The only major city in the U.S. founded in the 20th century, Las Vegas didn’t take long to grow into the booming cradle of entertainment it has become today. Vegas is a bustling epicenter of all things flash: elaborate hotels, world-famous casinos, and adult entertainment. It’s all covered in glitz and glam.
But beneath the lights run rivers of poverty, crime, and corruption. How did a small railroad service center become the City of Sin in just a few short decades? The following titles have set out to answer this and many more questions about the captivating city and the people who created it—and reveal just how much lies beneath the facade.
The Biggest Game in Town
The Biggest Game in Town chronicles Al Alvarez’s time at the 1981 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Over the course of three weeks, Alvarez watched high-stakes games and spoke to players, from road gamblers to local professionals who regularly won and lost their fortunes.
Overall, Alvarez paints a portrait of these players and provides brilliant insight into poker as a hobby, an addiction, and a lifestyle that dominates Las Vegas.
Winner Takes All
Las Vegas was not always the entertainment hub that it is now. In Winner Takes All, Christina Binkley introduces the three competing moguls who transformed Vegas: Kirk Kerkorian, Steve Wynn, and Dr. Gary Loveman, who all shared the common goal of dominating the city of sin.
The businessmen have competed against each other for years, introducing restaurants featuring the world’s top chefs, world-class art galleries, and mega-resorts with their own casinos, spas, and all the amenities that make Las Vegas the booming tourist destination it is.
Leaving Las Vegas
A fiction selection, Leaving Las Vegas is the gut-wrenching story of a man and woman whose lives intersect on opposing trajectories. John O’Brien writes about Sera, a prostitute content with her independence and the life she has created for herself in Vegas, despite the hardships she faces.
Ben, an alcoholic from Los Angeles, stumbles into town with his entire life savings and a bitter resentment for life. Sera and Ben’s worlds collide on the strip, and they desperately try to fight for each other, physically and existentially, while battling the tempting and dangerous environment of Las Vegas.
The film was adapted for the screen in 1995, with Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue playing Ben and Sera, respectively, and garnered over 30 awards, including Best Actor at the Academy Awards.
Skin City
Underneath the flashing lights and glimmering marquees are the people who give Las Vegas its “sinful” reputation. Jack Sheehan delves underground to examine the lives of adult film stars, madams, expensive call girls, exotic dancers, and many other walks of life to reveal the true nature of the sex industry’s role in Las Vegas.
Along the way, Sheehan interviews Mayor Oscar Goodman, Sheriff Bill Young, and casino owner Steve Wynn to hear their opinions on what happens on and off the Strip, and how the city of Las Vegas is shaped by it.
Lay the Favorite
Lay the Favorite is a firsthand account of the rise of sports betting in Las Vegas and throughout the country. Beth Raymer recalls her early days working for Dink, one of the biggest professional sports gamblers in Las Vegas.
During Raymer’s time at Dink Inc., she rose from assistant to seasoned expert, trusted with her own offshore booking office in the Caribbean. Through her memoir, Raymer reveals the truth of the men she worked for and the associates she watched lie, cheat, and steal until there was nobody left—except her.
In 2021, Raymer's memoir was adapted into a film of the same name, starring Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rebecca Hall, and Joshua Jackson.
The Money and the Power
After five years of intensive research, Sally Denton and Roger Morris present the most comprehensive look at Las Vegas and its influence on politics, society, pop culture, the economy, and more.
The Money and The Power reveals the city’s network of links to Wall Street, international drug trafficking, the CIA, and the seedy dealings of politicians, businessmen, and criminals associated with these illegal practices.
Denton and Morris posit the disturbing possibility that the greed, violence, and corruption that run through the veins of Las Vegas are only a portion of a much larger national lack of ethics.
Grandissimo
Jay Sarno invented the modern casino, but his empire was not built to last. Sarno built Caesar’s Palace and Circus Circus, but sold Caesar’s Palace to escape bookies and gangsters, and was forced to give up Circus Circus when the U.S. government indicted him for offering the largest bribe in IRS history.
Despite his visions of grandeur, Sarno was never able to reclaim Circus Circus or build his designs for Grandissimo, which would have been the first mega resort in Las Vegas. Sarno created the blueprint for Las Vegas today, and in Grandissimo, David G. Schwartz reveals how.
Sun, Sin & Suburbia: The History of Modern Las Vegas, Revised and Expanded
This comprehensive history traces the growth of Las Vegas from its importance during World War II, the Rat Pack period of the 50s, the birth of the modern casino resort in the 90s, and the detriment of the 2008 financial crisis.
Beyond telling the story of the city itself, Sun, Sin, & Suburbia shares the stories of the millions of people who call Las Vegas home. Beyond the gambling halls, organized crime, sex, and tourism, a community exists. Geoff Schumaker tells their story.
The Green Felt Jungle
The Green Felt Jungle is a startling exposé of the complex network of organized crime that exists beneath Las Vegas’s glittering facade. The authors carefully document incidents from unreported murders to systematic tax evasion, prostitution, segregation, and the figures whose crimes have yet to be exposed.
Through evidence gathered firsthand, audiences can learn the secrets of some of the nation’s top criminals and businessmen. Reid, Demaris, and Sloan expose the corruption that winds through every level of the casinos, the government, and the streets of Las Vegas.
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