summary: doing it right on the wrong side of town
Review: I liked the book mostly, but it was overdescribed with endless names that mean absoultely nothing while your trying to bite your teeth into this real life character. I think thats was the downfall of this incredible story for me. It may be necessary to be accurate, but put it in the back where it belongs. I thought that John Smith could have been a little more colorful and less blatant when he was telling the story. There was to much "Start" then "Stop", and flowed like a bumpy road. I think John Smith is the scared one, and you can smell the boot polish on his lips in various pages of his account. He should have been more ruthless on Steve Wynns case.
I think there is a great story to be told there, and one should climb onto it. John, has great writing ability, but should loosen up a bit, and provide some color for the reader. I am on to his next book, The Bob Stupak Story and I hope its not jammed with an endless roster of names.
To finish, a good book but needs to be re-written. I emailed him and told him I liked the book, and think with his numerous connections in nevada, it would be great if he wrote a story on the Mustang Ranch.
No reply.
I will keep an eye on what else develops story wise, in the incredible landscape of Las Vegas
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