Review: Book about Vegas full of cynical nuggets

"The Money and the Power:
The Making of Las Vegas and its Hold on America, 1947-2000"
By Sally Denton and Roger Morris
Alfred A. Knopf
History
481 pages

In this story: 'The Syndicate' Cynical vision RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Adam Dunn
Special to CNN

(CNN) -- Nowhere is the American fascination with gambling more gallingly displayed than in the synthetic gaming Mecca of Las Vegas. Nowhere has there been such a nexus of criminal kingpins, nor has there ever been as insidious an alliance between them and the nation's political and industrial elite.

Nowhere else has greed so blatantly been glorified as a way of life than in this city in the Nevada desert.

Or so Sally Denton and Roger Morris, co-authors of "The Money and the Power," would have readers believe.

Not that they have to try very hard to make a compelling argument. Founded by crime kingpin Meyer Lansky in the years following World War II, Las Vegas mushroomed into a gargantuan money machine which continues to separate millions of visitors from their dollars. "Only Mecca inspires as many pilgrims," the book says. As such, it has proved itself an ideal magnet and money laundry for illicit proceeds from throughout the country and, indeed, the world.

In turn, generations of America's premiere politicians, lawmakers, and shadowy apparatchiks have followed the money into the city's vortex. "The Money and the Power" can be read as a progression of politicians and business leaders heading down to the trough, thereby enforcing the American underworld's grip on "legitimate" society.

'The Syndicate'

Because the city's history is so bound up with the nefarious characters who made and lost their fortunes on the Strip, the dual authors' tag-team descriptions of the Vegas hit parade works well. Denton is an investigative reporter who covers crime and corruption; Morris served on the National Security Council under Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and continues to write on politics (he is the author of "Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America").

Readers will have a fairly good idea which author is speaking as they swing between mini-biographies of men like Lansky, his associate Moe Dalitz, mobster Bugsy Siegel, former intelligence agent Robert Maheu, and politician Paul Laxalt. Let us not forget the funneling of Vegas Strip proceeds into the campaign coffers of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

Prominent throughout this rogues' gallery is the echoing referral to "the Syndicate." The authors go to great lengths to outline early anti- crime views from J. Edgar Hoover, who denied the Mafia's existence, to Estes Kefauver, who credited the Italians for the Mafia. They also add an observation from the late Robert Kennedy, offered in 1960 during his tenure as U.S. attorney general, that an international, multiethnic corporation with an eye for the bottom line pulled illegal strings across the world -- and the government had to stop it. "Either we're going to be successful," he is quoted in a staff pep talk, "or they're going to have the country."

Sally Denton is an investigative reporter who covers crime and corruption. Co-author Roger Morris served on the National Security Council under Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon

Judging from the authors' depictions of Syndicate involvement in domestic and international affairs -- everything from the Israeli War of Independence, to the assassination of President Kennedy, to Watergate to NAFTA -- it appears "they" have had it for decades.

Cynical vision

A cynical vision? Perhaps, but the authors document it well, citing not only political and criminal connections, but also highlighting explosive growth rates of Las Vegas, Carson City, and Henderson -- along with higher-than-average rates of bankruptcy, alcoholism and suicide in Vegas.

Despite some of the more humorous episodes they recount (such as the Syndicate's early 1980s offer to build a new synagogue in the city so its members would not have to worship alongside local FBI chieftain Joseph Yablonsky), it is telling that -- for all the photos of luminaries and lowlifes -- the book does not contain a single map of the city. A few maps, depicting Las Vegas between 1950 and 2000, would have been helpful; so would a timeline of major events described in the text. These few extra basics might have aided an otherwise formidable, complex analysis of a city so absurd that even A-bomb tests were incorporated into casino shows.

Nevertheless, "The Money and the Power" is a fascinating read. Denton and Morris' hyperbole may get to be a bit much at times, but perhaps that's only fitting. What else but overblown words would suffice to describe a glittering city, built on the hard cash and mirage-like dreams of gangsters, politicians, developers and tourists, that lies in the middle of an empty desert?

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City Guides - Las Vegas

Alfred A. Knopf

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