Winner Takes All Steve Wynn Kirk Kerkorian Gary Loveman and the Race to Own Las Vegas
Winner Takes All Steve Wynn Kirk Kerkorian Gary Loveman and the Race to Own Las Vegas
Wall Street Journal columnist Christina Binkley takes an up-close-and-personal look at how Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, and Dr. Gary Loveman are building a bigger and better Las Vegas and how their influence is spreading beyond the city’s borders.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Wynn’s Place and Show
Among the several recent Vegas-oriented titles lining bookstore shelves these days (other notables include Mezrich’s serials, “Double or Nothing,” and “Storming Las Vegas”), Binkley’s “Winner Takes All” is a good bet. Will that be the last ham-handed gambling pun of the review…read on, dear friend and find out.
Binkley touches briefly on the ancient and well-trod history of Las Vegas (the Mob, the Binions, and the genesis of the brands and casino corporations that still define the Strip today), but spends most of her effort and energy in recounting the emergence of Vegas from relative obscurity as a gambling destination to one of the world’s preeminent luxury playgrounds and most popular tourist destinations during the 1990’s.
Binkley recounts the days when Vegas was listed in the category (even if it was well atop the category) of cities like Reno and Atlantic City as opposed to Miami, New York, LA and Chicago as one of America’s defining metro areas. The story of the 90’s is the story of Wynn, Kerkorian, Loveman and the emergence of a city that as recently as the late-80’s bore little physical resemblance to the gaudy splendor of today and belied little of the financial promise of the billion dollar juggernaut of the past several years.
In Binkley’s account, the city rises right along side (and perhaps on the back of) men like Kerkorian and Wynn who saw the potential of creating a more tourist-friendly, luxury-oriented business model that is (or at least seems to be) as much about the food, fine linens, and shopping as it is about roulette, baccarat and craps.
And, while Kerkorian’s MGM Mirage and Loveman’s Harrah’s Group share the stage with Wynn and the various iterations of his Vegas career, Binkley wisely chose to make it Wynn’s show.
Wynn is too perfect a subject to pass up and Binkley brings him to life, from the garish fashion sense to the extravagant art splurges to the stubborn struggles with both the practical and image-conscious impacts of his near-blindness. Wynn emerges from the narrative as a caricature bordering on megalomaniacal, right down to his questionable commingling of hundreds of millions in corporate and personal funds and his cold war with Donald Trump.
The Kerkorian and Loveman stories have their moments too; but, the purpose they serve most effectively are as foils to Wynn and the chapters on their companies and business dealings hold interest while allowing a breath of air from the frantic Wynn saga.
The Wynn story touches on a host of issues particularly relevant in the current economic climate as more attention is focused on executive compensation and corporate governance in publicly-held corporations. And, as the story of Vegas continues to develop and more reshuffling takes place (see, e.g., [...] on Kerkorian’s recent sale of Treasure Island in an effort to infuse much-needed cash to MGM Mirage), the history here is more than just a walk down memory lane. The good thing about Binkley’s subtitular “race to own Las Vegas” is that it is an ironman event with no clear finish line in sight, and – given the appearance and reappearance and disappearance of various key players – it may even be more aptly described as a treadmill.
One criticism of Binkley’s work is that there are moments where there are very choppy and even seemingly incoherent transitions or digressions; but, they are few and detract little from the enjoyment of what is really a very good read. These are editing errors (there is another glaring one wherein Binkley says that Loveman did not wish for his hometown in Greater Boston to be mentioned in the book, and some chapters later she refers to the town in an oblique way, betraying Loveman’s intended privacy).
If you plan to roll the dice on a Vegas book, smart money says to pick a book with a solid back story, good characters (even Wynn’s wife is an intriguing character), and salience in current events and global business. Binkley comes up aces!
5 Stars Highly enjoyable, and filled with interesting tidbits
I’m sure I’ll see Las Vegas in a different light after reading this book. You can’t help but be fascinated by these larger-than-life characters. Steve Wynn is without a doubt the most interesting character in the book, but viewing the city as a competition between titans is something I’ve never really comprehended on trips to the Strip before. It’s a great easy read, with lots of interesting facts. I agree with some reviewers who had problems following the (hazy) timeline, but it didn’t diminish from the overall enjoyment.
3 Stars Five-star narrative cheapened by gratuitous slams of Sheldon Adelson
The Wall Street Journal reporter Christina Binkley was that paper’s lead reporter in Las Vegas for 10 years. In “Winner Takes All” she pulls together that experience – both the knowledge and her contacts – and delivers a compelling, enthralling narrative of Vegas’ transformation over that period.
The book’s sub-title says “Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman and the Race to Own Las Vegas.” Binkley posits that a series of mega-deals have apportioned Vegas into three controlling companies: MGM Mirage (headed by Kirkorian); Wynn (Steve Wynn’s eponymous new post-Mirage venture); and Harrah’s (helmed by ex-Harvard prof Loveman). Binkley appears to have had little access to Kerkorian, (no one does, but read Bill Vlasic’s classic Taken for a Ride: How Daimler-Benz Drove Off With Chrysler for a better peek at him) but ample access to his lieutenants. She obviously had developed a cordial relationship with Loveman. What stands out is her relationship with Wynn and wife Elaine. It’s extensive, to say the least. She’s clearly enchanted with the guy.
In fact, that relationship leads me to my major problem with the book – it simply lacks credibility to leave Sheldon Adelson – Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sand Corporation (Venetian, Sands Convention Center, Palazzo) – out of the story. He, as much as anyone, set the pace for Vegas during Binkley’s years of coverage. And, he made the leap to Macao ahead of any of his Vegas peers. It’s blatantly obvious from the text that Ms. Binkley has a history with Adelson. Yes, he’s famously dyspeptic and probably has little use for her. But Adelson has also feuded publicly and nastily with Steve Wynn. Wynn uses Binkley here quite transparently to take a number of gratuitous slams at Adelson. She’s little more than a water-carrier in that regard. That’s sad because it detracts from the overall excellence of the book in a very distracting way.
A tale of the tape:
p. 89 – Adelson described as a “would-be mogul” who “irked Wynn”
p. 93 – Adelson is “warring with Wynn”
p. 209 – Adelson described as Wynn’s “nemesis and neighbor”
p. 250 – The “eccentric” Adelson takes Sands public and is “catapulted from obscurity to number 19 on the Forbes 400″ (Hello?? COMDEX, anyone? This guy was hardly obscure pre-Sands; his success was far from the luck and accident implied here).
p. 271 – 272 – Wynn takes a moment to “pity” Adelson…’It’s too bad he’s not in better health and able to enjoy it more. He’s in a wheelchair.’ That’s cold, man.
p. 276 – “Loveman lost the Singapore bid to Sheldon Adelson.” Adelson didn’t win it, right? Loveman lost it. It’s like Adelson and team had no role and won by default. Hardly.
I’ve not cherry-picked the negative references – those are the ONLY references! Juvenile stuff. What a shame.
5 Stars Fascinating read for anyone who has visited Las Vegas
I just visited Las Vegas and loved it, it was much better than I expected it to be after having toured all around Europe! I bought this book at the airport book store in Vegas as the assistant said that was the book everyone had been asking after. It was a fascinating and entertaining read, with particularly inside information on how Steve Wynn approaches business and also how it contrasts with that of Kirk Kerkorian and Gary Loveman at Harrahs.
I couldn’t put it down and recommend it to anyone who has visited Las Vegas and is wondering how it go to be the town that it is today.
5 Stars Vegas, baby, Vegas!
Binkley presents an insightful and lively account of some of the players who operate in a world where nothing succeeds like excess. It is a world that the author knows well from her years of having covered the industry as a Wall Street Journal reporter, but, despite being granted unprecedented access to Las Vegas’ movers and shakers, she remains a detached observer. From backroom deal-making to outsized egos to glitzy spectaculars, Binkley covers it all with a sprightly writing style, providing insights into what makes men like Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, and Gary Loveman tick.
It was a world I knew nothing about other than a few business trips to Las Vegas, but I found the book highly entertaining and learned a lot about how about how three very different visionaries plotted a path to success. I will enjoy my next business trip to Sin City much more having read this book. I recommend it highly.
