Super Casino: Inside the "New" Las Vegas

Former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley, whose several books include a study of Leavenworth Prison, turns his meticulous journalistic eye on yet another notorious venue: Las Vegas. Don't expect him to unearth a spate of scandalous doings, though: Sin City isn't quite what it used to be. "Howard Hughes is now only a historical footnote," Earley writes. "Liberace's trademark candelabra sits in a museum. Elvis has been gone so long that tourists often think his impersonators look more like the King than he did. The old Las Vegas is dead." The new Vegas, however, is very much alive. In two years of visits, with particular access to the Egyptian-themed Luxor Hotel, Earley gathers a comprehensive history of the city's "gaming" industry, including the biographies of such important figures as the Bellagio's Steve Wynn. He also takes a firsthand look into the lives of several Vegas residents and regulars. The book's chapters, often dense with historical fact, are neatly interrupted by fascinating first-person accounts: an old-time dealer talks about being threatened by Frank Sinatra, a hotel manager at a casino gets chewed out by her boss for renting out a $5,000 room to movie stars, and a cab driver talks about falling out of love with this high-rolling town, though he still tries to get his cut of the money. "The money," he says. "There is so much of it in this town that you learn to close your eyes. I hate it but I can't walk away. Who can?" Perhaps the readers of Super Casino will be able to restrain themselves after they read Earley's explanation of how clearly casino odds are stacked against them. --Maria Dolan From Publishers Weekly For a portrait of razzle-dazzle Las Vegas, this is a curiously sober book. Earley, an Edgar and Robert F. Kennedy Award winner (Circumstantial Evidence), gained the cooperation of Circus Circus Enterprises, owners of the new pyramid-shaped Luxor super casino, to write an awkward hybrid of a work: part business history, part vignettes of life in Las Vegas. The first segment, more than one third of the book, tells the history of Circus Circus. It's a solid account of the rise of corporate casinos by Earley, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, but as Vegas tales go, there's nothing hugely dramatic in the Circus Circus story. The book's sprightlier but diffuse second part describes episodes inside the Luxor and the individual characters who populate it: a casino boss, a showgirl, a security guard, etc. Earley showcases some unflattering scenes, such as a security guard's beating of a homeless man, and picks up some only-in-Vegas anecdotes, like the many ways casino dealers have tried to hide stolen chips (e.g., in a brassiere). But only one of these characters is compelling: a young prostitute who opens up to the author to a remarkable degree; surviving the Las Vegas jungle, she trains as a blackjack dealer and ultimately leaves town. Earley does not comment directly on the broader moral issues of gambling: halfway through the book, he quotes a cabbie who says the city is based on greed, but near the end, he cites a Luxor manager who asserts that it's a place "where people come to forget their problems." Andres Martinez's 24/7 (Forecasts, Oct. 25) goes further in conveying the manic energy of Las Vegas, but the city still awaits a stylish chronicler who can fully capture its uniqueness. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Earley, who previously took readers inside a major prison (The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth) and a spy ring (Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring), now takes us inside Las Vegas in this well-written, behind-the-scenes look at the machinations of the corporate world of gambling. In an unprecedented move, executives from Circus Circus Enterprises gave Earley (a former Washington Post reporter) carte blanche to attend any and all meetings, to interview staff without fear of reprisal, and to observe life inside the Luxor and Circus Circus casinos. He introduces readers not only to Vegas executives but to dealers, floor managers, and security personnel. We follow a teenage hooker from her arrival in Las Vegas to her exit two years later; we meet a dancer following her dreams; we witness the firing of an employee. By the end, you'll wonder if anyone has a chance to come out ahead against the corporate mafia who have renewed Las Vegas with the Super Casinos that line the Strip. An excellent read, this book is fast-paced, interesting, and credible. Recommended for public libraries of all sizes and for academic libraries, too. -Sandra Isaacson, Las Vegas Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist What's "new" about Vegas? Plenty. Just ask journalist Early, who files a complete and compelling report on the transformation Las Vegas has undergone over the past decade or two. First, some facts: in the 1990s, Vegas overtook Walt Disney World as the most popular tourist destination in the country; also in the 1990s, Las Vegas became the fastest-growing city in the U.S. The "new" Vegas, then, is a tremendous resort city unlike any other. "Anyone," Early avers, "who still thinks of Las Vegas as a holiday haven for pug-nosed mafiosos with bulges under their jackets and suitcases stuffed with cash, or as the scandalous desert playground of Hollywood's rich and raucous, is living in the past." He charts the history of the evolution from old Vegas to new Vegas by focusing on the history of two "supercasino" companies, Circus Circus and Mirage Resorts. The new Vegas caters to the middle-class vacationer more than to the high-roller--each of the huge new casinos is a family firendly, fully equipped resort unto itself. In the second half of his book, Early describes the activities he observed at one of the new supercasinos, the Luxor. Spending time nosing around this gargantuan hotel-casino, he talked to several people who worked there, from the boss himself to security people to hookers plying their trade. Author of The Hot House: Life inside Leavenworth Prison (1992), Early takes readers on an atmospheric trip here that should prove popular, even among those who have not yet taken that magic stroll down the Las Vegas Strip. Brad Hooper Praise for Super Casino :"Pete Earley takes an incredibly fascinating subject and makes it mesmerizing. You have to keep reminding yourself that this is fact, not fiction. Super Casino is truly the best book ever written about Las Vegas, and I think I've read them all. This must have been a fun book to research. After I finished it, I called my travel agent and booked a flight to Vegas."--Nelson DeMille From the Inside Flap s a mob town built on restlessness and hunger, on glitter, greed, and the firm belief that anyone can get lucky once. But in the last decade Las Vegas has had its own change of fortune, transforming itself from a gambler's fun house to one of the country's top family vacation spots. Now Pete Earley--the investigative journalist and award-winning author who stormed Leavenworth in The Hot House --takes us inside today's colossal theme casinos, in a fascinating look at the life, death, and fantastic rebirth of the Las Vegas Strip.With 320 days of sunshine, 500 churches, 27 golf courses, and no state income tax, Las Vegas is the ultimate boomtown. And at the heart of the boom are the new "entertainment superstores" known as super casinos. How do they run? Who are the business titans responsible for these extravagant showplaces? And why was the gaudy Vegas of the Rat Pack era remade in the first place?Pete Earley traces this evolution by taking a probing lo Praise for Super Casino :"Pete Earley takes an incredibly fascinating subject and makes it mesmerizing. You have to keep reminding yourself that this is fact, not fiction. Super Casino is truly the best book ever written about Las Vegas, and I think I've read them all. This must have been a fun book to research. After I finished it, I called my travel agent and booked a flight to Vegas."--Nelson DeMille Formerly a reporter for The Washington Post, Pete Earley is also the author of the highly praised Bantam titles Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring ; The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison ; and Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town , winner of the Edgar Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Food and beverage director John Thacker found a wad of messages waiting for him after the department-head meeting. He still had thirty telephone calls to return from Monday. Like other managers, he no longer had an assistant to field them because of Alamo's budget cuts. His department served a minimum of nine thousand meals every day and he oversaw a staff of 1,100, which included 25 chefs, 290 cooks, and several hundred busboys, cocktail waitresses, bartenders, and food servers. He personally signed $1.8 million worth of purchase orders per month. Because the Luxor was not generating the profits its executives expected, Thacker had been told to reduce his payroll even more by firing the equivalent of 55 full-time employees. He didn't know how he was going to do that without sacrificing service."Everyone always complains about food," he said. "It's always too hot, too cold; there's not enough, there's too much; it's too salty, it's too sweet; it's too cheap, it's too expensive. But the truth is that the actual preparation of food is easy. The hard part of my job is dealing with employees and the customers. It's how you deal with people in this business that ultimately makes or breaks you."Thacker had first learned this lesson in 1969, when he was in high school and one of his pals offered to help him get a "juice job" as a busboy at the Regency Room in the glamorous Sands resort. No one worked there unless they knew someone, and Thacker's buddy was related to the maître d'hôtel. Thacker went in for an interview before the restaurant opened. "Carry that tray of dirty glasses around the room," the maître d'hôtel ordered, pointing to a heavy tray filled with glasses. Thacker did as he was told and when he got back, was told to do it again. Other employees chuckled as Thacker lugged the tray. This time, he noticed that the maîre d'hôtel was not even watching him. But he told Thacker to do it again, sparking more laughter. Thacker carried the tray around the room a third time, and then a fourth, and finally a fifth. "I later learned this was a test to see if I would follow directions without questioning him, even if it meant that I would be humiliated. He knew that some customers wouldn't think twice about embarrassing me, and you had to be willing to smile and do what you were told without insulting these people even if they were jerks."Thacker got the job and soon discovered there was a payoff for treating customers as if they were always right: "If I was nice to people, they gave me money." Thacker memorized the name of every high roller so he could greet them when he cleared their table. He learned the habits of every waiter and figured out ways to help them do their jobs. The tips flowed downhill from the waiters, who were receiving as much as $300 to $400 per night. Thacker gave his paycheck to his mother, who was divorced and working as a waitress at a club, but kept the tips for himself. "I went home at night with my pockets stuffed with bills."At the Luxor, Thacker oversaw the Isis, the pyramid's gourmet restaurant; a seafood restaurant, the Sacred Sea Room; and a Polynesian dining room called Papyrus. None of them was doing well. Thacker received daily reports and the most recent showed the three restaurants had served only four hundred meals. That was about one-fifth of what it should have been. There were also two cafes in the Luxor, the Pyramid Café and the Millennium, and they had served 4,512 meals, which was good but not great. The busiest dining hall was the all-you-can-eat buffet, where 6,221 customers had eaten.Tony Alamo was in the process of changing the restaurants. He was adding a pricey steak house next to the casino and converting the Papyrus into a Chinese restaurant. He was also building a fast-food court on the amusement level near an expanded video arcade popular with kids. The court featured McDonald's hamburgers, Little Caesar's Pizza, and Nathan's hot dogs. A new buffet, called Pharaoh's Pheast, was being constructed in the basement level and even though it wasn't open yet, Thacker already had instructed his cooks how he wanted the food arranged. Soups, salads, and fruits would be placed at the start of the serving line. Next would come various pastas and Chinese and Mexican dishes. Farther down, there would be omelettes and exotic breads. Only when a diner reached the end would he find prime rib and chicken dishes. "You always put your least expensive items in the front of a serving line," Thacker explained, "because you want your customers to fill up on those items first before they reach the more expensive meats." Vacationing tourists who made pigs of themselves were called "trough monsters" by the buffet workers, who often wondered aloud how it was possible to eat so much at one sitting.Thacker relied on his three shift managers to handle the everyday problems. Each left him messages in a bound log kept on his secretary's desk. The notes revealed much about the daily workings of a casino food and beverage operation. On this particular day, there were a number of notations: Employee tossed out the top of a wedding cake for couple having reception. They were furious so we arranged for them to have a free room for night. Guest complained that the price for a drink on the menu was 95ó but it rang up at $1 on cash register. Someone had recorded it wrong in the machine. No fish on the all-you-can-eat buffet line last Friday night. Roman Catholic guests complained today. Couple got into fight in restaurant and left without paying. Caught by security. Have a history of skipping out without paying for meals. Elderly man seen taking carrots from buffet and putting them into plastic bag to take home. Poor Las Vegas resident. Warned not to take food from buffet. Had to suspend busboy for possible theft of tips from food servers. Found $9 worth in his apron that had been left for someone else. Guest complained because room service wouldn't let her nanny sign for meal. Guest returned six-pack of beer, said it was warm by the time it reached his room. Waitress dropped glass, didn't tell anyone, shards fell into strawberries and guest cut lip. Waitress disciplined, guest given complimentary meal. Guest complained about seeing cook blow nose in napkin and then continue serving food on buffet line without washing hands. Suggestion: we need to have signs in kitchen printed in Spanish as well as English. Waitress showed up without bra, told to go home and get one.Shortly before seven o'clock, Thacker got a call from Tony Alamo, who said Michael Ensign was joining him in the Isis in a half hour for dinner. As soon as Alamo hung up, Thacker called the head waiter. "Make sure Mr. Alamo and Mr. Ensign are seated in a booth away from other guests," he said. "The last time Mr. Ensign ate in our restaurant, some woman complained for ten minutes about her meal when she found out who he was. Oh yeah, and for god sakes don't let Jimmy serve them." Thacker was planning on firing Jimmy later that night for hustling tips.He explained that the casino often sent high rollers to the Isis for complimentary meals and these gamblers frequently ordered the most expensive items on the menu because they knew they were not being charged. Because of this, the Luxor did not list its costliest bottles of wine and champagne on its wine list. Jimmy had been telling gamblers about them and one high roller recently had run up a free dinner that had cost $1,200 because he kept ordering $120 bottles of champagne The gambler had slipped Jimmy a fat tip. Jimmy had been warned twice to stop hustling tips but was still doing it.After talking to the maître d'hôtel, Thacker telephoned the Luxor's head chef and told him about Alamo and Ensign. "You have some nice stone crabs, don't you?" he asked. "Those would be good to serve tonight, but make sure they're perfect."Everything was running smoothly until ten minutes before Alamo and Ensign were scheduled to arrive. A sewage pipe backed up in the basement and wastewater began spilling into the Luxor's main kitchen. As Thacker rushed downstairs, he used his portable phone to call the Luxor's in-house health inspector. The inspector had worked for the Food and Drug Administration before Thacker hired him to ensure that the Luxor's kitchens exceeded every city, county, state, and national health standard. As far as Thacker knew, the Luxor was the only resort in Las Vegas that had its own internal health inspector, but Thacker thought the cost was well worth it. The inspector had instituted a number of commonsense safety rules--such as using different-colored cutting boards to make certain that salmonella was not spread by having meat cut on a board where raw chicken already had been sliced. "A lot of Strip hotels have sent two or three hundred people to the hospital with food poisoning," Thacker said. "I want to make sure that never happens here."The kitchen was a mess when he reached it. Chefs and cooks were wading through a half inch of dirty water as they prepared meals. Thacker called the engineering department and asked where the water was coming from. Something had been jammed into a main wastewater pipe, he was told. Vacuum cleaners were brought in to suck up the water, but they couldn't keep up. By now the water was nearly an inch deep and threatening to splash over the bottom doors of the main cooler where all of the Luxor's ice for drinks was stored. Thacker grabbed a mop and ordered several busboys to help him. "If we can't stop it," the inspector warned, "we'll have to close the kitchen."Thacker's phone rang. Alamo and Ensign had just been seated at their table upstairs in the Isis. "Oh, Christ!" he said. The two executives had no idea of the bedlam in the kitchen. "They just ordered th... Read more