In response to Don Anderson's question a while back about history books of Las Vegas, I contacted Shannon Bybee at UNLV's Gaming Institute. I had said earlier that I thought Green Felt Jungle was a good book, although I hadn't read it. Others said it was sensationalism at it's best. Mr. Bybee agrees.

Anyway, we talked about several books. He said an excellent book regarding the examination of Gaming Control from 1972 to 1977 is Jerome Skolnick's "House of Cards". Bybee was on the GCB at the time and said Skolnick was allowed into several closed door sessions. But he couldn't remember his alias in the book, although he said it was easy to figure out.

Another good book re: gaming regulation is just being released. "A License to Steal", by Jeff Burbank covers Gaming Control throughout the 80's. It includes the American Coin Story from the late 80's, a sad, but true, black eye for Las Vegas.

Bybee also mentioned "Casino" by Nick Pelegi(sp?). He said that while the movie was pretty fictional, the book stuck to the facts, and covered things pretty well. THe movie script was written first, with the book being finished several months afterwards.

I hope this helps with Don and others interested in gaming history. I had a nice conversation with Shannon. He told me about the new gaming library at UNLV's Gaming Institute. I can't wait to see it.

Tyrus Mulkey