[.ca] Running Scared: The Life and Treacherous Times of Las ... (ISBN 1568581904)

doing it right on the wrong side of town:
I liked the book mostly, but it was overdescribed with endless names that mean absoultely nothing while your trying to bite your teeth into this real life character. I think thats was the downfall of this incredible story for me. It may be necessary to be accurate, but put it in the back where it belongs. I thought that John Smith could have been a little more colorful and less blatant when he was telling the story. There was to much "Start" then "Stop", and flowed like a bumpy road. I think John Smith is the scared one, and you can smell the boot polish on his lips in various pages of his account. He should have been more ruthless on Steve Wynns case. I think there is a great story to be told there, and one should climb onto it. John, has great writing ability, but should loosen up a bit, and provide some color for the reader. I am on to his next book, The Bob Stupak Story and I hope its not jammed with an endless roster of names. To finish, a good book but needs to be re-written. I emailed him and told him I liked the book, and think with his numerous connections in nevada, it would be great if he wrote a story on the Mustang Ranch. No reply. I will keep an eye on what else develops story wise, in the incredible landscape of Las Vegas

a flawed but necessary book.:
The negative reviews are fair enough. The book reads like National Enquirer grade journalism. On the other hand, how many writers have had the guts to approach this subject head on ? Smith is most effective at bringing the reader into the environment that surrounds Wynn. One you begin to realize how seamlessly the world of hard core criminality has blended with ideals of "family life" and high culture, thanks to the inventive minds of the gaming industry, you might take a step back and ask what we are inadvertantly turning into. Have we been complicit in handing over popular culture to well tailored goombahs ? One might begin to reach that conclusion. One might begin to consider the consequences of an amoral money-power fascination that has taken hold in America. Does Wynn represent the emergence of a new type of hero, the wiseguy who gets over ? Yo, Wynn got over, America bought in. Is this who we are destined to become ?

Relentless Slam Job of Steve Wynn:
I read this book with an open mind - my only prior knowledge of Steve Wynn was that he was the guy that built the Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio - the Mirage having ushered in the new era of modern luxury casino hotels in Vegas, and the $1.6 billion dollar Bellagio having upped the ante. That said, I can see why Steve Wynn fought so hard to prevent this book from being released. Wynn sued the the original publisher and apparently helped force it into bankruptcy. Any reader of this book will likely come away believing that: 1) Wynn rubbed elbows with mob figures, and may have served as a front man in some of his early dealings, before he accrued enough juice on his own, 2) Wynn leveraged his money-making capacity into a large measure of control over the local and state government and judiciary, 3) Wynn is an egomaniac, 4) Wynn kicks puppies.... You get the idea. Although the book makes a fair attempt at biography, its real purpose is to be an expose'. After 350 pages, it has the effect of beating a dead horse. Wynn may indeed be all of those things, and certainly some of the things he's accused of could result in the loss of his Gaming License - although it seems Nevada is far too invested in him to ever let that happen. I wish there was a more balanced, well-rounded account of Steve Wynn's story out there.

Inaccurate and biased:
I have always had a fascination with Steve Wynn's hotels and was looking to learn more about him when I came across this book. However, after reading Mr. Smith's depictions of Steve Wynn, the only thing I know for sure is that Smith REALLY doesn't like Steve Wynn. He criticized his every move, looking only at the negative "hidden agendas" associated with things such as the Mirage Dolphins and the Bellagio Art Gallery that the rest of the world is grateful that Steve Wynn brought to us. He repeatedly tries to link Wynn to the mob, but can never make a convincing arguement. He only briefly touches on the building of the hotels, their success, and fails to mention how the Mirage, Treasure Island, and the Bellagio were innovators in three different generations of Vegas theme hotels. Despite the books 2001 copyright date, is now about 9 years out of date. It pre-dates the MGM-Mirage merger, and even cites the Fremont Street Experience as being "set to open in late 1995." A postscript to the paperback edition attempts to bring it up to date, but it feels rushed, with misspelled words and inaccurate details. Smith seems to have about 100 pages of relevant information, and 254 pages of stories that are so loosely linked to Wynn that at times I forgot who I was reading about. Smith goes so far as to imply that the deterioration of the UNLV basketball program is due to Steve Wynn deciding that Jerry Tarkanian projected the wrong image for the university and that he had to go. In addition to the anti-Wynn take on every story, Smith illustrates some stories with details that aren't even accurate. He implies that opening the Bellagio was a huge risk because of the increased competition for the "well-heeled gambler market" with the opening of the Venetian, Paris and Mandalay Bay in the ensuing years since the Mirage opening, implying that the market Wynn was seeking was already captured by these hotels. This seems to be a viable argument, until you realize that those three hotels opened AFTER the Bellagio's October 1998 opening. Smith's writing is often biased. He frequently quotes his employer, the Las Vegas Review-Journal positively, and their rival newspaper, the Las Vegas Sun, negatively. Smith apparantly is not interested in providing an accurate portrayal of Wynn. Rather, he seems content try to pull every skeleton out of his closet, no matter how big of a stretch it is, to bring down Wynn's image. No wonder Wynn didn't want this book published. If you are a Las Vegas history buff like me, there are a couple of interesting tidbits, but if you are looking for an accurate biography of Steve Wynn, this is not it.

Courage in the Face of Expensive Legal Bullying:
Mr. Smith and his publisher are heroes of journalism for publishing the well-researched truth about someone who did everything he could to scare them into giving up.