BBC WORLD SERVICE INTERVIEW

 

August 13, 2021  Friday

 

I had a great discussion on BBC’s Business Daily radio programme. Their subject was about a sense of time and of timelessness in various aspects of life. I explained how a serious casino player is typically immersed in an escapist fantasy while gambling, and they can quickly turn it off if they become aware of the real time in the world around them.

 

Over the years, I have occasionally come across an article about how the Nevada casinos reinforced their players’ sense of timelessness, by eliminating all the clocks and by covering up their exterior windows and doors to keep the rising sunlight from making their players aware of the real time in the outside world. These articles inevitably present the casino operators’ actions as Machiavellian manipulation intended to take advantage of their players. The truth is that about three-quarters of a century ago, the serious players demanded the casino operators remove the clocks and cover up the rising sunlight, if they wanted to keep them coming back to gamble at their casino.

 

I witnessed the players’ negative reaction to rising sunlight many times during my career. I frequently stood and observed player behavioral patterns in the casinos I managed, my competitors’ casinos, the other casinos in Las Vegas, and the many casinos in cities around the world to whom I consulted. As I stood in the background watching the goings on in these casinos, it always amazed me that when the players could see the rising sunlight through the glass doors or windows, it took just a few minutes for the majority of  players to cash out and leave the casino.

 

It is clear all these late-night players did not quit playing at the same time to go to work, or from simultaneous tiredness, because I never saw a mass exodus like this in any casino that had the sunlight blocked out. I have occasionally seen mass exoduses in the evening, when a hot live band in the lounge ended its performance. In these cases, all the players each had some reason to leave, but all held back from taking off as long as music they were loving was flowing through the casino.

TRUCKERS NETWORK RADIO SHOW INTERVIEW

 May 21, 2021  Friday

 I had a great one-hour interview with the hosts of the Truckers Network Radio Show. This network presents weather, driving conditions, news, and entertainment for commercial drivers. The hosts told me that many of their listeners regularly drive through Las Vegas, and they are interested in the history of the gambling industry.

We discussed my relationship with the early gambling operators who spent so much time teaching me the history of this business and how to operate a casino, especially Moe Dalitz and Benny Binion. We talked about having a future interview to discuss the other early casino owners’ operations and backgrounds.

COAST TO COAST AM MARATHON INTERVIEW

 

April 30, 2021  Friday

I just completed my longest radio interview, a two-and-one-half hour marathon, with Coast to Coast AM host George Noory. It is the most listened to late evening radio show with more than 600 stations. We discussed subjects from my history book “30 Illegal Year to the Strip”, about the four largest Prohibition gangs. After Repeal, they operated elegant high-limit illegal casinos across America. Then, they built 80% of the Las Vegas Strip casinos, during the twenty years from the opening of the Flamingo in 1946 to the opening of Caesars Palace in 1966.

As always, George was a superlative host with challenging questions. Thank you, George! I had a great time.

A RADIO INTERVIEW OF "30 ILLEGAL YEARS"

February 9, 2021  Tuesday

I remain busy working on my next history of the Nevada gambling industry. Today, I was called for a radio interview by a network of stations in the states of Kansas and Texas, and I discussed my most recent history book "30 Illegal Years To The Strip".

THE MODERNIZATION OF MY WEBSITE BillFriedmanAuthor.com

 

November 14, 2020  Saturday

 

My website has a new image. The title photo on the main page has pictures of the hoodlums who had such a great impact on the development of the early Las Vegas Strip gambling resorts. The title photo on the subpages contains pictures of Benny Binion and Moe Dalitz, who were two of Las Vegas greatest casino operators.

 

These two men greatly assisted me in my historical research and casino management career. The subpages title photo shows both of them smiling, which is the way they always were in all the years I knew them. Both had great senses of humor, and neither could talk about serious issues without regularly throwing in really funny lines that would break me up.

 

The website has been designed, so it will be easy to add information about my upcoming history book on the first page, and detailed information on new subpages that will be devoted to it.

 

My next history book will be completed by summer, and it should be published by this time next year. When my manuscript enters the production process in the fall, I will start writing a monthly email newsletter to update readers on how it is going, and how I am proceeding on my next historical manuscript.