Benny Binion - Casino Years

Casino Years

In Las Vegas, Binion became a partner of the Las Vegas Club casino, but left after a year because of disagreements about limits on bets. In 1951, Benny purchased the building which had previously housed the Las Vegas Club, and opened it as the Westerner Gambling House and Saloon.

In 1951, he purchased the Eldorado Club and the Apache Hotel, opening them as Binion's Horseshoe casino, which immediately became popular because of the high limits on bets. He initially set a craps table limit of $500, ten times higher than the limit at his competitors of the time. Because of the competition, Binion sometimes received death threats, although eventually casinos raised their limits to keep up with him. Additionally, the Horseshoe would honor a bet of any size as long as it was the first one made.

Binion was in the vanguard of Las Vegas casino innovation, being the first in the downtown Glitter Gulch to replace sawdust-covered floors with carpeting, dispatch limousines to transport customers to and from the casino, and offer free drinks to players. Although comps were standard for high rollers, Binion gave them to all players. He also shied away from the gaudy performing acts typical of other Las Vegas casinos.

Binion, in a Nevada oral history, said he followed a simple philosophy when serving his customers: "Good food, good whiskey, good gamble." Binion was known to be generous to patrons. For many years the Horseshoe had a late night $2 steak special, with most of the meat for the steaks coming from cattle on Binion's ranches in Montana. The Horseshoe is also believed to be the first major casino to offer 100-times-odds at craps (a patron with a bet on the pass or don't-pass lines could take or lay up to 100 times their bet in odds). The Horseshoe was one of the more profitable casinos in town.

One of the tourist attractions in Binion's was a large horseshoe with $1 million in $10,000 bills, embedded in plastic.

Binion was forced to sell his share of the casino to pay approximately $5 million in legal costs, resulting from his trial and conviction. His family regained controlling interest in the Horseshoe in 1957, but did not regain full control until 1964. Benny was never allowed to hold a gambling license afterwards, although he remained on the payroll as a consultant.

Binion styled himself a cowboy throughout his life. He almost never wore a necktie, and used gold coins for his cowboy shirts. Despite being technically barred from owning guns, he carried at least one pistol all his life, and kept a sawed-off shotgun close by. His office was a booth in the downstairs restaurant, and he knew many of his customers by name.