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.
