The Birth of Vegas | Sharks In the Lobby | 5

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The mob’s longtime stranglehold on Las Vegas is weakening as the feds press down harder than ever. Just a few years ago, no one built anything on the Strip without gangster involvement. Now, as the late ‘80s unfold into the ‘90s, rising Vegas mega-developer Steve Wynn begins his rise to battle Kirk Kerkorian as the new kings of the Strip, and they don’t need mob money or influence to do it.

Wynn opens what will become the most financially successful casino resort in the world. And it’s financed not by dark underworld funding, but by Wall Street as the corporate sector steps in to knock the mob from the world it created.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars at free on Amazon music.
0:04.6	Download the app today.
0:07.0	A note to listeners, this episode contains violence.
0:23.0	It's February, 1972, a pleasant afternoon in Las Vegas.
0:28.2	A young man and his wife stand on a slim stretch of blacktop between Flamingo Road and the strip.
0:33.8	Traffic rushes by.
0:35.4	Trash blows around their feet.
0:37.8	They're standing in a parking lot across from Caesar's Palace.
0:41.2	The lot was once owned by Howard Hughes.
0:44.8	Not anymore.
0:47.2	This is it, honey.
0:48.5	You're standing on a dream come true.
0:50.5	A one and a million deal.
0:53.3	Steve and Elaine win are on their way.
0:56.2	Steve's only 29.
0:58.0	He's been working his way up the Vegas ladder for years, aiming for the top of the hotel
1:02.7	and casino industry.
1:04.9	Elaine shakes her head and looks at her husband.
1:08.2	Hard to believe this lot is worth 1.1 million.
1:12.5	But you're right, this is a major score.
1:15.7	I couldn't have done it without Perry Thomas.
1:19.1	After Hughes left Vegas, influential Vegas banker Perry Thomas pulled strings to make
	...

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