A MORNING & AN AFTERNOON RADIO INTERVIEW



March 2, 2016   Wednesday

This morning I did a 15-minute interview with Ms. Frankie Boyer on her Boston radio show. It is my sixth appearance since 30 Illegal Years To The Strip came out. My first radio show for this book was also with her. We discussed the differences between Las Vegas when it was a gambling town versus the way it is now as a convention and retail-shop center, the great publicity generated about Las Vegas produced by Frank Sinatra both because of his musical talent and his sometimes bad behavior, and the fine quality and distinctive menu items of the early Las Vegas casino restaurants.

I just completed this afternoon a 30-minute interview with Ashley Adams on his nationally syndicated House of Cards radio show. It is a one-hour weekly show about poker and casinos, but for my first appearance, we discussed the major Prohibition gang leaders featured in my book 30 Illegal Years To The Strip, who later went on to build the Las Vegas Strip. In a future appearance, Ashley wants to discuss the two popular poker rooms I operated for so many years at the Castaways and Silver Slipper casinos in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, and my relationship with gambling-operator Benny Binion and the very positive impact he had on my career and life. Ashley also wants me to tell my bad-beat stories from playing in Benny's World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe Club in downtown Las Vegas. It was in the Casino Owners' Competition that I went up against Benny's sons, Jack and Teddy. My nemesis, however, was the wife of Stratosphere builder Bob Stupak. Those contests were more than three decades ago, but the thought of going up against this woman still upsets me.