Benny Binion – The first iconic casino owner in Las Vegas
The final table of the World Series of Poker is Tuesday November, 9 2009. It is a highly publicized event, especially since Harrah’s Entertainment acquired the tournament in 2005. ESPN devotes extensive television coverage to the tournament, and it is all over the Internet.
The tournament has its roots in downtown Las Vegas, and a look back at its history is interesting. The staging at the Rio is impressive, but a visit to the Horseshoe during the tournament was a must for locals. It was quite a scene; a large part of the casino was taken over by poker games; the view of the games was great, characters and side game action abounded. Today, seeing large piles of chips at the tournament is commonplace, but in the 70’s and 80’s this was the only place any casino visitor could experience this action and look right over the shoulder of the players.
The first WSOP in 1970 was an invitational, legendary gambler Benny Binion invited six of the best known poker players to his downtown Horseshoe Casino. No one outside of Las Vegas knew about it, it had no publicity, and initially, the WSOP grew slowly. With a $10,000 buy-in (initially $5,000 in 1970) for the winner take all Texas Hold ‘em game, the organizers were pleasantly surprised when they drew 52 participants in 1982.
In an interview Binion discussed the World Series, “This poker game here gets us a lot of attention. We had seven players last year (1971), and this year we had 13. I look to have better than 20 next year.”
Who was Benny Binion? (Lester Ben “Benny” Binion November 20, 1904 – December 25, 1989) He was a Texas moonshiner, who was convicted of murder before moving to Las Vegas and opening Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in 1951. He was a man of firsts and a man who believed in generous hospitality. The Horseshoe Casino was the first to carpet the previously sawdust-covered floors of a down-town casino, the first to offer limousine service to its players, and the first to offer free drinks to players. Of Binion, Poker great and WSOP champion “Amarillo Slim” Preston said “He was either the gentlest bad guy or the baddest good guy you’d ever seen”.
Here’s a classic Benny Binion story:
Binion once asked well know gambler Sailor Roberts, the 1975 world champion, if he could play a few hands for Roberts in a no-limit Texas hold ’em game at the Horseshoe.
Nobody could refuse Benny, so Sailor says, “Sure” and leaves to get a coffee and smoke a cigarette. He comes back and Benny has all Sailor’s chips in the middle, slightly less than $10,000 and Sailor leans over and he says, “Well, son, you got all my money in the center, whatcha got?”
And Benny says, “I don’t know, I left my glasses at home. I didn’t want these son of a bitches to think they could bluff me.”
Video – Longtime Binion’s Horseshoe employee Mark Burstein gives CBS “48 Hours Mystery” correspondent Peter Van Sant a tour of the legendary Las Vegas casino.
Watch CBS News Videos Online
Link – Photo Essay – Horseshoe History
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Interesting LV poker history article with excellent forwards for additional information. Hope to see more of these type articles.