The Players: The Men Who Made Las Vegas

Rating:
Summary: Find Out How Vegas Became What it is Today-Read this Book!
Review: I recently visited Las Vegas for the first time and wasmesmerized by what I saw. Every casino appeared to have a story behindit, and upon my return home, I wanted to know those stories.

The Players is a terrific read. The chapters give just ther right information on each topic to develop a working contextual knowledge of Vegas History. I was particularly fascinated by information on the Glitter Gulch rebels like Boyd and Binion. With the development of the Fremont Street experience, Downtown Vegas is a formidable tourist destination once again.

Overall, a great book. Don't let the fact that is published by a university press scare you. The chapters are short and clearly written. The casino business jargon is kept to a minimum, or when it is used, it is explained well. This book deserves more of an audience.

Rating:
Summary: Great stories, but a bit dated
Review: These are great tales of Las Vegas, but the writing drags. The research is clearly of the just-believe-what-someone-told-me school. There's still a great book to be written about the builders of the Strip and Glitter Gultch. This book is not the one.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting stories. So-so writing.
Review: These are great tales of Las Vegas, but the writing drags. The research is clearly of the just-believe-what-someone-told-me school. There's still a great book to be written about the builders of the Strip and Glitter Gultch. This book is not the one.

Rating:
Summary: Great stories, but a bit dated
Review: This book is at its best when focusing on the less recent past in it's stories of Benny Binion, Howard Hughes, Jay Sarno, Sam Boyd and the like ... which are all excellent. I found the Kirk Kerkorian and Steve Winn ones a bit lacking, mostly because their stories aren't really over yet.

The last two chapters, not bios, but concept pieces , "How Popular Literature Has Treated Las Vegas" and "The Adult Playground Becomes a Heaven for Families" .. are pretty much a waste since Vegas has now focusing on going back to its "Adult" roots ..and the read no longer makes sense.

However, it you want to get some great and entertaining stories of the "good old days" .. and even a little before the "good old days", the first two-thirds of this book is certainly worth the asking price.