Binion’s
Hoseshoe is named after a man called Benny
Binion. Mr. Binion hailed from Texas,
and was an interesting man to say the
least, growing up in the “cowboy”
style while working in Texas’s famous
horse trading industry. A rugged individualist
at heart, Benny had opened illegal casinos
in Dallas during the 1930’s, and
after a few violent clashes with “fellow
entrepreneurs”, he moved to Nevada.
At the time most of the casinos were little
more then saloons, and their style was
a little too sheepish for Benny. He wanted
to make a place that would “be the
first to give gamblers a fair shot at
winning big.” Soon Mr. Binion was
raising the stakes on all of his games,
often letting people bet ten times what
other casinos were willing to offer. This
caused some discomfort at first, but eventually
things settled and people from all over
the world began coming to Las Vegas with
dreams of winning big.
Another interesting thing about Binion’s
is that it claims to be the place where
Las Vegas got its taste for poker. Anyone
who knows the game of poker knows that
the game is mostly played among the players
and not the casino. Casinos don’t
usually win big at poker, so naturally
casinos were reluctant to host it. Poker
is also known as the game played by “ruff
and tumble” men that have a habit
of using less then honest methods of winning.
Binion’s decided that not only was
poker a game to be played in his casino,
but that eventually he would hot The World
Championships of Poker, which is televised
on most national sports channels.
Today
Binion’s is one of the casinos that
makes up the Freemont Experience. It fits
in perfectly with its neighbours and adds
a special color and flavour to the street,
and may people come there every year to
see hundreds of people play poker and
perhaps bet a million dollars on one roll
of the dice.
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