Book Review: Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion, the Texas Gangster who Created Vegas Poker by Doug J. Swanson
Disclaimer: I received this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway in the expectation that I would review it. This was an Advance Uncorrected Proof copy, and there will be changes to the final product.
As the subtitle indicates, this is a biography of Benny Binion, who was born in a tiny town in Texas in 1904 to a horse trader’s family, and rose through moxie, violence and crime to be a beloved fixture of Las Vegas. Like many gangsters, Mr. Binion’s life makes for colorful reading, full of narrow escapes, famous names and death.
The picture painted of Dallas in the 1930-40s is not a flattering one. Mr. Binion started in the numbers racket, and eventually managed to break into the lucrative and more “respectable” dice gambling world. He was perhaps a victim of his own success. That and somebody kept trying to kill one of his major rivals, Herbert Noble, and everyone was pretty sure Mr. Binion was behind it.
So Benny Binion had to light out for Las Vegas, where gambling was legal and eventually became the owner of the Horseshoe casino, best known for its “no-limit” dice games. Later he also became the founder of the World Series of Poker.
Like many gangsters, Benny Binion was a good friend to those he liked, and generous to the disadvantaged. But get on his wrong side, and he did not stint on the anger. As he got older, the people of Las Vegas preferred to remember his good side.
Since Mr. Binion tended to lie a lot, and quite a few allegations were never proved, the author has had to rely on secondary and unreliable sources for much of the story. After lighting out for Las Vegas, the only thing Mr. Binion was ever convicted on was tax evasion. But there sure were a lot of people he didn’t like that wound up dead under suspicious circumstances.
There’s also asides on various people who also affected circumstances in Dallas or Las Vegas, such as Howard Hughes, who almost inadvertently changed the way casinos were owned just so he could hole up in his room in peace.
There are black and white photos at the beginning of the chapters, end notes sourcing the quotations, and a selected bibliography. The index is not in the uncorrected proof, but should be in place for the final product (scheduled for August 2014.)
I did not know about most of the information in this book, particularly the bits set in Texas. It’s a good book for true crime fans, and will have local interest for people in Las Vegas and Dallas. it certainly makes a change from Chicago gangsters!
