The past 10 years have seen profound changes in every aspect of the Strip. It was less than a decade ago that Steve Wynn opened the Bellagio. Now, Bellagio is owned by competitor MGM (as part of MGM Mirage), and Steve Wynn’s latest behemoth is called Wynn, with his Encore about to open.
In her first book, Winner Takes All: Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman, and the Race to Own Las Vegas, Christina Binkley, who covered Las Vegas from 1997-2005 for the Wall Street Journal, documents the corporate intrigue, personalities, players and timeline for all the buyouts and building that defined the Strip during her time here.
Like the frenzied action of the Strip during these years, Binkley writes at a fast pace that focuses like a laser on some moments while other, arguably equally important, events are left out entirely. As the title suggests, the richest man in Las Vegas, Sheldon Adelson, makes only a passing appearance in these pages. Station Casinos’ giant growth over the past decade also goes largely ignored. And more to the point, George Maloof does not even merit a single mention. Whereas a chapter is given over to an almost day-by-day recounting of the events leading up to the purchase of Mandalay Bay Group by MGM Mirage in June 2004.
In fact, the story Binkley is telling is not about all of Vegas, but about how three very different corporate cultures—Steve Wynn’s Mirage empire, Kirk Kerkorian’s MGM and Gary Loveman’s Harrah’s—managed to survive, grow, innovate and succeed all while competing against, cooperating with and buying out each other every step of the way.
Of course, every Vegas resident knows the ending; MGM winds up with Mirage and Mandalay Bay, while Harrah’s takes ownership of Caesars. Of course, Steve Wynn lives to fight another day with Wynn, and soon Encore.
But the heart of Binkley’s narrative is the wild ride of Steve Wynn over the past decade. Wynn’s outsize personality dwarfs the reclusive Kerkorian as well as the circumspect Loveman. And, a large part of Binkley’s book is dedicated to how Mirage finances revolved around Steve Wynn’s whims and interests while his actual stock ownership was only a tiny percentage of outstanding shares. It was a discrepancy at the heart of Kerkorian’s purchase of Mirage. Was that purchase a hostile takeover or a friendly merger? It is an issue that Steve Wynn is still screaming to Binkley about in 2006 (six years later). Binkley provides all of the evidence on all sides and notes almost anticlimactically, “Hostile. Friendly. Call it what you like. Wynn’s eggs were moved to Kerkorian’s nest.”
Perhaps the most interesting part of Winner Takes All is the sideshow of Gary Loveman, a former Harvard professor who brings a crew of executives with academic precision and training whom Binkley dubs “propeller heads” to really study how to make gaming more appealing, enjoyable and profitable. That of course is playing with fire. Binkley writes:
“The propeller heads’ technique was Pavlovian. Unbeknownst to the gamblers, Harrah’s statistical model set calendars and budgets that predicted when they would gamble and how much. It calculated how much each gambler was likely to lose to Harrah’s over his or her lifetime ... Harrah’s computers spit out ‘behavior modification reports’ so personalized that they could suggest that one gambler would respond best to a cash offer while another would be more motivated by a free hotel room.”
In fact, these academics turn out to be so good at their job of figuring out how to maximize play, at least, that one finds himself telling Binkley that he is deeply morally conflicted by what he is capable of achieving for Harrah’s.
In fact, Winner Takes All is misnamed, as all of the principals—Kerkorian, Wynn and Loveman—remain among the biggest winners in Vegas not by playing the games but by owning the resorts.
Winner Takes All: Steve Wynn,
Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman, and the Race to Own Las Vegas
***
Christina Binkley
Hyperion, $25.95