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Welcome to the Most Notorious Podcast, my name is Eric Rivenes.

I'm guessing most of us listening to this podcast are fans of gangster history.

We like hearing about life in another time where people played by different sets of rules.

Heck, I ran a tour company in the 90s where I dressed up as babyface Nelson and took

people to sites of kidnappings, gunfights, and murders in the 1930s.

It's fascinating stuff.

Their escapades are exciting and their downfalls are equally as satisfying.

But every so often a gangster of incredible notoriety lives to a ripe old age and beats

the odds.

And who better to beat the odds than a man who built a gambling empire?

My guest today is Doug Swanson, award-winning journalist, investigative reporter for the

Dallas Morning News, and author of Blood Asus, the wild ride of Benny Binion, the Texas

gangster who created Vegas poker.

And not only was it a wild ride for Benny, but this book is a wild ride for readers as

well.

Doug Swanson, thank you for joining me.

Oh, my pleasure, Eric.

So I'll have to admit, I don't know much about Benny Binion.

Where did you first hear about him?

Well, I'd been a newspaper reporter around Dallas for many, many years and a police reporter

in my early career.

...