I first got interested in gambling as a kid growing up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in the 1970s. Some of my earliest memories are of the classic hotels of the city being imploded to make way for modern casinos with hotel towers that had none of the charm of the original. Despite this early evidence of that, perhaps, history might not have the strongest hold over people, I decided to major in it as an undergrad, along with anthropology. When it came time to go to grad school, I chose history over anthropology, though I can't recall as I'm writing this exactly why I made that decision. In grad school I was preparing myself for a career as a college history professor when a small exercise called the dissertation stepped in my way. I would have to choose something to write a book-length historical study on, and it had to be something that would contribute in some way to the literature. That's when I remembered the questions I'd had about casinos as a kid: Why did they need to blow up those beautiful old buildings to build new ones that didn't look nearly as nice? If they just wanted to gamble, why didn't they just let people gamble wherever they wanted? With a few questions like that, I was on my way to writing a dissertation that got me researching casinos. From there, I haven't looked back, except for the year that I spent after I got my degree working in casino surveillance in Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal casino. I'd worked at the Taj earlier in security,and spending some time in surveillance gave me an appreciation for just how complex casinos are, and it kindled an interest in a whole other set of questions. Since arriving at UNLV back in 2001, I've been running the Center for Gaming Research, which has let me look at some very interesting areas of gambling and Las Vegas history. My website has a ton of info about my writing, professional, and creative work. So feel free to check it out at www.dgschwartz.com.
Jay Sarno built two path-breaking Las Vegas casinos, Caesars Palace (1966) and Circus Circus (1968), and planned but did not build a third, the Grandissimo, which would have started the mega-resort era a decade before Steve Wynn built The Mirage. As mobsters and accountants battled for the soul of the last American frontier town, Las Vegas had endless possibilities--if you didn't mind high stakes and stiff odds. Sarno invented the modern Las Vegas casino, but he was part of a dying breed--a back-pocket entrepreneur who'd parlayed a jones for action and a few Teamster loans into a life as a Vegas casino owner. For all of his accomplishments, his empire didn't last. Sarno sold out of Caesars Palace shortly after it opened--partially to get away from the bookies and gangsters who'd taken over the casino--and he was forced to relinquish control of Circus Circus when the federal government indicted him on charges of offering the largest bribe in IRS history--a bribe he freely admitted paying, on the advice of his attorney, Oscar Goodman. Though he ultimately walked out of court a free man, he never got Circus back. And though he guessed the formula that would open up Las Vegas to millions in the 1990s with the design of the Grandissimo, but he wasn't able to secure the financing for the casino, and when he died in 1984, it remained only a frustrating dream.
Sarno's casinos--and his ideas about how to build casinos--created the template for Las Vegas today. Before him, Las Vegas meant dealers in string ties and bland, functional architecture. He taught the city how to dress up its hotels in fantasy, putting toga dresses on cocktail waitresses and making sure that even the stationery carried through with the theme. He saw Las Vegas as a place where ordinary people could leave their ordinary lives and have extraordinary adventures. And that remains the template for Las Vegas today.
Grandissimo is the story of how Jay Sarno won and lost his casino empire, inventing modern Las Vegas along the way.
In Grandissimo, you'll learn Jay's fascinating story, and also plenty of things you never knew about Las Vegas, including:
the true story about how Jimmy Hoffa's Teamsters Union first started funding Sarno projects
how Steve Wynn ended up answering the telephone in Hoffa's suite on the second day Caesars Palace was open
how Sarno, represented by Oscar Goodman, beat a seemingly-airtight case against him when he was accused of offering the largest bribe in IRS history to an undercover agent how Sarno's unbuilt Grandissimo became the template for the 1990s "mega-resort" era in Las Vegas
From start to finish, it's the story of the man who inspired modern Las Vegas.

Recognized as America's leading expert on game fixing in sports, Brian Tuohy is the author of The Fix Is In: The Showbiz Manipulations of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and NASCAR and Larceny Games: Sports Gambling, Game Fixing, and the FBI.

The Fix Is In gained international attention as it was reviewed by both the Wall Street Journal and the Independent in the UK, and led to Tuohy being interviewed on over 100 radio programs across the United States and Canada. He appearances include the nationally syndicated programs Coast to Coast AM, the Steve Czaban Show on Yahoo Sports Radio, Fox Sports' Chris Myers Interviews, JT The Brick, and the Alex Jones Show. He was also invited to speak at the 2012 AEJMC National Conference in Chicago and at Florida State University.

His newest book Larceny Games: Sports Gambling, Game Fixing, and the FBI is based on over 400 investigative files obtained from the FBI as well as interviews with industry insiders. The book will reveal the Hall of Fame names who have bet upon their own sport and the games which were fixed.

Tuohy is also the author of Disaster Government: National Emergencies, Continuity of Government, and You. Based on over three years of research into the federal government's once Top Secret files, Disaster Government reveals the shocking truths about "national emergencies," presidential executive orders, martial law, underground bases, the "shadow government" and more.

Some of Tuohy's other writing work can be seen in the late, great Paranoia magazine, History Magazine, and the Writers' Journal as well as in several locations online including Alternet.org, Examiner.com and his own popular websites thefixisin.net and disastergovernment.com.

Brian has a earlier podcast with Gamblers BookClub tha can be found at Episode 81 on his first book "The Fix Is In".