Something For Your Money
Author: David G. Schwartz
3430pp., Winchester Books, 2025
Perhaps the last thing anyone needed in 2025 was another book on the history of Las Vegas. But this latest one is special.
There are literally hundreds of Vegas-based titles out there, both fiction and non-fiction. The long list ranges from Hunter Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing” to illustrated children’s books (“My First Book About Las Vegas”) to “Vegas and the Mob.”
Sadly, some of these titles (not the ones above) are complete trash. At the bottom of that list is the classic “The Green Felt Jungle”. Despite one of the author’s past Pulitzer Prize credentials, the book is a disgraceful distortion of the truth and more myth than fact … at least until you get to the Appendix. That is where most Nevadans first learned who really owned their casinos! (See my earlier review here – CDC Gaming, Feb 2024.)
Morbidly, most of our interest in Las Vegas is about the mob years. As we all know from watching “Casino” and Warren Beatty’s character in “Bugsy,” modern Las Vegas was founded and created by the notorious Benjamin “Don’t Call Me Bugsy” Seigel. There are more than a dozen books on Mr. Seigel and his pivotal role in the city.
That alone is why you need to read “Something For Your Money”. It was the first time I learned factually that Mr. Siegel was quite a minor player in the Strip’s success and the creation of the iconic Flamingo. Perhaps it was his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, and his mob assassination (re-created in “Casino” as a gruesome barbershop hit on Moe Green) that boosted his false ranking.
Until I finished Schwartz’s new book, my recommendation for the best documented portrayal of the mob years was “The Money and The Power” by Sally Denton (Smith) and Roger Morris. At 479 pages, it is superb. But it is also a slow and difficult read. Nearly every paragraph is backed by extensive research and references. Sixty-five pages were devoted to either Notes or Bibliography.
Dr. David G. Schwartz
But now I’m inclined to recommend “Something For Your Money” over “The Money and The Power” for most readers. Both are excellent, but Schwartz’s account flows better and his style is more entertaining. Make no mistake, Schwartz is an academic historian, so his research on this one is also solid with 28 pages of references.
Another reason for my switch is that Schwartz updates his work to include the latest resorts: Circa, Resorts World, Fontainebleau and a pending Oakland A’s ballpark. The earlier Denton and Morris work concludes around the turn of the century.
A few of the many gems in this latest work are:
- How Las Vegas turned above ground atom bomb tests into a tourist attraction (perhaps one of the greatest PR re-positionings in history)
- The creative process behind the Mirage volcano
- How the aforementioned “Green Felt Jungle” hastened the Mob’s exit from Nevada
- How Boulder Dam once saved Las Vegas
- How Highway 91 used design elements of a Tijuana dog track to form the centerpiece of today’s “Strip”
I became a fan of Schwartz years ago when he released “Roll the Bones” in 2006. At that time, he was the director of UNLV’s Center For Gaming Studies.
Dr. Schwartz (a Ph.D from UCLA in U.S. History) opines in “Bones” that gambling predates humanity with some convincing research about chimps wagering for food. His timeline covers everything from that to ancient Egypt through to the 2005 opening of Wynn Las Vegas.
Each year around the Christmas gift season, I put out a Top 10 list of books that I feel must be part of your personal gaming bibliography. “Roll the Bones” has consistently been on that list. It will stay, and “Something For Your Money” will now be added.
Professor Schwartz has been at UNLV since 2001 and is now their Ombuds (whatever that is??). He has written six books about gaming and edited many more. One other favorite of mine is the excellent “At the Sands”. However, it didn’t make my list last year because I felt that the subject of a single (now demolished) casino was too narrow.
But in this latest book, Schwartz relates the background of that iconic resort and describes the creation of the Sands Expo Center. For three or four days each year, that location is home for every serious gaming professional attending the Global Gaming Expo (aka G2E). Maybe, I’ll now re-think my list.
“Something For Your Money” is available from most sources for $28. You can get the digital versions on Nook or Kindle for $8.99. In either format, this book is definitely something for your money.
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This year also saw another history released called “Vegas: From Fremont to The Strip – How Las Vegas Casinos Evolved” by Las Vegas podcaster Mark Wojtowicz. I’ve downloaded, but not finished, a Kindle copy and will let you know my thoughts. Notably, in his Acknowledgments, Wojtowicz thanks Dr. Schwartz with “mentoring me through the process and making an overwhelming project seem more manageable. Thank you for treating me like a peer.”
