Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion, the Texas Gangster Who Created Vegas Poker by Doug J. Swanson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Blood Aces by Doug J Swanson is a book about Benny Binion, the Texas gambler turned Las Vegas casino owner. The book describes Binion’s rise to power as a lottery operator and casino manager in Dallas, then goes on to provide details of Binion’s long legal battles, and his life in Las Vegas as the owner of the Horseshoe casino on Fremont Street. For readers interested in Las Vegas, this book contains lots of details about Binion’s Texas years.
I enjoyed reading this book since it gave me a better understanding of Benny Binion’s life in Texas. As someone who studies Las Vegas, I was aware of Binion and the Horseshoe, particularly as he relates to the World Series of Poker, but I didn’t know much about his life in Texas before he lived in Las Vegas. Blood Aces provided me with lots of detail on Binion’s life in Texas and how he became involved in organized crime.
In some ways, I have sympathy for Binion. I admire his rise to wealth and fame from low beginnings in rural Texas. It’s fun to learn that Binion eventually owned the family farm he grew up in as a child. I also admire the business he ran at the Horseshoe, which is a casino in Las Vegas famous for taking big bets. I assumed Binion had killed people, but I didn’t think too much about it, this being a man who owned a Las Vegas casino before the corporate era. But after reading Blood Aces, I have a deeper appreciation for the violence and murder that helped keep Binion on top. Since most gambling business in Texas was illegal. For Binion to operate on the outside (or the edge) of the law would require him to defend his turf without being able to use strictly commercial strategies.
Blood Aces is written chronologically and covers Binion’s entire life. Much of the book is devoted to his life in Texas, presumably as the author is also a Texan. His life in Las Vegas is not covered in as much detail, so this might disappoint the reader primarily interested in Las Vegas. Binion’s legal battles are covered in much more detail compared to his business life. It would have been fun to read more about his business strategies at the Horseshoe.
There are times when the author assumes the worst from Binion, but provides few details to substantiate his assumptions. For example, when describing the murder of William Coulthard, the author hints at Binion’s involvement, but cannot provide any direct link that Binion was involved. On page 261, the author concludes, “One big winner emerged out of Coulthard’s murder: Binion ultimately got a new lease at much more favourable terms.” The author should have provided some detail on how he arrived at this conclusion. Can he show what price was agreed to? How can he be sure it was a good deal or a bad deal? Before making this type of accusation, the author needs to provide more details on this lease in order to determine whether a good deal actually occurred.
