There are plenty of books out there for executives who want to hone their leadership skills. There are even books about those books, with summaries for those who don’t have time to read the originals.
But there’s something to be said for reading books that don’t offer bulleted lists of advice. One alternative is a good history book, which can explore and explain a part of our past, often with an implicit relevance to the problems of today. More might be learned from reading a biography by Ron Chernow than by wading through ten tomes on leadership.
In that spirit, here are some books about history that touch the casino industry, books that those working in the industry might find particularly inspiring or intriguing.
Hal Rothman. Devil’s Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth-Century American West. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998.
Rothman, before his 2007 death, was the foremost public scholar of Las Vegas. Trained as an environmental historian, with much acclaimed work in that field, he developed his interest in Las Vegas after arriving at UNLV as a faculty member. Devil’s Bargains considers the rise of tourism in the West in various locales, from ski resorts to national parks to Las Vegas. Most of the book has nothing to do with casinos directly, but speaks to the deeper questions that tourism raises. I grew up in Atlantic City and thought I had a good handle on tourism; this book changed how I think about it. And the chapter on Las Vegas is, for my money, the best 25 pages yet written about the city.
Jerome H. Skolnick. House of Cards: Legalization and Control of Casino Gambling. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1978.
You’ve probably seen the 1995 film Casino at least once; perhaps you’ve watched it a dozen times. If you haven’t, you need to. And no matter how many times you have watched, you should consider reading this book. It shows the other side of how Nevada clamped down on organized crime in the gaming industry, making it a valuable companion piece to the Pileggi/Scorcese drama. Skolnick, a sociologist who specialized in crime and law, got then-unprecedented access to gaming executives and regulators in writing his book about gaming regulation and enforcement. The people he thanks in his acknowledgements include Leo Lewis, Morris Shenker, Billy Weinbgerer, Steven Wynn, Shannon Bybee, Phil Hannifin, Jeff Silver, Frank Schreck, Dennis Gomes, Robbins Cahill, Ed Olsen, and Grant Sawyer, which gives you an idea of just how extensive his research was. Some of his insights about regulation are still directly relevant, but the real value of this book is in documenting the industry as the mob was losing power in the late 1970s. Bonus fun for industry veterans: figuring out which prominent regulators and executives are hiding behind the pseudonyms Skolnick employs.
Joseph Mazur. What’s Luck Go to Do with It? The History, Mathematics, and Psychology of the Gambler’s Illusion. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.
This is a relatively brief stroll (215 pages plus appendices and index) through gambling history and math. Mazur’s central question is, “Why do we bet when we know the odds are against us?” That’s certainly something that casino executives spend some of their day thinking about. Mazur starts by quickly moving through the history of odds-chasing, from the prehistoric era to the Great Recession. Then he breaks down the math behind gambling and luck, starting with probability and statistics. More importantly, he discusses, in easy-to-understand terms, how cognitive biases affect behavior. Of value to both players and executives, this is a good book to refresh one’s understanding of gambling math or as an introduction to it.
Geoff Schumacher. Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia, and Palace Intrigue. Las Vegas: Stephens Press, 2008.
Howard Hughes is a titan in casino history. When he bought up a chunk of Nevada’s gaming industry in 1967, he brought instant legitimacy to a business that was still on the run from the Kefavuer/Kennedy “anti-crime” movement. In this book, Schumacher sums up the life of Hughes and digests most of what other people have written about the pioneering aviator. Schumacher focuses most tightly on Hughes’ years in Las Vegas, and provides as complete a look at the bizarre billionaire’s true impact on Nevada as we are likely to see. One benefit of reading this book: no matter how unusual your boss’s behavior might seem to you, you can rest assured that you are getting off easy compared with what Bob Maheu had to put up with from his eccentric, reclusive employer.
If modesty permits, I’d like to throw two books that I’ve written into the mix.
Since I’m the author, I’ll abandon all pretense of objectivity and just tell you what I think you’ll like about them.
David G. Schwartz. Grandissimo: The First Emperor of Las Vegas. Las Vegas. Winchester Books, 2013.
This is my most successful book (if you define success by sales) so it’s probably my best one (if you define quality by success). When I decided Jay Sarno, who built Caesars Palace and Circus Circus, would be a good subject for a biography, I didn’t know that opening those casinos was probably the least interesting thing Sarno did. He was a truly clever, truly creative artist whose canvas was the casino—appropriate, since he was also, in his own words, a “gambling degenerate.” In this book I tried to do justice to the complete man that Sarno was, in addition to giving a behind-the-scenes look at his short-lived casino empire. Sarno’s best friends were Jimmy Hoffa, Alan Dorfman, and Evel Knievel; it would be hard to make such a book boring. I hope I managed to cover the spread on this one.
David G. Schwartz. Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling. Casino Edition. Las Vegas: Winchester Books, 2013.
This is my remix of gambling history, with an emphasis on casinos. I go all the way back to before the dawn of history but don’t spend more time there than I have to; before you know it Venetians are opening the first European casino in 1638 and we’re off to the races, or tables, as it may be. You’ll learn about the European ancestors of American gambling as well as several thriving American subcultures of the 19th century, particularly illegal big-city gambling and wide-open frontier play. I talk about organized crime’s role in the spread of gambling, at casinos and elsewhere, and how the industry developed legally in Nevada. It’s not a short book, but I made sure it had a nice cover and spine, so, at the very worst, it will dress up your bookshelf.
